When babies don't sleep
Noah has had a couple of days of being under the weather now. This season seems to have resulted in cold after cold for our family. Even I feel like I have only just gotten rid of my last one and the next one is well underway!
Understandably, this does have an impact on everyone's sleep, especially Noah's. Today, for example, he decided that he wasn't ready for his usual bedtime at 7pm and wanted to stay up and play. Now, I'm not going to lie, Eddy and I are not the strictest of parents. We have never had any serious 'routine' problems, so on nights like tonight, we don't worry too much if Noah just wants to have a slightly later evening.
However, there are times when he really doesn't want to go to bed and protests. This is not easy on any of us as he is getting frustrated and I am all too aware that the end of the day has come for me too-often my own fatigue by the evening clouds my willingness to be patient.
There are all sorts of 'methods' out there for trying to get young children into healthy evening routines, some stricter than others. Whilst we certainly don't subscribe to any particular style ourselves, we do encourage Noah to 'self- soothe' and get himself off to sleep without us interrupting the protests coming from his cot. Sometimes this works and sometimes it really doesn't. But after 18 months of looking after our little monkey, I have learnt that stressing about the things that don't go to plan, is just not worth it!
I am certain there are going to be plenty more 'mountains' to climb in the future of our parenting journey and learning to pick those battles will be another lesson by itself. I think ultimately, if you happen to be having trouble getting little ones to sleep, don't be too hard on yourself. Children are a lot more aware of how we feel than they let on and they certainly know how to use this to their advantage sometimes. Call me radical, but when things have been really tough and Noah has refused to eat all day, or sleep all week, I just remind myself that it's a phase and that ultimately, he IS going to eat when he feels hungry and he IS going to sleep at some point too. Occasionally, the timings just get a little skewiff, but that's okay!
So, tired mamas don't stress it! Put down the parenting book tonight: if your monkey is refusing to sleep, why not just snuggle on the sofa for a while, pop a christmas movie on and enjoy some extra time cuddling... we did and it worked a treat! I am happy to announce that Noah is finally sleeping!
Love Bunty
xXx