When did you become a mother? Most will give you the date of birth of the child. It is actually the date you conceived. Your body welcomed a new being unto itself. Now, when did you last sleep through the night? The answer will probably be before the date of birth of the baby. But actually, that date is probably right around the time you conceived. The baby takes charge of your body, your world, your life and every thing that you do the minute he comes into existence. I refrain from commenting as to whether the baby who isn't born is a he or a she. I use whichever connotation that comes to my mind, rather tongue. My experience of sleepless nights started the day I came to know I was pregnant. Several emotions drove the no sleep during nights. Anxiety, anticipation of the future, anxiousness of the uncertainity of change in life, the responsibility of bringing a new life into the world and mostly that started at the begining and still exists is the need to do everything correctly. After the baby pops out, there isn't much to think about. There is a routine, a schedule. Tons of work and the only reasons you will wake up during the night is to clean him up and feed him...alternatively. As the baby grows and the need to feed during the night goes down, it will most probably be to just make sure that he is breathing, breathing normally. As he grows further, teething will be the prime reason of remaining awake, for months together. If you managed to help him through that, then the excessive brain development during the day, leads to nightmares during the night. This can start anytime around 9 months or so. And then finally there will be a stage when he simply will not want to go down for the night time sleep. Day time naps will not be a problem because he knows, he wakes up and plays. But night time sleep will be hateful.
So what do you do when you keep waking up, for reasons, or for no reasons? Practise yoga every morning, so you learn to sleep deep, that is when you sleep. So even though you have to wake up every hour or so, you will still feel rested in the morning. Meditation and yoga helped me. Eating a hearty breakfast helped me. I went from "don't believe in cat-naps" to "i survive because of cat-naps". Move the baby out of your bed as early as possible and out of the bedroom as early as 2 years. The night-time wakings will go down drastically when the baby learns to sleep by himself. Dont let him cry, that is no solution. But the crying will go down, the waking will stop. Also when the baby wakes, for any reason, including feeding/cleaning, make sure the lighting in the room is dim. This ways you will not totally wake up, neither will the baby. Going back will be easier and faster.
