jerseygirl07067
02-28-2004, 01:40 AM
I am actually somewhat frustrated. I was out to dinner a few nights ago with some close friends and some friends of friends. Most of them were moms, a few to two or three kids. . Anyway, I modestly commented (after being asked) of that DD had been starting to sleep 6-7 hours continuously at night, which I actually thought was pretty darn good, considering she is only 9 1/2 weeks old. I will also add that she is exclusively BF'd. Then I was asked where she was sleeping, and I said that she sleeps in the PNP but we are gradually transitioning her to her crib. All in all, I think we're doing pretty good.
Well all of the sudden everyone was taking turns about the way they did things with their baby and one mom even said that her baby was sleeping eight hours at night (in the crib) by the time she was three weeks old. This person tends to be a very opinionated person to start with so hearing this sort of grated my nerves. What made it worse was that everyone at the table said, "Oooh, you're so good. What a great mom you are, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah".
What I would like to know is - is this even possible or HEALTHY for a three week old? I was wondering if the truth was stretched a bit. Ironically, I DID read Babywise, among several other sleep books and it did not work for DD as she could never put herself to sleep on her own at first and needed a lot of help. I will say that I am following the flexible feeding routine recommended and that part of it has worked nicely for us as DD is gaining weight rapidly and thriving. But it bothered when people said, "Oh I rocked my daughter to sleep and maybe I shouldn't have, etc,etc." Others seemed to put down or express regret for giving their babies a little bit of extra coddling early on, after hearing this person carry on and brag. The bottom line is that their babies all wound up sleeping well, it just took a bit longer. And this opinionated person just sat there gloating over her success.
I tried to explain to the group IMHO that not all babies are the same, and different things work for different babies. Also, I drove myself crazy reading all of these different sleep books early on, just to have DD not be able to put herself to sleep on her own and throw off the whole thing. So I said, screw it, abandoned the books, and found that I totally enjoyed my baby more, after I gave up on trying to get her into a schedule so soon. Ironically, she is falling into a good one on her own now (eat, activity, sleep, with good naps and nighttime sleep). And I think that's pretty darn good!!
So why is it that people judge moms on how fast their baby starts to sleep through the night? It's almost like this person insinuated that we were not good parents if we didn't schedule our kids right off the bat. I realize that this works for some babies, but man, I surely enjoyed my DD once I took that pressure off!!
Ok, I know this sounds caddy. And I am not normally like this but just wanted to vent!! Anyone else have thoughts on this??
Mary
Well all of the sudden everyone was taking turns about the way they did things with their baby and one mom even said that her baby was sleeping eight hours at night (in the crib) by the time she was three weeks old. This person tends to be a very opinionated person to start with so hearing this sort of grated my nerves. What made it worse was that everyone at the table said, "Oooh, you're so good. What a great mom you are, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah".
What I would like to know is - is this even possible or HEALTHY for a three week old? I was wondering if the truth was stretched a bit. Ironically, I DID read Babywise, among several other sleep books and it did not work for DD as she could never put herself to sleep on her own at first and needed a lot of help. I will say that I am following the flexible feeding routine recommended and that part of it has worked nicely for us as DD is gaining weight rapidly and thriving. But it bothered when people said, "Oh I rocked my daughter to sleep and maybe I shouldn't have, etc,etc." Others seemed to put down or express regret for giving their babies a little bit of extra coddling early on, after hearing this person carry on and brag. The bottom line is that their babies all wound up sleeping well, it just took a bit longer. And this opinionated person just sat there gloating over her success.
I tried to explain to the group IMHO that not all babies are the same, and different things work for different babies. Also, I drove myself crazy reading all of these different sleep books early on, just to have DD not be able to put herself to sleep on her own and throw off the whole thing. So I said, screw it, abandoned the books, and found that I totally enjoyed my baby more, after I gave up on trying to get her into a schedule so soon. Ironically, she is falling into a good one on her own now (eat, activity, sleep, with good naps and nighttime sleep). And I think that's pretty darn good!!
So why is it that people judge moms on how fast their baby starts to sleep through the night? It's almost like this person insinuated that we were not good parents if we didn't schedule our kids right off the bat. I realize that this works for some babies, but man, I surely enjoyed my DD once I took that pressure off!!
Ok, I know this sounds caddy. And I am not normally like this but just wanted to vent!! Anyone else have thoughts on this??
Mary