Touchpoints: Birth to 3 : Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development by T. Berry Brazelton
A good resource for understanding infant and baby behavior and milestones. It’s a bit mainstream for my taste, in that Brazelton never wants you to forget that he is a pediatrician and he knows your baby best. I much prefer the Sears Baby Book, with its emphasis on developing a cue-based bond with your baby. For that reason, I took some issue with his recommendation to put a baby on a schedule by 3 months–not that he advocates ignoring feeding cues, but that he holds it up as possible goal. Superfast Baby is 3 months old and she’s still nursing all the time during the day. I guess if I minded nursing, I’d be more concerned, but I enjoy spending that time with her and she will only be this little once.
The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
Of course, I do want Superfast Baby to learn to sleep–I am human after all! Since I don’t plan to intentionally nightwean until at least a year, and enjoy nursing her to sleep, the cry-it-out methods are not really right for me. I don’t need to get her on a sleep schedule, time-wise, but now that she’s a little bigger I want to start learning how to shape her sleep. She sleeps well at night, but is still a disorganized napper. I also have the Baby Sleep Book from the Sears Parenting Library.
Note–I know sleep issues are very controversial among parents. I have close friends who are schedule-based and who have used more mainstream methods and they are good parents with wonderful children. We’re all just doing the best we can as parents, and though I am going a different route I support them and their decisions. So–please keep all comments in that spirit and keep this blog a lovely place.
The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers Revised and Updated: The Most Comprehensive Problem-Solving Guide to Breastfeeding from the Foremost Expert in North America by Dr. Jack Newman, MD
My experience with breastfeeding has been a really positive one, and I am looking into becoming either a post-partum doula or a La Leche League leader so that I can help women get off to a good start and solve problems down the road. I really, really loved this book and would consider it a must read for any parents-to-be.
All sound like good references. I read Brazelton when my first was little, and I agree, it’s a bit mainstream. We found ourselves more in line with Sears, too. I read Pantley’s No-Cry Sleep Solution this time around (baby #3), and it didn’t help us much. With the first two babies we were more hard-line with the sleeping, and it worked. This time we aren’t, and it works in a different way–we’ve never let her “cry it out”, but she’s not as good a sleeper as the first two. There’s always a trade-off! Anyway, hope you keep enjoying the nursing, and that Superfast baby becomes a champion sleeper someday!
thanks for the encouragement!
Superfast New Mother,
You’re doing a terrific job, and you have a sensible attitude. Superfast Baby is lucky to have you.
aw, shucks—