With Emily we read this book called “Babywise”. It was recommended by a good friend who had followed the principles in it with three of her kids before I’d had Emily. Its definitely a controversial book and for the most part I have to keep my mouth shut about it and the methods it uses for sleep training. I go to drop in parenting groups in town and they are big proponents of attachment parenting. For the most part they are fans of things like co-sleeping, wearing your baby, and breastfeeding until Jr. High. They are really serious about not letting your baby cry ever.

I guess I just see it differently. Firstly, I’m not a co-sleeper because both my girls are noisy sleepers and I like to sleep. Plus I already have to share my bed with Morgan, and I’d rather not add to that even though we have a king size. I don’t mind wearing Aves in a sling or snugly, but it really doesn’t have to be all the time. I’m even on the side of breastfeeding. It didn’t work with Em, so I pumped for six months so she could have the benefit of breast milk. And with Avery, I plan on breastfeeding for at least a year. Technically, I’m on the same team as the attachment parents, I just do things differently. If you take ten minutes to hand out with Emily who didn’t sleep in or bed, got carried around sometimes, bottle fed with formula supplemented and cried herself to sleep for a short period of time, you will find a girl who is very attached to her parents. She’s also very independent, social, care-free, and well adjusted. She hasn’t suffered at all.

I felt I should explain myself so I don’t come across as harsh, unloving, and stone hearted towards my tiny little preemie baby. I love her dearly, and want her to get good sleep too. One lady at the drop-in parenting meeting actually told me that if my baby slept “through the night she might get SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)”. WHAT? She said that as if my baby could contract a cold. Get SIDS? I do all the things that are recommended to avoid that. Maybe I’m not as worried about that because I believe that God is in control of my life and my kids lives. Either way, it’s a bit harsh to say “your parenting choice could kill your kid”. Special moment much?

Morgan is listening to Jars of Clay “Crazy times” downstairs. I used to love that song! It was one of the most complicated songs I could play on my guitar when I was first learning. Wow that’s a long time ago. Anyways…I get sidetracked easily.

My newest news is that I’m changing things up Blog style. I’ve been looking at a few different sites to blog on, and what the capabilities are. I’m bored with this wordpress site, so I had planned on switching to squarespace, but I haven’t found it to be THAT much better. It helps that I have free hosting, so I can host my own WordPress and choose my own template. I’ve found one that I like, but I haven’t decided to fork over the moolah yet. We’ll see. It’s silly because I want a blog that isn’t so word heavy. I like pictures to much for the way my blog looks right now. There’s also some collaborative events in the upcoming blog future. I can’t wait to tell you, but I’m going to have to wait until the transition with my blog is complete. Soon…very soon!