Your First Baby is the Experiment One

Good morning! I’m just going to take a few bullet points and talk about some “controversial” parenting tactics that are constantly being debated.

Number 1: Pacifiers. Are they a do or don’t? When we had Baby at the hospital they had a strict no pacifiers rule because I guess a baby at some point (and this is TRAGIC) had one in and asphyxiated. So those are not given to you if you birth at a hospital. However as soon as we came home, we stuck a pacifier in the little one’s mouth and she loved it, and we loved less crying honestly. My school of thought was that I didn’t mind pacifiers because it’s easier to take away a pacifier than a thumb (also, she never “found” her thumb anyway as a means of self soothing). My experience with thumbs is limited to the fact that my little sister sucked her thumb, and my parents had a heck of a time getting her to stop, and didn’t really succeed until she was four. Now I face the daunting task of transitioning my little girl out of having one for sleep. I think with our next kid I’m going to try not giving one and see how he or she does.

Number 2: When to Start Giving Solid Foods VS Exclusively Breastfeeding/Formula Until One Year (or longer)
I will say that a traditional pediatrician seems to push solid foods fairly soon. I’ve read all sorts of things regarding when babies are ready for some rice cereal or baby oatmeal- how many teeth they have is a sign that their digestive system is ready for more, when they start watching you eat/opening their mouth when you take a bite o food. I also recently learned that the push to start solid foods between 4-6 months is so that their risk of allergies to food in the future go down. (I’m aware that there are exceptions to every case of course and that genetics also play a role. And I will say if you suspect your child has an allergy go get a proper diagnosis from a doctor). Personally, Baby had her two bottom teeth by four months and was showing all other signs of being interested in food, so we started giving her baby cereal with every feeding and she loved it. At 9 months, she basically eats anything we eat- from scrambled eggs to chicken “soup” (just the chicken/onions/carrots) and of course, I’m still giving her a bottle before I feed her food. Now this is just what I chose to do with my kid, and I had no personal problem with it, but obviously other moms choose to breastfeed exclusively and that is awesome!

Number 3: Co-sleeping VS Independent Sleeping
Before she was born, my husband and I decided that we would not do long term co-sleeping. And I read a really great book that outlined how to get baby to sleep through the night by herself, without having to do some sort of ritual to get her to go to sleep- such as rocking/nursing/driving them to sleep. We are at the point where even if I wanted her to go to sleep with me, she won’t! Again, I’d read different pros and cons about co sleeping. We had her with us while she was still eating at night but by about 4 months she was sleeping in a bassinet that we kept by our bed at night. At nine months we have her in her crib in her room just down the hall from us. She goes to bed at 8 (currently waking up again at midnight because her teeth hurt, so we give her baby Tylenol and she goes back to sleep) and wakes up around 7:30-8:00. Some mamas say that they don’t need their babies to be so independent right away- and they don’t, but it was just our decision to keep our marriage bed to ourselves. It also is a huge stress reliefe that I’m not stuck putting her down for a nap or bedtime for more than 10 minutes, I swaddle, pacifier, kiss and hug and put her down and she just goes to sleep!

Number 4: Swaddling VS Not and Back Sleeping VS Tummy Sleeping

This one is a combo set I guess. I wouldn’t consider these subjects heatedly debated among mothers, but I’d just like to share my experience with these in general. I think every mom hears or reads that babies like being swaddled because it reminds them of being safe and cozy in the womb. They make awesome “auto” swaddlers that make it really easy for new parents to get the hang of tucking the babe into a blanket. Well, the trouble that I’ve run into is that now Baby has a hard time going to sleep when she isn’t swaddled, and sometimes she’ll just stand up and cry for eternity in her crib because she now can hoist herself up. In addition to that babies figure out how to bust out of the swaddle and the risk is then that they’ll end up covering their nose and mouth with the loose blanket and that’s not good. In order to avoid her busting out, loosing her pacifier or standing up, I’ve started leaving one arm out, flip flopping which arm so that she isn’t mainly dominate with one arm. So far the transition has been good, and since she has an arm out, she can put her pacifier back in by herself and roll over onto her tummy- which is now her favorite way to sleep. Speaking of tummy sleeping, “back is best” is the current mindset being proclaimed among the professionals these days. According to my lactation consultant from a few months ago, 15 years ago, tummy was best… and now it’s the opposite but I’ve read that when babies can roll over and that they start doing that to go to sleep, leave them. How exhausting would it be to continually be going in, waking up yourself and them to roll them back over onto their back? Just make sure that when they start doing that to go to sleep, there are no extra blankets or pillows for them to roll onto or get snuggled in too close.

Some questions for my readers:
What do you moms do to get your littles to go to sleep?
What has been your experience with solid foods or no? Any allergies?
What is your opinion about co-sleeping?

Thanks for reading!