Can I share my story with you?
It's the 'how I became a consultant' story, but it may not be what you think.
So here goes!
I had my first baby in 2016, and since I'm a labour and delivery nurse, I felt super ready to manage pregnancy, labour and delivery and babies...or so I thought.
I knew that I wouldn't sleep much, as newborns need to be fed every 2-3 hours, but I also didn't expect how sleep deprived I would become over the course of the next few months.
As my daughter grew, her sleep didn't really change.
The longest stretch of sleep I got was 4 hours, and that only happened a couple of times. Usually I was getting 2-3 hours at a time, all night long.
Now, add on Postpartum anxiety.
Ugh.
That was a doozie.
I would lay in bed, worrying about her, worrying about my intrusive thoughts, worrying that If I didn't fall asleep fast enough, she would wake up and then I really wouldn't get any sleep.
I had help from time to time, but even if someone was holding her downstairs, I would worry if she was okay.
Driving was stressful.
I felt like my reaction time was slow, I would forget where I was going, or what I was doing.
I worried about what would happen when I returned to work and if I was capable enough to do my job as a nurse.
There was even a day where I said to my husband "I think my head is going to fall off"
Obviously, it didn't, but that's how I felt at the moment.
Oh, and speaking of my husband, our relationship had taken a quick shift to the rear as I was hardly functioning, barely able to take care of my basic needs on top of my baby's needs.
Then came September 10th.
That was the night my daughter's 4-month regression hit.
She was up every 2 hours on the nose.
I would nurse her back to sleep, put her in her crib and go lay down, knowing that I had exactly 1hr45 minutes before she would wake up again.
Do you think I slept for 1 hr 45 minutes?
Yea, nope.
At 530 am, I had had enough.
I took my daughter to my husband and said that it was 'his turn', and I went back and laid in bed.
I could hear her for the next couple of hours giving her dad a hard time, but guess what?
It was his turn and I felt SO done.
It was either that day or the next that our prenatal group was meeting up and one of the moms shared that she had done sleep training and things were going well.
"Sleep what?" I said to her,
It's funny now, but I literally had no idea what she was talking about.
She sent me a bunch of resources, one of them was Sleep Sense.
I bought the PDF, and told my husband we were doing this.
I cried, no sobbed, while reading the PDF.
I resonated so strongly with every word and realized that I couldn't do this anymore. Things had to change.
I realize now that I never thanked Andrea for how sharing those resources literally changed the course of my life, so Andrea, THANK YOU.
Night 1, my daughter cried 27 minutes before falling asleep.
I cried for 30 minutes.
Night 2, she cried for 14 minutes.
Night 3, she cried for 7 minutes.
Night 4, she didn't cry at all.
I also know now that she was an angel baby, which is why that went so easily.
In the 4.5 years I've been doing this, I've seen some spirited babies who gave their parents a run for their money (you know who you are;)
Why do I share this with you?
Because I know a lot of moms (and dads!) suffer like I did.
You may have felt like I felt, or worse.
Maybe your story isn't as dramatic, and that's okay, but you can relate to what I'm saying.
I started this business to help people like me.
Who sob when they realize that things need to change, but they're scared, nervous and incredibly anxious.
Helping my baby sleep changed my life.
I'm here to help your baby sleep well, to change your family's life.
That's all:)
Here for you,
Melody Patton
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