How I got my baby to sleep through the night 💤

You are probably wondering how I was able to get my baby to sleep through the night after 4 months of age...Well, this Mama got her baby boy sleeping 8+ hours each night in those early stages. These are supposed to be the worst months though right? Figuring out a sleep cycle for all of you. Figuring out how much to feed your baby. Figuring out when to clean or do the dishes. How about when you're supposed to eat. The list goes on and on... But in that moment of questions, what did I do differently? 

Believe it or not, I actually let my baby sleep. He WOKE me up (not the other way around). When your baby wants something, the only way for them to communicate is through crying. When your baby is constantly crying, there is generally something wrong. Maybe not in all cases but I’m going to say that this is true for the most part. They cry when their diaper is dirty, they cry when they want to be held, so they will cry when they're hungry too! So many articles (and yes my Doctors) have recommended to me that I need to wake my baby up every 2-3 hours to feed. Generally, yes you should because honestly that is how often they will most likely eat. However, this wasn't my case. Does this mean I’m naive for not listening? NO. I did what I felt was BEST for MY child, as you should too. I took into consideration for the first 2 months to wake my baby up especially when I felt that tingling sensation in my breasts, even my body knew it was time because that’s the type of connection you’ll have with your little one! I am responsible for leading the sleep pattern/cycle in my family which allowed us to live in a stress-free environment. I strongly believe that creating this habit early on allowed my baby to sleep. Instead of waiting to start a sleep routine at the 5th or 7th month, I did it early. Babies can learn habits quick and when they are used to being woken every few hours, it becomes their norm. To me, that was not the most appropriate way to develop healthy habits and I honestly don't believe in interrupting their sleep cycle. Your baby will figure that out on its own. 

I'd like to share a fact: Babies start to develop night and day sleep patterns at age 2-3 months. This means that baby will start to sleep longer in the night. A common routine for sleep cycles is exposing bright light for mornings and dim-dark/no light at night (this may seem obvious but as a parent you are scared for them to even sleep alone, let alone the dark). A baby can also make an 8 hour stretch without a feeding by month 4. 

Now, I will be honest and say that my son dropped weight in the beginning (as some babies do) but he was healthy and I was not concerned. Till this very day, 1 year and 2 months later, he sleeps 10+ hours every night and naps about 1x per day. His naps are usually an hour or two long mid-day. He also lets us know when he is hungry and when he is not. When he’s not hungry, he literally knocks our hands out of the way LOL but he is truly the happiest baby!!! 

As a new mom, there are SO many things to worry about. But why??? Let the unknown stay unknown until you come across it. Thinking too far into things will just stress you out and that is the last thing your body needs, especially if you’re breastfeeding. Stress can lower your supply and cause your nutrition to decline which will then cause an even lower supply of milk. You will have so many questions running through your head BUT you and your significant other are on this journey together, you WILL learn together, and you WILL make the right decisions for YOUR baby. Let your story be unique to you!!!

Too many moms are judged for doing the "WRONG" thing/s. Don't judge the mom who breastfeeds and don't judge the mom who doesn't. Don't judge the mom who has a c-section versus the mom who gives a natural birth or pool birth. You won't always know their story behind the "why."

Having a baby is a miracle and that's all that is right!