It's Babywise Friendly Blog Network week! All week, each of us will be sharing posts on the same topic and directing our readers to the different blogs in the network. Here's the schedule for the week:
Monday: Valerie from Chronicles of a Babywise Mom
Tuesday: Maureen from Childwise Chat
Wednesday: Claire from My Devising and Elaine from Faithfully Infertile
Thursday: Emily from Journey of Parenthood
Friday: Rachel from A Mother Far From Home
Maureen talks about the damage that a child-centered lifestyle can do to your marriage. She says, "Putting the child second is actually putting him first." I have to say that I completely agree. It's an encouraging post for those of us who are really working hard and maybe need a little push to keep at making our marriage a priority. It's not easy, but it's worth it for all involved.
Hey Claire! Congrats on Baby #2! Such AWESOME news. I've seen your Babywise posts before-- I devoured Babywise when I was pregnant with my first. The system worked really well with Will, and I dogeared that poor book to death any time there was a blip in his sleep schedule.
ReplyDeleteAnd then our second child was born. She did not take to Babywise, not one bit, and it took me a long time to give myself, and my children permission to "fail" at sleep training.
As our family has grown, what I learned is that sometimes the best thing I could do for my marriage is be the first one to get up with that sweet stubborn thing. Sometimes it was to let my hubby take the baby when I was losing it. Increasingly, the best thing was not to let our kids cry angry or needy cries. By the time Baby 4 came along, I had eschewed every tenet I once adhered to. And it has been a freedom to me.
I say this not to discourage or criticize your choice to promote Babywise, but to give you permission to let go of these principles should you need to. If you get the feeling, at some point in your mama journey, that Babywise has become more law than grace, it is okay. God is bigger than a little sleep-deprivation. :) I wanted to offer that to you because I wish someone had said this to me when I was earlier on in my journey.
Hugs and Congrats to you!!