Good news! Yesterday's weight check showed a 2 and half ounce gain! Woohoo! We must be doing something right! However, I wonder ... how long is this 2 hour nursing schedule going to be necessary? I'll do it as long as I have to, but it's insanely difficult! In fact, it's that time again right now, but she looks so serene that it kills me to have to go wake her. So, I think I'll continue writing a few minutes instead...
My favorite mommy moment today? Realizing I could take Jenaleigh with me into the bathroom (while she was in her carseat) and dry my hair! The sound of the dryer (as well as the vacuum cleaner, the vent above the stove, and the dryer running) is a "shushing" noise; which, according to Dr. Karp and The Happiest Baby on the Block replicates sounds baby heard in the womb. While I'm diggin' the 5 S's that Karp lays out in the book, I'm a little unsure as to how to apply them to get Jenaleigh to sleep without being held. Which brings me to another thought...
Yes, I used a midwife. Yes, I even had a doula. Yes, I had a natural unmedicated birth. Yes, I'm breastfeeding. No, we do NOT co-sleep. Sometimes I feel like an outsider with all the "natural moms" out there since we aren't sleeping with the little one in our bed. But, for us, we just can't do it. We're not comfortable doing it and therefore aren't candidates for it. Nor are we going to sleep with her in our recliner.
We have a bassinet in our bedroom, which we've abandoned for the crib in the nursery.
She sleeps a little better in the crib. But, one of us is always with her. I take the late night shift, until 4 a.m. and Daniel takes the early morning shift until 9 or 10. After every nursing session, I lay her down in the crib. Sometimes it "sticks" and sometimes it doesn't. If she does sleep, then I sleep in the recliner. (She's already had an hour of slumber in the crib so far tonight.) If she doesn't sleep, then I hold her (which usually induces sleep). I've already been told by a few people that we're spoiling her by holding her while she sleeps. Seriously? Spoiling a two week old baby? Humph. I don't buy that.
So, there are two extremes (for the most part) of sleep advice. Some say "co-sleep" and others say "cry it out". Where's the happy medium? Is there one?
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