Focus on Sleep Challenges One Bite At A Time
It was just a random day…just an ordinary day. A day full of peanut butter sandwiches for lunch (and my girls loooveee peanut butter).
So what ensued next was not really much different from any other meal.
…They shoveled the sandwich in.
Eating too fast.
Not stopping to enjoy any of it.
Peanut butter flying everywhere.
Now the point of this story isn’t supposed to share my messy kids (despite my best efforts of trying to work on restaurant manners – let’s just say, we’re not there yet).
Of course out of my mouth was “slow down”, “take little bites”, “eat slowwllly”. (Yes, I see that it sounds kinda whiney on my part in retrospect).
So as I’m trying to get my girls to slow down eating, I’m finding it pretty ironic, that I give my sleep clients similar advice.
Of course we need to all slow down and enjoy the little coos, slurpy snuggles cute sayings of our little children… Yes, it’s amazing how our kids are only so little for so long, so the message is true.
But when it comes to sleep, the message is a little different…we have to focus on overcoming sleep challenges…one little success at a time or, “one little bite at a time”.
If you try and shovel the whole peanut butter sandwich at once (or “your entire sleep plan” – the peanut butter is gonna fly. But, if you focus on the little successes here and there, now that’s when you’ll be able to really be successful.
When it comes to sleep challenges – always focus on the little wins and little successes. Especially don’t forget to:
1) Celebrate any win! Did your baby take a 1 hour nap for the first time ever? Celebrate! Did your toddler fall asleep without you in the room? Celebrate! A positive attitude will get you far in this sleep game.
2) Give your baby or toddler lots of snuggles during the awake periods. Positive attention can be given throughout the day so your baby/toddler won’t be craving it at night… “Little attention bites – go a long way.”
3) Always remember that what’s going on today won’t be your issues forever. There will be always something new that will come your way. It’s always going to be something (and thankfully after what may be a rough period – the next something most likely it will not have anything to do with sleep! “.
So, I will probably continue to tell my girls to take smaller bites – but I will also always tell my sleep clients to celebrate the little bite-sized victories!!
