How many times have you been told that sleep is essential for a healthy lifestyle? Probably not enough. So many times we are told about healthy eating and exercise and getting outside in order to improve our health and well being.
But sleep is actually an essential component of living a healthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep can increase your risk of numerous diseases including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Getting good sleep can reduce depression and anxiety.
On top of that, not getting enough sleep can make us feel tired, overwhelmed, sluggish, quick to anger, and a lot less productive. It’s when we are tired that we tend to blow little things out of proportion or snap at our spouse and kids.
No mom wants to feel that way and we definitely don’t want to treat our loved ones that way, but when we have small kids we might think that there is no way around it. That we are doomed to have constantly interrupted sleep for the next 18 years.
This is a problem for moms all year round, but with the holidays coming up, it can be just one more thing adding to the stress of the season. We have even more to do and excited kiddos can make it even harder to get them to sleep. We are about to become mombies!
I don’t want that for you!
I want you to be able to be rested and have the energy to get everything done and be a happy mom to boot.
Now there is a lot we can do to improve our own sleep such as using essential oils like lavender in the evening, making sure our room is pitch black with no lights at bedtime, wearing blue light blocking glasses in the evening, and creating an evening routine. We can also limit screen time in the evening and use topical magnesium to improve our sleep.
Plus there are a million other tactics to improve the quality of our sleep.
But for moms of babies and young kids, even when we use all of these tactics there’s still and important factor that is out of our control. That is our kids waking up in the night.
In some cases, that is inevitable. Our kids get sick or have a bad dream and they wake up and then wake us up. But there is a lot we can do to improve the quality and length of our babies and toddlers’ sleep which will in turn allow us to sleep more.
Baby Sleep Made Simple
My favorite resource for baby sleep help is the site Baby Sleep Made Simple by Jilly Blankenship.
Jilly is a neonatal nurse, lactation consultant, and mom. This means she has the medical and clinical knowledge about babies and sleep as well as the first hand experience of being a mom with a baby who didn’t sleep through the night.
Her approach is so loving and caring not only to our babies but also us mothers who are doubting ourselves because of our overwhelm and frustration. She constantly reminds us that we are not bad moms we are just tired and overwhelmed and if we take the right steps we can get the rest we need to be our best selves.
She has a huge collection of articles for babies from newborn to toddlers 4 years old. She talks about napping, sleep regression, and general sleep tips.
My first two kiddos were awesome sleepers. They would wake for feedings and then fall right back asleep at night. They quickly progressed to one feeding a night ans I was able to go to sleep a little earlier than I normally would to accommodate the one feeding and get a good night’s rest. In fact my son was in his crib in his nursery from day 1.
Baby number 3 was a whole other story. She was colicky and wanted to be held all the time. She would constantly wake up crying and let me tell you, she had a healthy set of lungs!
I had no idea what to do to help her. Even though it was my third baby, I had no experience with having a baby that wouldn’t sleep. I found Jilly’s resources super helpful. She suggested changes I never would have thought of and explained what my baby might be feeling so I could understand what she needed and how I could help.
Some things I learned included:
At 4 months she just needed more space so it was time to transition beds
Place your baby in bed when she’s drowsy, but not yet asleep. You may need to give hands-on support to help her fall asleep (rock his body side-to-side, pat his bottom or put your hand on his chest.) Then slowly lessen your hands on soothing.
Create a nap space as older babies become more easily distracted
Create a pre-nap and pre-bedtime calming routine to ease the transition into sleep
Plus a million more things
If you could use some help for getting your baby or toddler to sleep better Jilly has an amazing free resource for moms. It’s called the Exhausted Mom’s Survival Kit. In it she gives you tips on getting your baby to sleep longer and better and what you may inadvertently doing to sabotage your baby’s sleep.
This series of short videos and worksheets are super helpful for improving your baby’s sleep and in turn, your own. Now is the perfect time to implement it too with the stress of the holidays coming. Start today and you can have a well rested holiday season!
Cheers,
Emily
