Decisions, Decisions
I have decided...
(Tangent alert)
Have you ever noticed that people pause at the weirdest spots in a sentence? For example, "Do you think..." Why, yes I do think, quite often actually. You? And my personal favourite, "I have decided..." And they pause for some dramatic revelation. All I can think about is that old hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. So when someone says "I have decided..." I follow it with "to follow Jesus." So if you ever tell me something you have given a lot of thought and and finally come to a conclusion and I start giggling, I apologize.
...to start using the Ferber method of putting Abby to sleep. This just means that at night, I get Abby nice and comfy and ready for bed. Instead of nursing her to sleep and rocking her sleep, I get her tired and put her in her crib still awake. If she cries, I soothe her but let her fall asleep on her own. It's going to take some time so I think this a good opportunity to try it out. She's at the age when they say it's okay to start. We're leaving for a few days but when we get back, I'm going to start. Mark is on Spring Break so it's not like he's got to get up early for work. I was reading in my book about a woman whose baby was waking up every 2 hours to eat (just like mine) and the doctor told her that the baby was eating because it could. I think that's true of Abby. When she's in the bed with me, she eats all the time. One night she woke me up by chewing on my arm. I know people have strong opinions on the Ferber method but like my friend said once..."Just so you know, I seem to have developed a severe nut allergy so any comments from the peanut gallery would surely make me go into anaphylactic shock. Do you have an epi pen ready? And are you willing to stab it in my thigh and have the guilt of my allergic reaction hanging over your head?" If I find that it isn't working, then I'll do something different but I can't keep this up forever. I know you can't spoil a newborn but she's not a newborn anymore. She can sleep for more than twp hours and I'm going to start to do my part.
(Tangent alert)
Have you ever noticed that people pause at the weirdest spots in a sentence? For example, "Do you think..." Why, yes I do think, quite often actually. You? And my personal favourite, "I have decided..." And they pause for some dramatic revelation. All I can think about is that old hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. So when someone says "I have decided..." I follow it with "to follow Jesus." So if you ever tell me something you have given a lot of thought and and finally come to a conclusion and I start giggling, I apologize.
...to start using the Ferber method of putting Abby to sleep. This just means that at night, I get Abby nice and comfy and ready for bed. Instead of nursing her to sleep and rocking her sleep, I get her tired and put her in her crib still awake. If she cries, I soothe her but let her fall asleep on her own. It's going to take some time so I think this a good opportunity to try it out. She's at the age when they say it's okay to start. We're leaving for a few days but when we get back, I'm going to start. Mark is on Spring Break so it's not like he's got to get up early for work. I was reading in my book about a woman whose baby was waking up every 2 hours to eat (just like mine) and the doctor told her that the baby was eating because it could. I think that's true of Abby. When she's in the bed with me, she eats all the time. One night she woke me up by chewing on my arm. I know people have strong opinions on the Ferber method but like my friend said once..."Just so you know, I seem to have developed a severe nut allergy so any comments from the peanut gallery would surely make me go into anaphylactic shock. Do you have an epi pen ready? And are you willing to stab it in my thigh and have the guilt of my allergic reaction hanging over your head?" If I find that it isn't working, then I'll do something different but I can't keep this up forever. I know you can't spoil a newborn but she's not a newborn anymore. She can sleep for more than twp hours and I'm going to start to do my part.
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Besides, I let Aurora cry it out. I soothed her, yes, LOTS, I fought myself with holding her, feeding her, answering to the cry, but I wouldn't take her out of her crib and eventually she adapted. It's brutally hard and maybe that makes me cruel and mean, but none of that--none--negated the pure love I had for my baby. And that, my dear, is no one's business. Babies have to adapt. That's why we're the parents and they're the kids. Our job is to gently but firmly teach them how to get along in the world they are a part of. And these are the first pangs of motherhood...
And if I could figure this out as a dumb 19-year old mom, you SURELY are ahead of the game, my dear. I've seen you with Abby. You are by far a perfect-er mother than I was at this stage in the game. By the time Celia came 'round, I was a veteran, but you parent on a learning curve and it's all OTJ training, baby. Don't let them get to you.