YOU ARE NOT ALONE
When we’re having baby sleep issues, we think we are the only parents on the planet having these challenges. “Am I doing something wrong? Am I a bad mom?!?! What is WRONG with this baby?!?! Why is my baby not napping/sleeping like every body says baby’s are supposed to???”
No one likes to talk about how their baby is not sleeping. We hear friends and family talking about how their little ones getting five, eight, maybe even TWELVE hours of uninterrupted sleep and well, it’s no wonder we think we’re doing it wrong or that our baby is “broken”.
Some of the most amazing parents I’ve know have felt resigned to suffering sleep deprivation. They want to meet their child’s needs first and foremost. They wake with their baby to hold and feed them every three to five hours (sometimes every other hour) for months and months and months. They adjust to not being able to put their baby down, whether they are asleep or whether they are awake, because if they do, their baby cries. They adjust to 20 to 30 minute naps tops because they value attachment and hate the idea of letting their baby “cry-it-out”, the only other solution offered to them by their doctors, families and friends.
There Is ANOTHER Way
As an Infant Massage Instructor I’ve worked with hundreds of parents of newborns to one year of age, so believe me when I tell you baby sleep issues are very common. Sleep is the third most popular topic for moms I work with, next only to nursing and life-balance. I tell you all of this to say, if part or all of the story above sounds like you, you are in good company.
If this does describe some or all of the challenges you are facing with sleep, I have a resource for you. It’s a gentle baby sleep video I created after finding the need for it was great. As a mom of four who practices attachment parenting, I realized gentle sleep support for parents is not widely available, so I put my simple, gentle five step approach to helping baby sleep on film (starring my six month old son and daughter ^_^) and this video was born.
GENTLE BABY SLEEP VIDEO: $3.99
I am a fan of many books on the topic of sleep but forced to list my top three, Good Night, Sleep Tight
- When can I expect my baby will be ready to merge his or her naps from three to two to one?
- How much sleep is my little one supposed to be getting as a newborn? at 6 mo? 12mo? 18mo??? What about when they are 2, 3 or even 5 years old?
- When do I move my little one out of the crib and HOW? What if they are trying to get out but I’m not ready for the big boy/girl bed??? What then?
With your Baby Sleep Video, I will send you author Kim West’s answers to all of these common sleep questions and more.
Your first bonus gift will arrive just days after your sleep video, with additional gifts arriving in the weeks to come, addressing some of the most common sleep issues you will likely face before you are needing the support.
I want you to LOVE the video I am about to share with you and if you don’t, I will reimburse you, no questions asked. 100% guaranteed. It’s priced so low because everyone deserves to know these simple and effective tips though not all can not afford private sleep support sessions.
So watch the video. Read the books, use the sleep aids, talk to other parents… sure. But more than that, remember to tune in and trust what your body is telling you. You are uniquely connected to this little one in a way nobody else is. Let all the information you collect filter down through you and act only on the ideas that speak to your heart. You are the manual and you have SO got this.
Still reading??? Then I have one more story to share with you.
My Sleep-Struggles
You want your baby (slash that, you NEED your baby) to sleep. I know. As a mom of four, I’ve been there.
As a first time mom suffering from sleep deprivation, the advice I received from others to let my baby cry it out did not work for me. I wanted my baby to know she was loved, safe and secure in this world MORE than I wanted to feel rested. It didn’t matter to me how tired I got, I would not let her cry it out.
After a few months, I gave the notion that maybe she could sooth herself down by being allowed to cry a half-hearted attempt out of sheer exhaustion, but somewhere ten or fifteen minutes into the wailing, I gave up. This was not right. I could feel it. Everything in me said to go and pick up my baby and that is what I did.
Exhausted, waking up every three hours to nurse my little girl now six months into being a mom, I tried co-sleeping but it didn’t work for us either. Instead of more sleep, I got no sleep. Was there any middle ground?! Was I ever going to get an undisturbed, full night’s sleep again?
The year my first daughter was born, I can tell you, I did not get a lot of rest. It took us nearly two years for her to sleep “through the night” and it was HARD. I didn’t have the time or the energy to exercise, be with my friends or spend much time on “me” at all. My relationship with my husband didn’t get the tending it needed.
Hind sight is 20/20 as they say. Looking back, I wish someone might have gently invited me to see the toll sleep deprivation was having on my entire family. I wouldn’t have wanted ANYONE to tell me “you’re doing it wrong.” No I wasn’t. I was following my gut, and that’s exactly what I needed to do. But what I could have benefited from was a gentle invitation to examine my life and the imbalance my lack of sleep was causing. If lovingly invited in this way, I think I would have made some adjustments.
Having twins in 2010 brought my relationship with sleep and the imbalance it was creating in my life into sharp focus. If I was to mommy these two along with our girls then seven and nine, I was going to need all the energy I could get. I needed a new relationship with sleep, new habits, and life provided.
My twins gave me the signs and this time, I watched for them closely, tuning into my intuition and trusting it. Allowing my babies natural sleep patterns to guide, we were led into the routines we needed to get our rest while still being able to breastfeed through the night. I nursed my twins till they were 30 months old and none of this would have been possible had it not been for the balanced, loving and healthy approach to sleep we three co-created.
In this video you’ll see how I watch and respond to my baby’s sleep signs. You will see the step by step sleep ritual approach we took to nap time and bedtime. You will see the habits I put into place with my two breastfed babies, allowing for us to enjoy three solid and regular naps a day along with eight plus hours of sleep before either woke to nurse in the middle of the night. I continued to nurse my two babies at night if they asked for it up until somewhere between ten and twelve months and this worked for us. But what will work best for you and your baby? That is for you to decide.
Every mom, every baby… every family is unique. I hope my journey with sleep is a support to you but it is by no means held out to you as the “right” way. In the end, it all comes back to you. Tuen in and trust yourself enough to follow the answers you find there.
If you are pregnant or a new parent and your baby is far from settled into a sleep ritual, now is the PERFECT time to watch this video. It will support you in getting into some great habits.
If your baby is six, seven or maybe even twelve plus months old and habits that served you well when they were newborns are no longer serving you, now is still the perfect time to watch this video.
I hope this page, this video and these many gentle sleep support tools linked here help you find the rest you are looking for.
xo
