Trucking Through Motherhood: Who needs sleep, when you have me!

That title is my littles motto. Sometimes it just feels good to get things out there. As I lay here awake at 2am, feeling somewhat defeated, I try to look at the positives. But six and a half months in, and still only the longest stretch my little has slept is three hours, only on a few nights, the positives start to get a little blurry.'Sleep training', well that was a fail. And I do understand it works for some babies, I'm also a firm believer it doesn't work for all. Crying it out, she'd cry all night if that were the case- and that's just torture for all involved. I can't stand to let her cry when all she wants is mommy cuddles, after all that's why you have babies right? To care for them, fulfill their needs. Letting your babe cry for five minutes is one thing, but all night?! No thanks.

Same routine, consistency, bath time before bed, a lovie, full belly, tiring days, early bedtime, later bedtimes- we've tried it all. And she remains pretty darn consistent waking up often. Little stinker. Some nights the only thing left to do is lay in bed and cry with her. Ha, no really- then I'll regroup - give myself a pep talk and get back in the get her to sleep game.

I think the best part is when people make sure to tell me their child slept through the night at one hour old. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration but that's what it feels like. The whole, 'is she sleeping through the night? Oh you have to learn her to sleep, you have to let her cry...' Ok 👌🏼. And people seem to correlate sleeping with parenting skills- well let me share- some babies sleep- without any help, they just do. Other babies, well...don't.

I love reading blogs and articles about other Mommas that have little ones that have sleep troubles, makes me feel more sane. Or those that openly admit that they felt sleeping was a parenting skill until they had baby number two and baby number two wouldn't sleep and they had a complete change of heart. Not happy for them of course, but makes me feel like in a world of 'o my baby slept through the night right away without any help' a little more comforted. There are some Facebook pages that post awesome Mommy articles at 3am, Bump Club and Beyond- Breastfeeding Mama talk - just to name a few.

And I happen to have a best friend who has a little that hasn't been the best sleeper, so having her to randomly text sometimes at 4am when I want to emotionally combust, is always helpful. In the moment it may seem like, ugh- what is going on. But after some deep breathing, I remember this time will pass and I'll be wishing I was rocking my little babe to sleep again. After all when she's sleeping, she just makes my heart melt over and over again. I'm already feeling better! See, what a little sharing will do.

And for the record, here I am, openly admitting- my child does not sleep through the night. Therefore, when other people have babies that struggle with sleeping through the night, I don't go- ' I hate to tell you but my baby slept through the night right away!' But hey, the more I read, the more I see how normal it is for babes to wake during the night, some research even shows that it's because they have so much brain activity going on - at this rate, my little is bound to be a genius.