Parenting Real Talk, Part 2
Lessons I learned from my highly alert and sensitive baby
Here she is. The baby that gave me a run for my money for the first 8 months of her life. Mira Luna Kaimana. She is now 13 amazing years old and LOVES to sleep but at the beginning, it was rough.
To get this little baby to sleep, it was the closest to a circus act as I have ever been. I would sit on a big purple yoga ball and bounce all while holding her in a seated upright position and rocking her up and down, up and down...
I did this for every nap.
For every bedtime and for every waking in the night.
It. Was. Brutal.
The upshot was that my arms looked AMAZING from all of the heavy lifting, but more than anything, I was exhausted, resentful and depleted.
What I have since learned was that she was a highly alert and sensitive baby (sound familiar?). She never showed signs that she was sleepy and as a result I never knew when to put her down for a nap and as a result she was ALWAYS overtired. This went on for months.
Fast forward 13 years and now MOST of the babies that I work with share that same highly alert temperament. The struggle is real and the evidence and research points to sleep simply being a much harder skill to learn for this temperament. It requires them to organize their internal rhythms and settle themselves which does not come easy.
I take great pride in supporting families who are faced with a baby whom they love but can't figure out how to support in sleep. Because the myth that "babies should be able to sleep anywhere at anytime with ease" is, just that, a myth, it is simply not true. The reality is that helping a baby to learn to sleep requires a deep dive into who they are temperamentally, what they eat and when, where they are in their development, how the parents are doing and much more.
Helping a baby to learn to sleep is rarely linear and it is not often simple, BUT it is doable.
I got you, because I have been there too. I really do know what you are facing and feeling. I know the frustration. I know the depletion. I know the tears all too well. In fact, this is what led me to my calling as a pediatric sleep specialist. It has become my purpose and passion to support other confused, exhausted, conflicted, or curious parents through this stage of life.
To get support creating a tailored plan for healthy sleep habits, reach out to me! I offer a range of services from classes to 1:1 consultations and I bring multidimensional approach to helping families establish healthy sleep habits.
