Eating and Sleeping: Two Separate Skills!
Did you know that eating and sleeping are two totally separate things?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Hear me out.
Before becoming a mom, and even as a new mom, it was drilled into my head that your baby needs to be 100% full before going to bed or they’ll never sleep. I literally panicked if my baby didn’t drink her entire bottle before bed.
Eating is Important!
Don’t get me wrong, your baby definitely needs to get enough calories in during the day, especially when they are a newborn. See this post if you’re wondering how often you should feed your baby, because eating is so important!⠀
I simply mean they don’t have to eat at 6:59pm and fall asleep at 7:00pm in order to sleep well. Nor do they need to drink their entire bottle in order to sleep all night. Sometimes they just aren’t as hungry — just like us — and that’s okay! Babies are humans, too.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Example: If you eat dinner at 5:30 one night and 6:15 the next, does that change how well you sleep? Probably not. Or if you eat a salad for dinner one night and 4 pizza slices the next, does that change how well you sleep? Probably not.
Sleep is Not Dependent on Every Ounce
If your baby knows how to sleep then these things don’t matter that much. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
My point is, don’t sweat the small stuff like the time they finish their last feed or the amount they eat at the last feed. Eating and sleeping are important but separate skills.