Long Division, Baby Sleep (and other difficult things)
Remember long division?
Learning it in grade four was the first time I really remember seeing a classmate cry in math class.
It wasn’t the forlorn cry of a student who misses home or the cry of pain after a scrapped their knee.
But sobs of frustration and futility at this mysterious and SCARY thing up on the chalkboard that was making her feel like she was a failure.
And for me now, I will never forget long division as a parent, having tried to teach my son the steps (Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring down) two years ago.
It ended (we had barely begun!) in tears and tween tantrums of epic proportion.
Oh the futility. The frustration. The self-doubt. The fear.
And yet, here we are two years later and my son does long division for fun.
Well, he likely wouldn't go that far.
But when he has more time for math he'll opt for making up his own long division questions rather than go onto the next chapter.
Because, turns out, when he was READY to learn long division, he learned it pretty quickly and effortlessly.
So let's look at your baby's sleep.
They are waking up often. They are nursing every time. They need to be in contact with you while they sleep or they will pop up crying as if firecrackers went off in the room.
So you try to change that with any number of strategies:
You tell them it's time to go back to sleep like RIGHT NOW (or else...or else you'll cry your own tears of futility).
You refuse to feed them from 11pm to 4am.
You roll away when they are asleep even though doing this the previous 10 times tonight caused prolonged wake-ups.
What if instead of sweating these attempts (attempts that are TOTALLY worth trying, by the way, if you feel it's time), you waited.
Just. a. little. bit. longer.
What if you waited till they (and you) were ready?
What if there were a time in your child's development where this next step was .... EASY??
I'm not saying it's not worth experimenting with new ways of supporting sleep for your baby that nudges the dial towards independence. (If you've worked with me, you know I love testing gradual changes out, and it's often the only way to really know if it's time).
What I AM saying is there's a pretty good time to try this, and there's a really good time to try.
And when it's REALLY NOT WORKING, just stop trying.
For now.
Because it may be that it's simply not time....yet.
Heather
PS Want to explore working together? Book a call with me to talk about whether 1:1 coaching or my group program are a good fit for meeting your needs
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