What You Resist, Persists
Julian started out great – a six or seven hour stretch since birth. The Grunting Baby Syndrome (apparently this is a thing) started when he was two weeks old. Whoever invented the phrase “sleeping like a baby” wasn’t talking about our newborn. What sounded like the constant neigh of a horse was our perfectly sweet baby boy.
His new little system was processing a lot and I trusted he’d outgrow it – somewhere around 2.5 months, he was “sleeping like a baby” again.
With some effort along the way, our sweet little chunk started sleeping through the night until ~5:00am. I don't know about you, but 5am is a less than ideal "morning time" for me. I’d spend 45 minutes trying to get him to go back to sleep, only for him to wake for the day 30 minutes later. It felt like waiting in line at Disneyland for 2 hours, only for the ride to last 8 seconds!
I tried rocking and singing, nursing to sleep, blackout shades… Nothing seemed to help this kiddo answer my 7am wakeup prayers.
It’s so important to find other parents who can relate. I never got the hang of going to bed early, so a late bed time, waking up to pump and a 5am wake up, left me a shell of a human. I was going crazy until my super laid back Aussie college friend told me his son woke at the exact time. I wasn’t alone! We started a text-banter of wakeup times that turned my mood around. The next morning when I heard Julian stir, instead of being frustrated and resisting this phase, I walked down our hall to his room, admiring the morning just before sunrise. All is peaceful, nature is at it’s best and I’m the only one who gets to see that damn bunny our dogs have been stalking for months. My mood changed: I was so excited to see Julian.
Every morning I resisted his wakeup time, I was frustrated. The whole day felt foggy and sleepy. No joke, when I accepted it just as it was, I started enjoying these quiet early mornings. I was in a better mood throughout the day and while I still wasn’t getting as much sleep as I’d liked… I felt significantly less tired. This acceptance thing is pretty amazing.
Once I accepted his early rising, I stopped complaining about it and had the mental space to test new solutions. Thinking with a clear head, I found that it ultimately was related to his daily total-awake-time, transitioning from three naps to two and… duh, hunger! So far, it’s been a solid week of 6:30/7 mornings. (Insert Snoopy Happy-Dance here!)
What you resist, persists.
If you're struggling with early rising or a regression, give yourself some space to see if you're repeating the same thing everyday or if there are ideas you haven't tried.
What are you resisting in your parenting journey? How can you let it go and test new approaches? Let’s talk about it in the comments section below!