"You know you are sleep deprived when..." (so funny)

(Real answers from Real moms who did this and confessed)

• You know you are sleep deprived when you are changing LO's diaper and put the dirty one back on and throw the clean one away...

• You know you are sleep deprived when you put a kurig pod in the bottle warmer.

• You know you are sleep deprived when LO finally falls asleep on your bed in just a way that leaves you no room to sleep...

• You know you are sleep deprived when you go through McDonald's drive through, pay for the food, then drive off without the food.

• Was in the drive thru line up at Starbucks and I forgot to order!

• You put baby formula in the blender instead of your shake mix. Thankfully, you catch it before the process of blending begins....

• You get up to pee but walk into the nursery to nurse/rock your baby back to sleep.... But she's sleeping. You realize what you've done and slowly tip toe out praying you didn't just wake her up and as soon as you shut her door she starts crying so you cry.

• You put salt in your coffee instead of sugar. Yuck!

• You put the OJ in the cupboard.

• Gladware of cooked veggies in with the plates.

• iPhone in the fridge.

• You know you are sleep deprived when you forget to put the filter in the nose Freida before sucking out the boogies!

• You stick the ice cube tray in the refrigerator instead of the freezer.

• You start the Keurig without a coffee cup, spilling coffee all over the counter.

• You can't seem to get your nursing camisole clipped so you rip it off "hulk" style.

• You are freaking out because you look around the room and have no idea where baby is. Then realize she's nursing on your boob!

• You get soaked with pee while nursing and change the baby but forget to change yourself and go back to bed.

• You try to make a bottle and you put the bottle together then dump the formula all over the top and make a huge mess....don't notice it and feed baby warm water and can't figure out in the morning why there is a pile of formula on counter!

• I forgot to put a diaper on the baby after changing her and put her to bed with no diaper on.

• When you go outside with your toddler and are talking with the neighbors when you suddenly panic and frantically say you have to go cuz you forgot the baby in the house....everyone stares at you for a minute then you realize why...the baby is strapped to your chest in the carrier. Then bust out in tears.

• When you put in a load of laundry, wash it, dry it, and take it out told fold it and it stinks. Then you realize you forgot the detergent and have to rewash and dry it.

• You are sleep deprived when you dump your freshly pumped milk in the sink instead of the bag you just prepared. Then you cry because you spent the last 30 minutes for nothing.

• I once forgot to put bottles on the end of my pump and pumped into my lap for 20 min! That was sad too.

• You are sleep deprived when you put hair gel on your toothbrush instead of toothpaste and don't realize it till you've been brushing.

• When you try to make coffee but put the milk in the pantry and the coffee in the fridge.... The your other kids are freaking out cause there's no milk for cereal. And then.... You realize you never even drank your coffee.

• Ha ha when you are sporting massive bruises everywhere on your body because you’re too tired and clumsy. Have a huge knot on my hip because I ran into a drawer pull out knob...

• You pump without attaching bottles!

• You bend over after pumping and spill all the milk you just pumped all over the floor.

• You don't even remember how you got to work but you're there lol.

• You shower with your socks on.... I'll never live that down lol.

You can cry or you can laugh…I choose to laugh.  We are pretty darn funny!

~Tracy Spackman and Her Sleep Sisters

Tracy Spackman is a Certified Gentle Sleep Coach.  She does personal sleep consultations and runs the Sleep Sisters Facebook group where all these answers are from. 

Tracy Spackman 602-524-7610

www.GetQuietNights.com

www.facebook.com/groups/sleepsistersgetquietnights/

www.facebook.com/QuietNights

Babies who only sleep when held are amazing!

QUESTION:  My daughter is 8 weeks and I have a really hard time putting her down for naps, the only way she'll get a nap is if I'm holding her or wearing her. I LOVE holding and wearing her, but lately it's been harder to put her down for bed, both initially and after middle of the night feedings also. I've heard so many conflicting things about this, some say to "start as you mean to go on," but I also know that this is such an important developmental stage for her, trust vs mistrust, and being close to me is how she feels loved and secure. Am I creating a problem for myself later on, if I continue to only let her nap on me?

ANSWER: 

Babies this young who will only sleep on you are letting you in on a big secret. They are very stimulated by their surroundings and have a hard time dealing with it. You are their buffer. It's called co-regulation. Your closeness is helping them regulate the stress of the overstimulation. It's a temperament trait the child is born with. It's not bad. Just different. So knowing this secret, does cry it out even seem like a good idea? The cool thing about it, is that babies who have higher needs like this actually have a greater potential than average needs babies. The increased perceptiveness combined with the practice problem solving you get from the co-regulation equals a very astute young man/woman. It's awesome. The sad side is that babies like this who don't get the extra attention needed have very very low potential.  The brain development at this age is establishing the framework for ALL FUTURE LEARNING. So you want to meet the attachment needs and worry about habits and problems later. It's not a problem, it's a need. I'm glad you like the closeness. Keep doing everything she asks for and after 4 months or after 6 months, we can work slowly on more independent behavior. The closeness now will actually increase the potential for independence later.

Tracy Spackman

Trained & Certified Gentle Sleep Coach

www.GetQuietNights.com 

Naps at daycare, never at home! why?

Question:  I am in the most desperate need of nap time advice. My almost 9 month old is a terrible napper (at home). He naps Monday-Friday at daycare perfectly. Two 1.5 hour naps at the exact same time everyday. And then on Saturday and Sunday he refuses to stay asleep longer than 20-30 minutes. I try to follow the exact same schedule as daycare but he it just doesn't work ( and that's if we don't have to cry it out for 20 minutes to even get that amount of sleep). It makes him cranky all weekend, in turn making our weekends so sad. Then his night time sleep is awful as well. I try to do the same things every time he goes to nap, establishing a nap time routine but I don't even know how to implement a nap time routine when it would only apply 2 days a week. This has been going on since about 4 months when we transitioned to crib from rock n play. He used to nap for hours in his rock n play. And he sleeps great (for the most part) in his crib at night. What's going on?

Answer:  It's amazing that babies can compartmentalize their different caregivers. Sleeping great at daycare and terribly at home. Part of it is likely that he misses you and doesn't want to waste time napping when he could be with you. Part of it is likely that the lack of nighttime sleep success is effecting your nap success. Keep offering the naps and work on night skills. If you have solid night skills, you could do weekend nap coaching. 4 months is typically when major sleep changes occur and sleep skills need to be learned. Solid night sleep is the building block for solid nap skills so I would look very carefully at the nights first. 

Let me know if you need my help to dig into this issue. 

Tracy Spackman

www.GetQuietNights.com