My Newborn Doesn’t Need to Sleep 8 Hour Stretches

I feel like I hear about and read about all these babies sleeping these great long stretches right off the bat.  It almost seems like something we are striving to or obligated to say.  My baby is a great sleeper.  Everyone always asks when they meet the baby if they are a good sleeper, and I always feel like some sort of a failure when I say no.  Like I’m doing something wrong as a mom because I haven’t  put him on some crazy strict schedule that has him sleeping all night long at 2 months.  or 4 months. Or 7 months even.

As tired as I am,  and please forgive me when I can’t put sentences together, I’m fine with it.  Would I take a few more hours. Yes. Yes. Yes. But am I going to push it? Not at all.

This little baby spent 9 months in my belly.  He was always warm, always held, and always had the comfort of my heartbeat and voice.  He had no knowledge of anything in this world except for me.  He went through this crazy process of labor and birth and all of a sudden he isn’t warm all the time.  He doesn’t have an endless supply of food, and there are all of these other sights and sounds that are not Mama.  He is literally learning everything.  And then bedtime comes, and we put these babies down flat on their back on a hard mattress and we walk away and expect them to sleep on their own.  I know this is for safety and this is the way I put my babies down, but could you sleep like this? I know I couldn’t.

This sweet little boy will eventually be 12 years old and doing everything on his own, and not even dream of his mama holding him all night long.  I don’t need to sleep train him at 2 months old for this to happen.  And I’m going to miss him when he does this.  And enjoy my uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep every night.  That day will come.  For now, I’m going to hold my baby for an hour at time if I need to, pick him up 25 times a night if I need to, and shush him and sing him as many songs as he needs.  He needs his mama, and I’m going to be there.