Maiya Hanging with Daddy, 2 months old
I am reading a great book about Attachment Parenting, a nurturing style that encourages parents to trust and follow their instincts for child-rearing based on the baby's needs that responds attentively to baby's cries, minimizes the parent-child separation, avoids "sleep training" (scheduled feedings), etc. We have found that it supports and validates a lot of the things we are doing to bond with Maiya such as breastfeeding on demand, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, no pacifiers, etc. They also encourage "wearing" your baby as much as possible in cloth carriers, and limiting use of plastic infant carrier buckets, strollers, swings and bouncers.
So, yesterday morning, Maiya was fussing and just inconsolable. So, I put her in the Baby Bjorn. No sooner had I strapped her in, she fell asleep. I "wore" her on my chest for 2 hours, going for a walk, working on the computer, folding laundry, while she slept happily snuggled close to me. In the evening, she was crying, actually I would say she was screaming. I told Tony about what I had done earlier in the day, and we decided to put her in the Maya Wrap Sling, or what we call the Ma(i)ya Wrap (haha). Tony put on the sling, we adjusted it for him, and put her in it (photo above), and went for a leisurely walk in the neighborhood. She stopped crying, fell asleep, and was calm the rest of the evening. It was a beautiful thing.
(Source: Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child by Katie Allison Granju)
2 comments:
That is so cute... Ma(i)ya wrap... how appropriate! I also loved the book you are reading. I found it when my baby was about the age yours is now and also found it validated what we were already doing by instinct and yet being told we were making so many mistakes for. "You'll spoil that baby." I'd be a rich woman if I had a dollar for every time I heard that! My baby also LIVED in the sling when she was Maiya's age. She was not happy unless snuggled against a nice warm body. The sling was a lifesaver because, as you have also discovered, it keeps baby happy and allows mama to get some things accomplished. I, like you, found if she was fussy and out of sorts, putting her in the sling and walking around almost guaranteed she calmed down. Keep up the beautiful parenting with that beautiful baby!
She is so beautiful.
One wonderful tip I learned was when the baby is inconsolable, try taking off her clothes, down to her diaper, and taking off your top and holding the baby. The skin to skin is very soothing for them.
I tried it a few times and it worked!! Thank goodness.
I believe in all the AP you can get. As a working mom, as soon as I reunited with my baby at the end of the day we were all over each other.
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