Babies are Terrible Roommates
Whoever said ‘sleep like a baby’ must not have heard a newborn baby sleep much. Those beautiful commercials with the blissfully, silently sleeping infant are a fallacy for anyone who has encountered 1 a.m. with a brand new tot.
The truth? Babies are noisy sleepers.
They grunt. They twitch. They move all over the place.
During REM sleep (rapid eye movement) sleep, babies make a lot more of these noises.
Sometimes they giggle, sigh, whimper.
What they don’t do a lot of is sleep soundly and silently, which, if you’re listening intently for baby in your room or on a monitor, can be disconcerting.
So how do you figure out when your baby truly needs assistance? Or - if you’re not concerned about figuring out their cues and have that part down - how are you supposed to get any sleep yourself?
If baby is rooming in with you, consider the volume of the white noise. Even slightly raising it can not only help your baby stay sleeping, but it can help you lull off yourself.
Try a meditation app while you try to catch some zzz’s after you get baby back down to sleep.
If rooming in really isn’t working and it’s causing a detriment to your sleep - introduce baby to their nursery. There is no hard and fast rule that says you MUST have a newborn in your room right from the get go.
One of the biggest reasons our families hire a postpartum doula or night nanny isn’t the frequency of waking, it’s not bonding or helping with feeding assistance (although those are wonderfully appreciated!)
Honestly?
It’s a full night’s sleep that nourishes and doesn’t consist of hours staring at the clock and trying to shut off your brain while listening to baby thrash around in their sleep.
It’s peaceful, blissful slumber, knowing that baby is happy in their sleep environment, and you’re happy in yours, but that you’re both being cared for.
Let baby be loud. It’s what they’re conditioned for!
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