“My baby slept through the night after only a month.” Ugh – I remember hearing these words from a mom colleague many years ago. After nine months, my son was still waking up in the middle of the night to be fed. The doctor said I had created this “habit” and it would be hard to break but he said we had to do it.
He was the expert. He should know, right? So, the following Friday evening, we tried the (then popular) Ferber method to get my son to sleep through the night. We let him cry it out.
I don’t know who cried harder or longer – me or my son. It was torture. The next night, he cried only a little and the following night not at all. We had achieved success – I guess.
I’ll never know what ignoring my son’s cries did to him. It’s likely he doesn’t even remember, but I do. By the time my daughter was born – about three and a half years later, my son was like Velcro on me. So much so that at the exact moment of my daughter’s birth, he woke up and cried out “Mommy”!
Maybe it was coincidence, maybe not. He knew something. Somehow, he knew that things would be different after his little sister was born. My son has always been connected to me, some would say overly connected, but that doesn’t bother me in the least. The alternative is unthinkable.
My daughter slept through the night before I returned to work. Was it luck? Was it some cosmic blessing? Maybe, but I don’t think so. I believe it was because I was listening to my own intuition rather than some parenting expert who’d never met me or my children.
Many mothers today have forgotten they have this gift and rely on books and celebrities and Google to answer their most pressing parenting challenges. I wonder if they really know how much knowledge and power they possess – if only they would tune in.
Are you tuned in? Do you hear that small still voice inside? How often do you really pay attention to it? You know that it holds the answers to EVERY single question you have, right?
Just for today, instead of waiting for your lucky break, be still, be quiet, and hear what that little voice is saying. I guarantee you, there’s an answer there.
Jen’s Gem: You were born with mother’s intuition. Rely on this special gift.