Say what?
I get it ... your baby makes a noise in the night and feels like it’s 100 decibels in volume so you jump in and rush to help them back to sleep. The quicker they go back to sleep, the quicker you go back to sleep.
So babies are noisy little creatures - they grunt, groan, whimper, fart, move around, grizzle. Let’s be honest... we all make noise in our sleep.
I love suggesting to parents to just STOP for a minute before jumping in. Stopping, gaining composure, even getting a drink of water will give them a small portion of time to see if they are actually awake and needing your help.. or just rousing, flicking from one sleep cycle to the next.
LOOK... most families I work with have a video monitor these days so look...watch them for a bit. Are they calling out for help or just awake and trying to go back to sleep? Even if they are awake that’s ok... give them some time.
LISTEN. What noises are they making? Are they crying for some help? Are they upset and needing you - then absolutely we want to be there reassuring them, helping them, letting them know we are there. 100%! But you know what... they also grizzle and whinge a bit, they rouse coming out of one sleep cycle and make noises but then go back to sleep.
I’m defiantly not saying don’t go to your baby when they need you - but I am saying there is always enough time to go do a wee and get a drink of water and then see if baby needs you.
Putting baby down at the right time, in the right place and then being curious enough to see what they can do can actually benefit your baby and YOU. There’s no CIO in what I’m talking about here... but it is ok to just give time.
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