sleep and postpartum anxiety

One of the hardest things for me postpartum is the anxiety. It is so overwhelming at times and is triggered mostly by sleep, or lack thereof for me. But also sleep in the baby sense.  From the moment we had Gideon, sleep was the biggest thing I thought about.  When should he sleep? How long should he be sleeping?  Our room?  His room?  The swing? It was so much to think about.

I knew that I wanted our babies to sleep in their own space.  Co-sleeping was just not something I could handle.  I also knew that at some point they needed to be able to go to sleep on their own without nursing, rocking, etc.  But how?  Whew, talk about anxiety inducing.  It skyrocketed for me.

Well, bringing home my third baby was no different.  The anxiety over issues such as sleep still showed up.  You would think having gone through this a couple of times I would have the mental capacity to know that they do sleep eventually.  But the task of making it happen was dragging me down.

When we first brought Lincoln home, I had him sleeping in his rock-n-play next to our bed.  I thought he would find it more cozy than the pack-n-play.  He slept great for a bit, but after a few weeks I wanted to move him to his room.  Did not go as planned.  His crib felt way too big for him after the rock-n-play and he was already use to sleeping at an incline so laying flat felt weird.  He would jerk and wake himself up immediately. AH. I was stressing to the max.

Enter the DockATot. Holy amazing, you guys. I was pumped when the black box holding this bad boy showed up.  We were in the midst of three weeks of Lincoln having a cold and sleep being nonexistent. I didn't move him from the rock-n-play immediately because I thought sleeping at an incline would help his congestion. But, then I had enough and made the switch. And he slept amazing; I'm talking 7 to 8 hour stretches amazing. He feels snug and secure in the Dock and has slept better than any of our boys ever did.  I love that it is breathable so I don't worry and have more added on to my anxious mind.  We got the Deluxe which is great for babies up to age 8 months and they also have a Grand that I hear is awesome to transition toddlers to a bed.

It's been great to drag around as a place to put him when I need to tend to the big boys. Outside for pool time, on the floor while I fold laundry, all over the place. I can't wait to take it to the beach and when we travel. It will be nice that he has a sleeping space that feels familiar to him. Hands down one of the best baby items I own. I swear if I just had this and my Solly Baby Wrap I'd be all set.

While I still struggle through postpartum anxiety and all that comes with that, sleep is no longer a trigger for it.  Lincoln is sleeping which means mama gets to sleep which means I have energy when I need it.

*DockATot provided the DockATot Deluxe to us, but as always, this is my real and genuine opinion of the product.  If you are interested in one use my referral link to get $10 off {I will also earn money through this link!}