If your baby keeps waking up at night read this ☝️ — anuncio de Emily Parker

Please STOP feeding your baby every time they wake up at 3AM. I know that sounds harsh. But if she can fall asleep on her own at bedtime, hunger is probably not why she's waking up and I wish someone had told me that six months ago. My daughter knows how to fall asleep on her own. That's the part that was making me feel like I was losing my mind. She goes down at bedtime without a fight she’ll fuss a little bit sometimes But then she’s out no rocking, no nursing, nothing she just goes to sleep But she had this bad habit of waking up a few times at night it started off small maybe once or twice a night But then it slowly started to get worse and at first I thought it was regression but the signs weren’t there So I kept asking myself why does she keep waking up and why is it getting worse? It got to a point where I was so worried I asked her pediatrician that exact question at her four month appointment. I'd written it down so I wouldn't forget it in the room, because I forget everything now And I was so hopeful for the appointment I thought she’d have an answer for me and everything would go back to normal and I’d finally be able to get some sleep But instead of getting the answers I desperately needed she looked at my daughter, looked at her chart, and said she looked perfectly healthy and that frequent night waking was completely normal at this age. “Normal” Not "here's what might be causing it." Not "let's look a little deeper." Not anything. Just normal. Like I'd brought her in to ask why the sky was blue. And to be honest I couldn't really accept that because normal means things won't get worse And if things were normal like our pediatrican said my daughter's sleep wouldn't have gone from sleeping 4+ hours a night to now waking up every 90 minutes in 2 months And i was determined to figure out what was actually causing this because "normal" went against every mother instinct I had So I decided to post about it to see if other moms were dealing with the same thing And honesttly apart of the reason I posted is because I didn't know what else to do. I needed help And most of the comments were what I expected criticizing my parenting skills and telling me to try solutions I had tried already Because of course they had perfect routines and perfect babies and couldn't wait to tell me everything I was doing wrong. But then I got a DM from someone named Jennifer, and that's when everything changed. "I know exactly what you're going through, I was in the same place six months ago. Can I ask you something, does your baby fall asleep fine at bedtime but just can't stay asleep?" Yes, I typed back. That's the part I don't understand. She goes down without a fight, a little fussing sometimes but then she's out. So why does she keep waking up every ninety minutes? "Because it's not about how she falls asleep. I thought the same thing for months, I kept looking at her bedtime routine, kept tweaking things, thinking I was missing something. But it's not about the routine. It's physical." Physical? What do you mean? "When babies first fall asleep at bedtime, they drop straight into deep sleep. Heavy, solid sleep. Nothing wakes them." "But after that first sleep cycle, about 90 minutes, the rest of the night is lighter." "And during light sleep, if their breathing isn't perfectly smooth, their body tenses up. Tense body means awake baby." But she's not congested. I don't hear anything wrong with her breathing. "You wouldn't be able to. It's not the kind of thing you can hear." "It's just tiny airway resistance. Even the smallest amount is enough to make breathing feel like work." "And when breathing feels like work during light sleep, the nervous system goes on alert, which means awake." I sat there reading this over and over. That's why she keeps waking up? I typed. And why it's been getting worse? "Yes. And here's the thing, it tends to get worse as babies get older and spend more time in lighter sleep phases through the night” “It's not your routine. It's not something you did. It's something happening inside her body that you can't see." I didn't know what to say to that because I spent six months blaming myself for everything Six And tweaking my daughter's routine and adding white noise and cutting out everything I could think of, and it had nothing to do with any of it. "But here's the thing," Jennifer said. "There are two parts to fixing it and most people only fix one." What do you mean? "Everyone talks about calming the nervous system that's why lavender works, why warm baths help, why white noise is recommended” “You're lowering stress so the baby's body can relax. That's the first half." "But the other half, the part no one talks about, is keeping the airways open so breathing stays smooth during those light sleep phases." I'd never heard anyone say that. Not the pediatrician, not one single thing I'd read online. How do you do that? I typed. "Fir needle," she said. "It helps open airways, clears mucus, makes breathing feel easier. Like eucalyptus for adults when you're stuffed up, but gentle enough for babies." "When you combine it with lavender, one to calm the nervous system so they can fall asleep, one to keep airways clear so they can stay asleep, you're addressing both parts of the problem." I'd never heard of fir needle for sleep. I didn't even know that was a thing. "Most people haven't. I found this organic sleep cream called Slumberlee. It has both lavender and fir needle, with jojoba and olive oil as the base” “I started using it on my daughter's chest and feet before bed and within three days she was sleeping six-hour stretches. After a week she was sleeping through the night." I stared at my phone for a long time. Part of me wanted to roll my eyes. I'd tried the white noise, the blackout curtains, the earlier bedtime, the consultant PDF that told me everything I already knew. I was not someone who was going to get excited about a cream. But this was different from everything I'd tried before, and I couldn't explain why until I thought about it. Everything I'd tried was aimed at helping her fall asleep. And she could fall asleep fine. That was never the problem. The problem was what was happening ninety minutes into every single night, over and over until morning. Nobody had ever talked about that part. Not one person, not one book, not one pediatrician. I ordered it that night and it arrived 2 days later The first night I used it I didn't notice anything. She woke up at the usual times. I fed her, she went back down. Normal. The second night she woke up twice instead of six times. I didn't let myself think about it. The third night she slept for five hours straight. I woke up before she did and just lay there, completely still, waiting for the cry that didn't come. My husband was asleep next to me. The monitor was quiet. I didn't know what to do with myself. I got up to get her when I finally heard her stir, and I was crying before I even got to her door. Not because anything dramatic happened. Just because I slept. I don't know how else to say it. I just slept. It's been three weeks now. She sleeps six, sometimes seven hours before her first wake-up. I've stopped counting the night feeds because there's only one most nights, sometimes none. I made dinner last week and actually followed the recipe. I went for a walk yesterday and listened to something that had nothing to do with babies or sleep. My husband said last night that I seem like myself again. I didn't know what to say to that because I hadn't realized until he said it how far from myself I had been. The pediatrician wasn't wrong that night waking is normal. But normal doesn't mean nothing is causing it. There was something specific happening inside my daughter's body every single night that I couldn't see and nobody told me to look for. I'm not saying this is going to work the same way for every baby. I can only tell you what happened with mine. But if you're where I was, if your baby falls asleep fine but can't stay asleep, if it's been getting worse and your doctor is telling you it's normal and you're starting to think this is just how it's going to be forever. It might not be who she is. It might just be her breathing. Thank you for reading my story if you’d like to try what worked for me and daughter I’ll put the link to Slumberlee here https://slumberlee.com/products/organic-sleep-cream-single