They say it takes a village to raise a child and that may well be true and useful but when everyone in the village has a different opinion it can be bewildering and overwhelming. Thankfully these opinions have not been forced upon me but with so many options it is difficult to know what is best:
Breast feed or not
Top up with formula or not
Dummy or not
Own room or our room
In her cot or our bed
She is colicky or not
Give her gripe water, colic drops, fennel tea or not
Feed her on demand
Don't over feed her
Let her nap for long periods
Keep her awake
On most of these points I don't care I will follow instructions and there in lies the problem. There are no instructions and if you take one route there are hundreds of opinions and experts to tell you why they'd do it differently. You have to do what is best for your individual child and if someone would just tell me what that is I'll get on with it.
I have no advice as I have no children but the sheer volume of parenting advice scares me. I hope you find a path that works for you though.
ReplyDeleteI truly feel that if Arthur would take a dummy we would all be happier. Also I am a giant fan of long naps. In my experience sleep breeds more sleep. We co-sleep but I have mixed feelings about it. I'm convinced I get way more sleep than all the other mothers, But now A wont sleep by himself, which means when he is ready for bed, I better be too. None of this is advice, just sharing. x
ReplyDeleteDo what feels right for you at the time. You love 1KB. You and O are smart. You aren't going to damage her. And all of the advice is all well and good, but those people aren't the ones wearing sick and barely sleeping, and 1KB isn't their child.
ReplyDelete(This kind of is advice. It is given with love though. 10 years from now she won't remember the first three years of her life - do whatever gets you through them and try to have fun when it's possible).
Ha yeah everyone has so many different opinions but we just did what we thought was best and whatever got us all the most sleep! x
ReplyDelete