Story by Melissa Ostroth
Hey, mama did you get up last night? Was it once, three times, twenty? Don’t worry you’re not alone. I was up too.
I know how tired you are because you feel like me. Your eyes are heavy, your stomach feels sick, and your body aches. You don’t know how you’re going to get through the day and guess what, neither do I. But we somehow do it. We look at our babies and think why? Why can’t you just sleep?
The problem is we live in a society that tells us that our babies should be sleeping. If they aren’t, then there’s something wrong and we need to do something about it. But what society fails to recognize is there was never a time until now that we expected our babies to do this. Society believes that babies should come into the world and make very little noise, learn to self soothe, breastfeed only in intervals, and sleep through the night.
What they fail to recognize is that our baby’s just spent 9 blissful cozy months in our womb, naked, warm, suspended in water, smelling our smell, and listening to our heartbeat. They come out wanting nothing more than our touch and comfort. They NEED to be close, feel our warmth, hear our heartbeat, and be on our breast.
Instead, most of society tells us we need to wrap up our babies in the newest swaddle, place them in the best bassinet, and leave them to figure out this new world on their own because “they’ll eventually figure it out.”
If we focused more on how biologically normal our baby’s wakings are, their constant desire to breastfeed, and their need for touch is, we would have a lot fewer parents wondering “why.” We need to educate parents to not expect so much from their babies. If your baby won’t sleep unless you hold them, wants to breastfeed 24/7, and cries as soon as you put them down, congratulations you have a normal baby. It’s hard and tiring and it’s ok to lose your mind (because mama it is hard), but don’t think for a second your baby isn’t normal. I promise you, mama, you will sleep again. It might not be tomorrow or even in the next couple of months. But know you’re not alone and there are many mamas up at 3 am yawning just like you.
You can follow her journey on: Facebook, Instagram and Website
