I met a beautiful 6 month old baby today who was both a motion junkie (loved his motions sleeps) and a serial very short cat napper. 15-30 minutes was the norm for him.

His cries felt like finger nails on a black board to mum and dad, their patience had long run out.

When babies do this, it is usually a sign they are increasingly over tired and we need to get them to catch up on some sleep for their night sleep or day sleep to improve. It’s a sign your baby is not even doing a full sleep cycle, especially the 15 minute naps, this is a baby not even getting into the deep part of a sleep cycle.

Was resonated with me most about this family was how much the babies lack of sleep was affecting his temperament and thus the family dynamic. Mum, Dad, toddler, baby, everyone was being effected and noticed the grumpy baby and lack of sleep.

Over tired babies grizzle, fuss and cry a lot.

Babies who don’t sleep = mothers who don’t get a break.

Mothers who don’t get a break, or much sleep at night, and whom have a baby who grizzles and cry a lot will be both physically and emotionally exhausted. This affects the family dynamic.

I think we so often place our own wellbeing so far down our priority list, why?

I think sometimes we has mothers especially get stuck in a rut of survival, too tired to try to change anything, too emotionally depleted to invest in anything which might not work, too exhausted from a grumpy baby to be part of a marriage or partnership, too tired and snappy to have fun with our toddlers. The problems seem insurmountable, and unsolvable.

Where to start?

Too hard………………. Back to walking to sleep, and feeding to sleep 5-9 times a night.

I totally get this, and if you are reading this and this resonates with you, then please when you are ready ask someone for help. You don’t have to wait for 2-3 years to achieve consolidated sleep, and you do deserve to be well-rested and have a well-rested baby. You are not selfish, and parenting doesn’t have to be this hard.

Please be respectful in your comments as very sleep deprived parents will be reading this! 

p.s serial cat napper slept for 1.5 hours while I was there………. things can change!