If you ask any parent if they’d like to go back in time to have their children be babies again most people would shout yes!
But if anyone for one second thought you would be transported back into that brief but nightmarish newborn stage, they may not jump at the idea so quickly.
Newborn babies are nothing short of adorable. Tiny, precious miracles that you proudly brought into the world.
But they are a lot of work, especially at the beginning
But that does not mean that newborn babies aren’t also incredibly draining to look after. There are the yucky nappies. The crying. The fear that you’re somehow doing it all wrong. The unsolicited advice off family and friends. The baby blues. And, worst of all, the sleep (or lack thereof).
Newborns love to sleep. But, like animals, they tend to have lots of short naps throughout a 24-hour period instead of sleeping through the night, as us adults are accustomed to.
Luckily for some parents, their babies soon learn to sleep when mom and dad do. But this isn’t always the case…
One mom felt she had tried everything to help her baby to sleep. But she was having no success, and, after months of no sleep, she felt she had reached a point of desperation.
New plan: sleep training the baby
So she decided she was going to sleep train her baby. Sleep training essentially goes off the concept that your baby self-soothes, or cries themselves to sleep.
It’s about more than this, though – it’s about helping your baby to learn that they can fall asleep on their own.
What is it?
Sleep training, when effective, teaches a baby that they don’t need rocking, milk or a pacifier to fall asleep. This means they’re less likely to wake up and cry for these things during the night.
Naturally, letting your baby cry is a big part of sleep training. There are many methods for doing this safely and controlling a baby’s distress, which you can read about here.
Problems with the neighbors
The problem with this particular mom’s situation is that she knew the crying would disturb her neighbors.
Sending a letter
So she decided it was only fair that she sent out a letter to those who lived next door to her, explaining the situation and apologizing.
Twitter user @KittyBeeJr was the neighbor who received this letter. She shared a photo of the one side-long piece of paper, writing:
“neighbors left this on the door.. im gonna bake them some cookies 😔
neighbors left this on the door.. im gonna bake them some cookies 😠pic.twitter.com/SQ0BiF6yTW
— Make America Purrr Again (@KittyBeeJr) December 14, 2020
If you’re a parent yourself, the words of this letter will resonate with you:
“Apartment 207 here. I regret to inform you that we have begun sleep training our son. After many sleepless nights thanks to the dreaded 4-month sleep regression, we have decided it is time to start the cry-it-out method.
“If you hear the cries please pray for me and know I am also crying and going insane. I’m very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, let’s hope it doesn’t last long.”
The mom explained that they were planning on testing it for four days, and if that didn’t work, they were going to take a break for a week or two before trying again.
She added:
“Please know I am not neglecting him, but I will let him try to self-soothe for 45-60 minutes at a time during this period. I will be in the room every 5-10 minutes to reassure him he is not alone and is okay.
“If you start to feel hatred towards us just give us a friendly knock on the door and I will bring you a shot of tequila to mend our neighbor-ship. It’s cheap tequila but it will calm your nerves, it’s been tested and proven to work by yours truly.
“Any-how keep us in your prayers and turn the TV volume up. If you need milk, sugar, or eggs we have some. And tequila too just swing by.”
She signed the letter off from “tired and sorry neighbors.”
Since being shared on Twitter, the letter has 1.1 million likes and nearly 100,000 retweets.
You’ll be happy to know that the recipient of the letter later shared on Twitter that, true to her word, she’d made the tired parents a batch of chocolate chip, peppermint shortbread, and brownie cookies – and even offered them a gift of a bottle of wine and baby wash.
i didn’t expect this to blow up thanks for all the love guys 🥲🖤
(i made chocolate chip, peppermint shortbread, and brownie cookies hope they enjoy 😊) pic.twitter.com/Up3wfnTLPE
— Make America Purrr Again (@KittyBeeJr) December 15, 2020
We know all too well how these parents must be feeling right now, and thank goodness they were blessed with an understanding neighbor.
Hopefully, their sleep training was a success and these new parents were able to get some much-needed rest.
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