[peaceful_mama]

Watching 'mainstream' parents on TV? I'm kinda new to all the AP stuff...I'm just beginning to notice this!

Like this morning, watching a show about moms with twins while getting ready for work....one scene was mom (dad away in military) and neighbor with newborn twins, mom is trying to eat, babies are crying......and the neighbor is sitting there bouncing the seat.......I'm thinking "PICK THAT BABY UP!"

And another scene was a mom pregnant with twins with a set of 2/yo twins saying how hard it was to get the 2/yo twins to go to bed......they wanted Mommy with them. Um........the 'old pre-kid' me never would've said this, but easy solution, FAMILY BED they'll get sick of it eventually.......or a mat in your room anyway.

 

[peaceful_mama]

I know just because they sleep with you doesn't mean they go to sleep easier--for some........just that this particular mom was complaining how hard it is to get them to go to bed in their own beds alone. What about trying a bed for both of them, or how some people have their child in a bed in the same room? just a thought. They'll outgrow that need eventually.

This morning, I'm reading in a magazine 'what nobody told you about newborn crying'

quote: 'That I'd have such a hard time putting my first down to cry it out. All I wanted to do was run in there, pick her up, and rock her to sleep. You'd think I'd develop a thicker skin with my second, but I haven't!'
Maybe because this is a basic human instinct? babies cry because it's SUPPOSED To cause that reaction in the mama!!

I was just thinking about something yesterday too, I think last night as I was falling asleep with my baby.....it's an evolutionist thought, but....look at any other mammal. Where is the baby when it's in the 'nursing' phase? WITH THE MAMA. A mama cat doesn't go sleep in some other corner and wait till she hears crying kittens to feed them.
Obviously, animals parent entirely by instinct.......a lot of *people* would be better off parenting by their instinct too.

 

[peaceful_mama]

Melanie, if you haven't read it already, you'd love "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Leidloff.

I have *GOT* to get to the library!

somewhere in the last 100 years, it became "normal" to detach from your child and to parent it from as much a distance as possible. why carry a baby when you can use a swing, a bouncer, an exersaucer, a walker? why nurse or bottle-nurse a baby when you can prop the bottle? why sleep with a wiggly, sweaty baby when you can put them in another room and listen in with a monitor, or even watch them on a tv camera?

I KNOW!! My baby fell out of bed

last week, first thing my friend says is 'well you should start putting him in his crib'
But he doesn't SLEEP in his crib! I *have* tried it, he stays asleep about half an hour! And no, he WON'T go back to sleep on his own in there, I've listened to him up and playing and then he'll start to cry. And NO I don't do CIO. Besides that, I LIKE snuggling with my 8 month old baby, it will be soon enough when he WANTS his own space.
I think the LAST thing a baby needs is to CIO.......as Dr. Sears says, "what is 'IT" anyway?"

Also, for anyone who's ever read a basic college-level child development book, *every* theory begins with a baby having to learn to trust the adults in their lives to meet their needs before they are ready to start to learn some independence.

Anyway....yeah, my son has the swing and the jumper. He's a baby who likes some of his own space.....actually now that he can crawl and all that of course he'd rather be free, so those two things have been relegated to 'but Mommy's the only one home and I REALLY have to pee!' spots LOL. They have their place, their place is not to be the babysitter 24/7