Thursday, February 3, 2011

What did we do wrong?

You are not a parent if you haven't asked yourself this question at least a hundred times... I asked it countless times regarding A's sleep. Many will tell you "holding them too much is bad", "rocking them gives them bad habits".. Was I guilty? did I create a bad sleeper?
When we took A home from the hospital... he was a healthy, inquisitive newborn. I say inquisitive because from the first moments, he would not stop observing everything (which I think ties into the sleep thing)...But from the start, we could not put A down for naps, he would just cry (and not just a whimper..). Now, I don't know about you, but I don't believe in letting infants cry. I think the shock of coming out of the womb is big enough without adding to it the idea that those grown-up people who are supposed to take care of you are letting you down already...
So, we held him, we rocked him, and did whatever we needed to get him to fall asleep and stay asleep.
After reading every book and advice there is, I came to this conclusion: I DID NOTHING WRONG. I simply responded to my baby's needs, like any good mother would.
The truth is, there are several types of babies, some are calm and enjoy sleeping a lot, some are more active and need to be with their parents more... and guess what? I got one from the second group. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't change much of what I did, because all I did was respond to a certain nature, and show my baby that no matter what, he could count on me. I hope this makes him a happy, self-confident person someday.
Do you ever think you did something wrong? Would you change how you did things in the beginning?

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