There are a lot of books and articles out there that tell moms how much their kids should sleep at night, how long their naps should be, what they should eat and what they should be doing at certain ages. I've decided that I can't read much of these things because I will go crazy. My personality is such that I am overly structured and literal and therefore think that if it is written by a professional, then my kid should fit into the box. Kids are people. You can't predict exactly how long they will sleep or how much they will eat. I can't even predict how long I will sleep or how much I will eat and I've been doing both things for years.
So, from this day forward I am going to run more on instincts than on what the "professionals" say. All I know is that Sophia gets sad when she is tired or hungry and I should probably feed her and put her down for a nap when this happens.
Ranting is now over.
3 comments:
Good for you! We had some real "interesting" feedback with Corbin when we talked about breastfeeding, scheduled feedings and scheduled naps.
What I quickly realized is that just as every child is different (in some way) every parent is too.
So while following a schedule worked well for us (all of us) others do better with "on-demand" feedings/naps etc.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: a healthy and happy parent makes for a healthy and happy child. If you're getting stressed, then your child will feel the effects.
You're probably better off finding "like-minded" parents who can share their experience with you - because they've "been there" and they know you personally.
I totally agree with your ditching the books. Before Ariya was born I read until I said, "enough! my body was built to do this, I just need to relax." Then I went through a phase where I was reading everything about sleep (partly because I was desperate to get some!)... All of them swore that their way worked and all of them presented different ways of handling sleep! And none of them knew my little girl.
So you're telling me it's wrong that I read your blog and try to make Taryn do everything Sophia is doing? :)
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