I know there's a better way - I'm sure of it...
After reading Dr. Sears' advice (see www.askdrsears.com) I felt much better - I have enjoyed and subscribed to his style of parenting in general; co-sleeping, baby-wearing etc. and I forgot to look to him yesterday when I was researching this whole issue. A voice of reasonin the midst of those advocating the 'cry it out method' that made us all miserable yesterday. He points out that nightwaking has survival benefits for young babies and that parenting is not just a daytime job - we need to parent at night too, and that can include feedings or cuddles if need be. Certainly as with everything in parenting, you must use reason and caution and moderation, but I have to agree that throwing a child to the wolves of loneliness and tears is potentially a recipe for a child that simply associates sleep time with bad times.
Nahanni woke me this morning at 7 am and had a good feed. I lay beside her afterwards and let her play with my hands while I closed my eyes (okay, I peeked) to show her it was still sleepy time. She played happily and quietly for about 20 minutes and began to drift off on her own, sucking contentedly on her fingers. I rubbed her beautiful round cheek a few times and she closed those gorgeous big eyes, already turning brown, laced with fine lashes - and she slept. NO screaming, no crying. Just my usual happy baby - and she woke up the same way.
Now obviously I know that she will have to learn to sleep on her own, but I think a gentler approach will be more successful for us all around. I'm not going to torture my little girl so that I can catch a few extra Zs. We will learn together how to help her gain independence, like we will learn all the things.
Stay tuned for future episodes to see how well we do...
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