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My pediatrician couldn't tell me why Katie kept waking up every hour even though she didn't need night feeds, until a mom on Facebook explained what my doctor missed. My daughter Katie could fall asleep on her own that's what made it so confusing Every night, I'd put her down awake she'd close her eyes and drift off without a single peep I didn’t have to rock her I’d only have to feed her sometimes but not always. And honestly it was staring to concern me because Katie was never liked this it was like a switch flipped when she turned 4 months old And it was so consistent it had to be something serious I thought to myself So I started wondering if she had silent reflux or a tongue tie we had missed but her doctor had cleared her when she was born but I kept researching And I saw that silent reflux can be missed and tongue ties sometimes get overlooked and that can cause the constant wake ups and physical discomfort So I booked an appointment for a check up and asked her doctor about it. I told him about the constant wake ups. The night feeds. How she'd only nurse for two or three minutes And then go back out and how it was happening every 90 minutes consistently every night and had been going on for weeks. He barely looked up from his clipboard. He said “if she's only feeding for a couple of minutes everytime she wakes up, she doesn't really need those feeds” He said “she's clearly hitting all her milestones nothing seems to be wrong with her” Then he kind of shrugged and said just wait it out. Like I had wasted his time. I sat there and nodded because I didn't know what else to do. And then I drove home, more confused than ever, and with nothing new to try and no real answer as to why my daughter couldn't sleep through the night Because it's not like these wake ups were easy on me. I was running on empty I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours in a row in weeks. I was exhausted in a way I didn't even know was possible before I became a mom. And every time I posted, I'd get the same responses. Sleep regression. Wonder weeks. Growth spurt. Try a dream feed. Try cutting dairy. Try an earlier bedtime. But what the other moms didn’t understand is that I tried everything it felt like they had everything all figured out and there babies were perfect but mine wasn’t and I was a horrible mother for not fixing Katie’s bad sleep And the thing that was really driving me crazy worse than the actual exhaustion was nobody could explain to me. If my baby could fall asleep on her own at bedtime, why couldn't she stay asleep? She had the skill. She proved it every single night at 7 PM. So why, every 90 minutes after that, did she wake up crying like something was wrong? I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I'd lie there in the dark and run through every possible answer. She's hungry. She's overtired. It's a regression. I'm doing something wrong. I created this. It's my fault. None of it fit. Because I was feeding her everytime she woke up and even after that she would still wake up always at that 90 minute mark. And I was adjusting the schedule and nothing ever changed. I was doing everything I could but we were in the exact same place we'd been in for months. Waking up 3 to 6 times a night is not sustainable. I knew that. I just didn't know what else to do. And at some point you stop feeling tired the normal way. It stops being something you notice and starts being something you just live inside. I used to be someone who had energy. Who made plans. Who felt like a person. Now I was just trying to get through the day. I didn't know what I was missing. I just knew something was very wrong and I couldn't find the answer. So one night when I was scrolling, exhausted, not even really reading anything anymore, I decided to post in one more group. I typed out everything. The wake ups. The short feeds. The fact that she could put herself to sleep at bedtime but couldn't make it through the night. I just needed someone to have an answer. I hit post and closed the app. I didn't expect anyone to respond. But a few minutes later, I got a DM from someone named Jennifer and that's when everything changed "I know exactly what you're going through, I was in the same place six months ago. Can I ask you something does your baby fall asleep fine at bedtime but can't stay asleep?" Yes, I typed back that's the part I don't understand she goes down awake no crying maybe some fussing but she knows how to sleep so why doesn't it work in the middle of the night? "Because it's not about knowing how to sleep by herself, I thought the same things I spent months trying to sleep train harder” “Thinking I was doing something wrong but it's not behavioral It's physical." Physical? What do you mean? "When babies first fall asleep at bedtime, they drop straight into deep sleep heavy, solid sleep. Nothing wakes them” “But after that first sleep cycle about 90 minutes the rest of the night is lighter” “And during light sleep, if their breathing isn't perfectly smooth, their body tenses up. Tense body means