Can't believe my little Omar is almost 6 months old. I am so proud that my "bad sleeper" can now sleep by himself with little help. Well, sometimes he still nurse to sleep though but the other day I was ignoring him (busy with my phone - don't follow me🙈), our backs were facing each other, he didn't cry and made little-to-no noise. When my sister came into the room, she said that Omar was already asleep.
I can remember clearly how he used to be a really bad sleeper. Every time I drop by at the office and everyone would ask how he was sleeping, I always said, "He's a really bad sleeper😔." How can he not be a bad sleeper if he only wants to sleep in a certain position which sometimes worked and sometimes doesn't? Not sure if it was colic, but I just put up with him and stopped guessing the cause. We had to put him sideways, sometimes he slept on his tummy (don't preach SIDS to me please), and most of the times he can only sleep while cuddled. At times I wanted to cry because of the exhaustion of not getting proper sleep because I wasn't comfortable with my sleep position (if I had to cuddle him).
Nowadays mothers get judged about the way they do things. I wanted to do the right thing, but then I learned there's no right or wrong, just find the one that works for you. I did a google search if sleep training is the "new normal", but the answers were mixed. A couple of times I did let him cry his head off to exhaustion hoping he would eventually sleep by himself. Well, it never happened. He cried for a good 15 minutes, sometimes even more. I can stand listening to him cry for more than 15 minutes, but I was afraid it may affect his brain.
Eventually, I realised that Omar won't be small for a long time. He won't ask to be cuddled while sleeping all the time. So I should just live in the moment and try to enjoy while it lasted. And I think I had made the right choice. Now he's slowly coming off of me and able to sleep by himself.
