Our Infant Parenting Style

Back before Myelle was even born I knew we would be more cautious with her than we were with Kyler. I mostly just thought that because of the time of year and the abundance of illness that was going around at the time. Sure enough, she didn't leave the house much in her first few months. I was also a little more cautious when starting her on solid foods because her digestive system didn't seem to be all that great. But lately I have realized that Myelle is not as sheltered as I once thought.

To start out, Myelle didn't sleep one night in our room, and never in our bed either. In fact, we had her taken to the nursery at night while we were in the hospital. During the hospital stay, she was a little difficult to get to sleep. Since we had been through all this before we realized that it was better for us to get our rest while we were there. We also learned what a noisy baby she was. She was always grunting and wet burping and making other strange noises. We hadn't set up any type of crib, bassinet, or pack n play in our room so she was put to sleep in her own crib in her own room starting the first night we got home. I have no regrets about this. I really like my sleep and it gets interrupted enough as it is. There is no way I would want my kids in bed kicking and rolling and making strange noises next to me. Plus, I have heard from a million people that it is very difficult to get kids to stop co-sleeping. It's definitely not for me.

The other thing is that we started solid foods fairly early. Kyler got started at 3 months which was even earlier but since Myelle seemed to have some digestive issues we held off for a little longer with her. Now at almost 5 months, she usually has a couple ounces of baby food at lunch and at dinner. We also give her saltine and Ritz crackers, baby biscuits, and little bites of our soft foods. And to top things off we let her chew on "clean" chicken and rib bones. (Yes, it is a little caveman-ish and looks hilarious but she likes it.) The main reason we started her on all this was because she would get irate if we were all eating and she wasn't. Beyond that, she was wanting to nurse every hour and a half which is ridiculous (in my opinion) for a 4 month old baby. She is digesting everything very well and is happier than she has ever been so I don't have any regrets about this either. I will continue to nurse until Myelle can drink whole milk. For Kyler, I think this was around 9 or 10 months but we will have to see if she handles it as well as he did. That is also the time frame when we got rid of the bottle for Ky. Since Myelle refuses to take a bottle (which is something I do sort of regret), this should be a pretty natural transition time. I would like to take the pacifier away no later than 12 months but definitely before she starts talking (Ky was 11 months).

All this to say, I think every child is different and every parent is too. I don't think there is a "right" way or a "wrong" way to do these types of things. This is the way it works in our house and both of our kids are happy and healthy. I have been around babies and kids a lot more than most parents so I am possibly more comfortable with not strictly following the so-called rules. That, and I tend to be old-school when it comes to parenting. To each his own.