awake baby." But she's not congested I don't hear anything wrong with her breathing. "You wouldn't be able to It's not the kind of congestion you can hear” “It's just tiny airway resistance. Even the smallest amount is enough to make breathing feel like work” “And when breathing feels like work during light sleep, the nervous system goes on alert which means awake." I sat there on the floor, reading this over and over. That's why she wakes up every 60-90 minutes? I typed. Not because she's hungry? "Your right not because she's hungry, think about it when you feed her, she falls back asleep, right?” But not because she needed was full. Because nursing calms her nervous system down enough to drop her back into deep sleep” “For one more cycle then 90 minutes later, light sleep phase again, breathing feels off again, body tenses again, awake again." Oh my God, that's exactly what happens over and over all night long. "I know," she said I went through the same thing I thought I was going crazy but here's the thing there are two parts to fixing it most people only fix one." What do you mean? "Everyone talks about calming the nervous system that's why lavender works, why warm baths help, why white noise is recommended” “You're lowering stress hormones so the baby's body can relax that's the first half. “ “But the other half the part no one talks about is keeping the airways open so breathing stays smooth during those light sleep phases." How do you do that? "Fir needle," she said. "It helps open airways, clear mucus, makes breathing feel easier. Like eucalyptus for adults when you're stuffed up, but gentle enough for babies” “When you combine it with lavender one to calm the nervous system so they can fall asleep, one to keep airways clear so they can stay asleep you're addressing both parts of the problem." I'd never heard of fir needle for sleep. "Most people haven't I found this organic sleep cream called Slumberlee. It has both lavender and fir needle, with jojoba and olive oil as the base”. “I started using it on my daughter's chest and feet before bed and within three days she was sleeping six-hour stretches she then after a week she was sleeping through the night." I didn't want to get my hopes up I'd tried so many things But I also couldn't stop thinking about what she said. Because it was the first explanation that actually made sense. It wasn't about teaching Katie a skill she didn't have. It was about removing the physical thing that kept waking her up. So i asked Jeniffer for the link and I ordered it that night. And it arrived two days later That first night, I rubbed a little on Katie’s chest and feet before bed, same routine as always. She went down at 7:30pm like normal. Then 9pm came and went Still asleep. 11pm Still asleep. I woke up at midnight in a panic because I hadn't heard her grabbed my phone to check the monitor Still asleep 1:30am Still asleep. She didn't wake up until 4:30am. That was seven hours seven hours in a row. I didn't want to get my hopes up. One good night didn't mean anything could've been a fluke. could've been a growth spurt ending could've been anything. The second night, she slept from 7:30pm to 3am. Five and a half hours. The third night, she woke up once around midnight, but I didn't even have to go in. I heard her fuss for maybe two minutes on the monitor, then silence. She put herself back to sleep. By the end of the first week, she was consistently sleeping 6-8 hour stretches. By the end of the second week, she slept through the night four times. I kept waiting for it to stop working. For her to go back to waking every hour. For this to turn out to be temporary. But it wasn't. And the thing that got me the thing that made me want to cry every time I thought about it was that she was still going down the exact same way at bedtime. Awake in the crib no feeding no rocking falling asleep on her own in ten minutes That part never changed. What changed was that she was staying asleep She was making it through those light sleep phases without waking up transitioning from one cycle to the next like her body finally figured out how to do it smoothly Or maybe her body always knew how Maybe I'd just been missing the one thing that was keeping her stuck And the whole time, it wasn't about hunger. It wasn't about sleep training or independence or breaking habits It was about making it physically easier for her body to stay asleep through the night. I'm not saying this will work for every baby. I don't know if every baby wakes up for the same reason Katie did. But if your baby can fall asleep on their own but won't stay asleep if you're feeding them every time they wake up because that's the only thing that works and you don't know why If you've tried everything and nothing makes sense if you're sitting there at 2am wondering what you're missing Maybe it's the same thing I was missing Maybe it's not about the feeding at all Maybe it's about breathing Thank you for reading my story if you want to try what worked for me and Katie I’ll put the link to Slumberlee here https://slumberlee.com/products/organic-sleep-cream