Andrea’s Weblog

This picture is dedicated to the people who say NOT to nurse your baby to sleep.These people believe that the baby will never learn to fall asleep on her own if they’re always nursed to sleep. Elizabeth, who usually nurses to sleep, fell asleep in her carseat in the middle of the driveway while I laundered the carseat cover and cleaned out the car from our trip. She just sat down, shut her eyes and was soon snoring away.
I’ve always found this philosophy amusing. Afterall, breast milk contains sleep-inducing proteins. Combine this with a full tummy, and it’s natures way to get a baby to sleep–not to mention about the easiest method on mom.

Humans have been nursing babies to sleep FOREVER! Do you think pioneer women said to their husbands “I’m not going to be able to get up pre-dawn with you tomorrow to thresh wheat. I don’t want Johnny to nurse to sleep, so I’m going to be up walking him around the cabin half the night. I hope his crying won’t keep you awake.” Of course not. She just spent a few minutes nursing the Johnny back to sleep in bed with her and the increase of oxytocin in her blood (caused by milk let-down) made her relax and forget all about the wheat waiting for her in the morning.

Did you ever see a crib on Little House on the Prairie? After they outgrew that little wooden cradle, they slept with their parents or siblings. I’m pretty sure that if a boob is within 5 feet, the baby knows and will gladly use it to nurse back to sleep.

So, babies have been nursing to sleep forever and the human race has done just fine. We are not plagued by sleep-deprived zombies. Babies DO learn to fall asleep without a breast.
I guess the point of this little rant is that the “experts” aren’t always right. There are a ton of “experts” out there telling parents that they need to train their babies to sleep on a certain schedule, eat on a certain schedule, and a certain amount. The baby needs to sleep through the night by a certain age or the parents need to take control of the situation. Parents listen to these “experts” and let their babies cry themselves to sleep or spend countless nights awake and trying to follow “expert” advice.

Fortunately, I read early on that the more energy a baby spends crying, the less he has to put toward learning and developing, so we were able to nix a lot of advice based on the fact that it involved crying. (Crying is how babies communicate a need, and if you don’t respond, they don’t learn to trust you to fill their needs or feel trying to communicate is hopeless so they stop trying/crying.)
Parents have to do what works for them and their situation. If something doesn’t feel right or goes against your instincts. Don’t do it! The only expert on your baby is you.

We’ve gone against a lot of expert advice and chosen the attachment parenting philosophy. Elizabeth has never slept through night and sleeps with us, but I have no doubt those things will change when she’s ready. Until then, I have no reason to force her to change who she is based on some “expert’s” advice.