Brennan-Sleep Update

Thank you all so much for your comments on my post about crying-it-out. I really appreciate your honesty, experience, and most of all, listening to me vent! You all shared great advice.

I have not started any type of cry-it-out routine. I have put him in the crib to cry for 10 minutes or so when he's bit me (OUCH!), but I have not left him to cry himself to sleep.

I think part of me made that post hoping to get talked out of it. And I think most of me just really needed to vent with other moms. My husband is an amazing father, but unless you're the milk-machine being needed, it's hard to fully relate.

To answer some of your questions: Brennan won't take a pacifier. I was dead against them with Aidan, but willing to try them this time around. We tried all the different brands, every couple of weeks, and he gags on them. Now he does have a silicone one he loves to bite on, but he never takes them to actually pacify himself. I'm ok with this, as I'm not too keen on pacifiers.
Where does he sleep? From day one we've been co-sleeping. He sleeps next to me. He has slept in his crib several times, but I think I do better with him in our bed. However, he is not a snuggler all night long like Aidan was. I'm wondering if he'd do better in his crib. So we're experimenting. That's another reason why CIO seems somewhat harsh to me. He's not used to his crib fully, and I don't think it's safe to leave him CIO on our bed with him being mobile now.

Much of the time it is a mad cry. Because I know it's a "mad cry" and not an "I'm hurt" cry, that is why I feel ok with letting him have some time in his crib crying, if that's what he needs to understand that it is time to sleep and not play. I don't let that go beyond 5-10 minutes, though. (For me, crying-it-out is harder on the parents!) I've thought of trying it with Brennan, though, because he is a much more mild baby than Aidan was. With Brennan, I'd try it because I have doubts that it'd have to go as long as 20 minutes. I have yet to do that, and I certainly don't want to do anything to lead Brennan to not trust us or our family. (side note--our doctor did acknowledge that Brennan is past the point of object permanence. This means that when we leave the room, he does know we're still around & will be back. If he was not yet to this point, I'd feel CIO is cruel!)

I'm giving it some more time, adding in some Tylenol for teething discomfort, and hoping for the best. If I feel pushed to my limit again, I may pick up on the idea again. I think mostly I needed to vent!

Thanks again for listening. I wanted to update & let you know that I'm not leaving him to scream to the point of exhaustion. ;) Hopefully I can report soon that he is back to his old sleeping self.

How Do We Sleep Tight?

By Co-Sleeping. Family Bed is what we do. :) Since it's something we practice, it catches my interest when co-sleeping is in the news, like this article from the new York Times:

Shhh...My Child Is Sleeping (in My Bed, Um, With Me)

Like the parents mentioned in this article, we never planned to co-sleep. In fact, I was against the thought of it while pregnant with my first.
Yup.
And then he was born. ;) He was colicky, some sleep was better than no sleep, and we started bringing him in bed with us. We grew into a co-sleeping family, and by our next pregnancy, we had planned to co-sleep. On purpose this time. lol. We enjoy it.

I won't go into a lengthy post on it now (you can go here to read my earlier post on how we came to co-sleep). I just wanted to share the article. Enjoy!

PS-if you are a co-sleeping family, too, leave a comment and share. I'm really curious how many people go into it deliberately, or by reaction to the type of child their first was. Thanks!

Top 10 Attachment Parenting Challenges

This put a smile on my face. :)
Here's to all you fellow AP moms & dads.
Enjoy!

By Caity McCardell

Being a parent who labels herself an Attachment Parent (AP), I follow Dr. Sears' prescription: Wear your baby, sleep with your baby, nurse your baby, and tend to your baby - for as long as they want you to. This parenting style goes against modern Western tradition, which includes letting a baby "cry it out," weaning from nursing or not nursing at all, having baby sleep in a crib, and leaving baby alone in a playpen. I love my choice to parent with intuition and connection, but it comes with its trials. Following are ten AP challenges I've encountered so far… 10. Trying to explain how a baby carried in a sling will, indeed, learn how to crawl, walk, dance just like babies in strollers. 9. Feeling something's wrong when there's no one attached to my boob. 8. The Questions. On top of vegan-related questions ("is it really healthy to raise her vegan?"), people just naturally have questions about AP practices. "When are you going to wean her?" "When will you put her in her own bed?" "When are you going to put her down?" I should design a t-shirt that simply says, "When the baby wants to." 7. Public Displays of Boob (PDB). Nursing while grocery shopping, baby gets distracted, resulting in PDB. 6. Waking up shivering with half my body off the bed, next to baby and husband both splayed out with arms and legs outstretched, like sleeping jumping jacks. 5. AP Competition. "I've been wearing John for five days straight, nursing the equivalent of 20 gallons of milk and have mastered the art of changing his diaper in the sling!" "Ha! That's nothing! I just hiked Mount Shasta with Suzie in the sling, nursing her the whole way while dictating my book about the pros and cons of co-sleeping." 4. AP terminology. I'm not really "attached" to by baby; she nurses before she needs to "demand" it; and "co-sleeping" just sounds so academic. 3. Those fleeting feelings of doubt about this parenting style. Could she really crush me in my sleep? What if she doesn't wean until she leaves for college? Can I still call her vegan even though she drinks milk? What if after all this work she hates me? 2. Trying to convince my husband that I do really need a blue sling to match my blue dress… and a slick black sling to go to that wedding… and a white sling for summer… 1. And the Number 1 Challenge About Attachment Parenting. Those times when I feel so… well… detached.

ONE MILLION Cribs Recalled

Baby Cribs Recalled After Three Deaths

Three deaths, topped with "Seven other infants have been entrapped in the cribs, according to the CPSC. There have been 55 reports of the cribs' drop sides detaching or the hardware failing to hold the side to the crib."

Apparently the recall is for cribs by Simplicity and Graco.

Scary. And how sad for those babies and parents, especially.

Thank God for co-sleeping. I'm thankful right now that it works for us. I take so much comfort in being able to just open my eyes and physically feel and see that my children are safe and sound. Without ever getting up.