@kittymeow1919 Now I am not a mom but I’ve been working with infants for over a year now and go to nursing school so I’ll give some advice just in case. Laying a baby down after feeding without letting them sit up for a period of time can cause ear infections. A baby with an ear infection is not a joy to deal with. Basically, in simple anatomy terms, your ear has a tube that connects to the inside of your throat. Its damp and dark in that tube which causes a perfect place for bacteria to grow. When you lay a baby down without letting that milk drain out of the tube, cause some will go down it, it causes bacteria to grow which causes pressure against the ear drum that the baby can’t get rid of. Doctor appointments and antibiotics are expensive of course and its preventable! So just hold the little one up for at least 5 minutes and do whatever way works for you. Just also know this can be hard if you ever put your baby into a preschool or nursery... those caregivers can’t rock 8+ infants to sleep every time so if you do plan to do so self soothing is best to teach young.
@kittymeow1919 Do what works but I taught independent sleep at 4 weeks old and my son started sleeping through the night by 6 months so that's what personally worked for me. I didn't want to sleep like shit for 3 years and my kid was overtired from not being able to sleep at night.
Drowsy but awake means they are falling asleep but not there yet.
Maybe this isn't the place for me since it seems very anti sleep training...
@kittymeow1919 I think a lot of that advice is for people whose babies are struggling with sleep- or the parents are struggling with the baby's sleep, and they don't know how to fix it. If nursing or cuddling or rocking to sleep works for you then you can just ignore it all. Every once in a while when my son starts to sleep poorly and wake up at night again, we sleep train him and it helps consolidate his sleep. Most of the time we cuddle him to sleep and we love it that way. He'll only want to do it for so long.
@kittymeow1919 Drowsy but awake means exactly that. Heavy lids, on the verge of sleep, but not yet completely asleep. This was actually huge for us because it taught our little one (8 months old) how to soothe herself to sleep if she wakes up during the night. I'm American though so that might be a bit too mainstream.
There's definitely an overabundance of "do this, don't do that" tips. Every baby is different, sometimes you just have to follow their lead!
@kittymeow1919 Do what works for you! I ended up doing the recommended but it actually came naturally for us with a sleep/eat/wake/nap schedule. I do put her down for a nap awake and it works for us 99% of the time. I noticed early that having to transition her out of my arms once asleep just wasn’t working. BUT my baby takes a binky like a champ to fall asleep. If she didn’t like a binky I bet I’d be nursing her to sleep and I wouldn’t give a damn what google says.
@kittymeow1919 All kids are different, and different at each age. Things like rocking and nursing to sleep worked for my LO when he was a tiny bean. When he got to 6,7 months old, they simply didn’t work anymore. He had to fall asleep independently or he’d be freaking out, wondering why I was abandoning him in the crib. Cuddling rarely works. But it might in a few years. Just different! I’m grateful for the sleep consultant we’ve worked with, who helped us figure out what works for all of us.
@kittymeow1919 My last pediatrician told me all those things. “Your baby needs to learn to self soothe”. So we tried that, no luck.
My child is now 2 but I have a new baby. We got a new pediatrician and I brought up how we are trying to teach her to self soothe and he told us “absolutely not. She is a baby. Whatever works for you works for her. If she wants to nurse herself to sleep then let her.”. Needless to say things are going much smoother with baby number 2. Do what works for you!
