Our Parenting Style

Just for randomness, I thought I'd document a little of what our day-to-day parenting style is at this time in Madison's little life.

We're admittedly a little "hippy" in our parenting approach. And we take to heart the findings that you can't spoil an infant.

I'm sure we'll be getting an ear full over time from people who feel much differently, but we're really comfortable with our decisions and trust our parental intuition.

Disclaimer: I really hope this doesn't come off as preachy. These are just the approaches that work for us.

- Exclusive Breastfeeding: She is on a breast milk only diet and I've decided not to pump for now. The pump is much less effective for me than when she actually nurses. I'm also very nervous about introducing a bottle and am wanting to avoid it if at all possible. Also, I'm EXTREMELY lucky to be able to take our daughter to the office with me and work from home when I start back at work.

- Sharing Sleep (also known as Bed Sharing, Family Bed, Co-Sleeping): In the very beginning nights that M was home from the hospital, she slept terribly in the bassinet right next to our bed. She woke constantly and cried often. On the 2nd or 3rd night, I pulled her into our bed, snuggled her next to me and she slept for 4 solid hours and I slept amazing! She hasn't left our bed since.

Now she sleeps so well that I actually feel GUILTY. It really shouldn't be this easy. She's on a pretty solid schedule of bath at 9:00PM if she needs it, feeding at 9:30, diaper change, then swaddle. Then around 10:15 I bring her into bed with me, turn on white noise (the ocean is our sound of choice), rock her for just a minute, put her down, sing to her, and then leave the room (whether she is asleep or not!). If she is awake when I leave, she happily falls asleep on her own shortly after. She sleeps solid until about 4:00AM, feeds, diaper change, and then back to bed where she falls asleep next to me until about 9:00AM!! Did I mention that not ONCE does she cry?? I'm subconsciously tuned into her at night and her random dream/grunt noises don't wake me, but her quiet hunger/awake noises do and out of bed we go. I can (and sometimes do) feed her laying down in bed, but I actually find it a little more of a pain than just going to the glider (until she has better head control at least.)

And yes, we've taken all of the safety precautions - mesh bed rail (she doesn't sleep between us), tight sheets, blankets only up to my hips, tiny firm pillow for me (my least favorite part of sleep sharing). We also have her fall asleep with a pacifier and keep a small fan going in the room to try to reduce the risk of SIDS.

- Babywearing - Baby Madison practically lives in my ring sling or Jason's Peanut Shell pouch. The concept of babywearing is to keep your baby happy and attached while getting on with your life. She LOVES to be worn so close to us and having her in a sling allows me to cook, clean, etc at the same time. This is also how we carry her when out of the house. She usually just sleeps the whole time. In fact, I used the stroller for the very first time on Friday to go for a power walk (she's 6 weeks.)

- Attachment Parenting - Involves all of the other practices I've mentioned so far (like Breast Feeding, Babywearing, Co-Sleeping, etc.) Also includes staying "tuned-in" to baby's needs and immediately responding to her cries.

- Delayed Vaccinations - We're using the Dr. Sears schedule of delayed vaccinations to reduce the number of vaccines she receives at one time. Her first set will come at her 2 month appointment on March 17th.

- Elimination Communication - We've just started looking into it, but may attempt to do EC occasionally to part-time at the start and then see how it goes.

- Cloth Diapering - Once Mads is a little older and stops having SO MANY soiled diapers, we'll probably move on to cloth instead of disposables. Admittedly, I'm a little intimidated by the up-front cost of cloth diapering and the extra laundry work.

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Not that these approaches have anything to do with it (although I'd like to think they help!), but Madison is an extremely easy-going low-fuss baby. I don't think she has cried for more than a few minutes straight her entire life. She's such an easy baby and is so much fun to spend time with. We keep waiting for it all to change! *Haha* And it still might, but for now we're enjoying our sleep and quiet.