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insegnante
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| Posted: Jan 15 2008 at 10:18pm | IP Logged
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Dr. Sears doesn't think older siblings should sleep with babies under nine months, nor that babies should sleep in between their parents. I realize some people may have heard that advice and discerned otherwise for their situation, just passing it on for consideration of anyone who hasn't because I know when I first read it it hadn't occurred to me. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t102200.asp
Although we're pretty APish, that's all I have to "contribute" to this thread because so far our spacing will be 29 months and 48 months between babies. And the only reason our 3-year-old still sleeps between me and the wall is that he still needs a lot of babyproofing and I haven't had the energy to finish moving him into a new room with his brother and setting it up so he'll be safe at night.
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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hopalenik
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| Posted: Jan 17 2008 at 12:47pm | IP Logged
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I think that everyone does it a little differently. When I started out getting interested with AP was with my twins who were 20 months younger than number1. I had worked with #1 and I was feeling guilty. However, we could not really implement much AP because one twin was quite ill with kidney failure for the first 15 months, he needed a feeding tube at night and the other twin came home so tiny (3 1/2 lbs...yes I did bring home a 3 1/2 lb baby) that there was no way she was going in our bed. By the time she made it to 8 lbs, she wouldn't nurse lying down. So we waited...for 3 1/2 years before the number 4 came along. Number 4 was attached and in bed with no paci. I was very proud but she wiggled so much that I had to kick her out of bed before one year. I couldn't stand sleeping with the kicking and flung out arms and neither could dh. Getting her to sleep through the night took the next 8 months but she learned just in time for number 5. I nursed her before I left for my Csection and expected that I would be tandem nursing but #4 never asked again...Thank God! Number 5 was removed from bed when I got pregnant at 15 months. She still is not sleeping through the night but at least it is only once that she gets up now. I had wanted to keep nursing her till 2 like everyone else but I am too tired and am in the process of weaning. If you had told me back at the twins that I would be actively weaning an 18 month old I would have been really mad but now I see that I am too tired to get up and homeschool or make breakfast for that matter so I need to let it go. But I would consider myself an attachment parent, although I don't tandem nurse or cosleep past oneish. I think it depends on your own endurance and how God made you. I admire families that are more attached than me, but I also realize that each family has to "become who we are."
Holly
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Holly
Mom to dd 10, twins dd and ds (transplant as baby that failed 05/09, permanent dialysis patient) 8 , dd 5 and dd 3 1/2 and dd in Feb 2009. 2 I hope to meet in heaven.
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Jenny
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| Posted: Jan 17 2008 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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I didn't know what Ap was until a few years ago, and then I realized what I had done, had a name.
We brought our first baby home from the hospital, I nursed her to sleep, layed her in a borrowed bassinett and she cried. I picked her up and put her in bed with us, that was that. I remember when I was pregnant, I told my mother in law, I read the books about breastfeeding being so good for the baby, and I thought maybe I would bf for 6 months. It just seemed so intimate and foreign to me. I never knew anyone who nursed, except my mother in law. Well, that baby weaned when her baby sister was 4 months old; she was 2  Those are the only 2 I tandem nursed. The rest I initiated weaning about 4 months before the next baby came. Our children are spaced 20 months, 20 months, 27 months, 20 months, and soon to be 32 months. I wear my babies in a sling, although I am really interested in all this back-wearing talk. They sleep with us, until the next baby comes, then they move to a twin pushed up to our king, then they move to a room with their siblings around the age of 4.
I think we, moms who Ap in all its various shapes and forms, just do, whether out of necessity, conviction, natural instinct or self sacrifice for the baby/family. For me, I did not say, "I want my baby to sleep with me b/c I think our attachment/bonding will benifit." I thought, that sweet babe has been with me for 9 months, of course she doesn't want to be in a crib by herself. And, what is the sleeping situation where the most number of people in this house can get the most amount of sleep. Conviction is why I started breastfeeding, I thought it was the best for the baby, natural instinct and necessity is why I continued. Some nights, self sacrifice is why there are 2 toddlers in our bed because it sure isn't for the comfort factor of mom and dad
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Jenny
Chris' wife and momma of 7. My blog: The Littlest Way--Bible Journaling, Inspiring Bible Quotes, Daily Affirmations, Prayer Journaling & photography
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: AP with closely Spaced Children
