Babies Born June 2006 #15

[Smoke Jaguar]

Like I've said before, if you're only exposure to AP is what you've seen recently on TV, then I'm afraid you don't have a great basis for opinion on it! Let me tell you now. EC kids use toilets sooner than nappied kids. Co-sleeping is a choice more parents make than will admit to (and it takes many forms, including kids coming to bed early in the morning!), of COURSE kids stop BFing! It's called infant-led weaning and there's a thread on it right here on BB, so it's not such a freaky thing. People have been APing for ages, right up to the present time...how many 15 year olds do you see still BFing just cos their parents didn't wean them at 2yo? How many 15 yo'd do you know of who still co-sleep? Co-sleeping kids DO show a preference for sleeping on their own, generally by the age of 4 and up until that time they are weaning themselves from the family bed...so none of this entering the rest of society business comes as a shock to these kids. They are generally well-adjusted kids who show a greater propensity for social independence and confidence when they interact with peers (pre-school etc) than other kids - I know this seems contradictory, but I've read the research (well, the tip of the iceberg of research) and the anecdotes and I know people who do all or some of these AP things. No, no-one's judging anyone who doesn't AP, so why should people be judged if they do? Especially when it's based on inaccuracy and half-truths? It's like having an opinion on the digestive system of birds when your specialty is fish and you've never picked up a text about birds, only ever seen them sitting on trees! Our societal fear of returning to 'savagery' is really misplaced when it comes to AP, it's bemusing...
Well, today I tried my shoulder sling for the first time in piggy back mode - and put the washing out with it...he had a great time! Now he's in koala mode, and fidgeting a bit - fighting sleep is my guess.
Got a few more loads of washing to do - perfect day for it and I haven't spent the morning in bed, for once!
My eBay terry nappies arrived, so I'll wash them and they'll be ready by the end of today. So, I've got half and half of coloured terries and white ones, with the flannel pile getting smaller as I use them up, wash them and put them away...my little boy is growing up Can I say again how much fun I am having with this cloth nappy caper? Disposables are great, especially at night, but they take the fun out of having a baby!
Howzat about the wrong baby being given to the mummies to BF in hospital over the weekend? To me the issue is that the mummies were separated in the first place for this to happen, but the actual BFing another child (to me) is no biggie, no great affront to my sensitivities - it's just indicative of why hospitals need to be genuinely 'baby-friendly' and discourage mummies and babies being separated whilst checked in. No way was I in danger of feeding the wrong baby cos Oscar was in my sight, in our bed or on my chest at all times! There's another one for the argument with my mum about letting the midwives take the baby away to give me a 'rest' - she thought I was mad that I wouldn't want a break from a new baby. Sheesh, it's not at the start that you need the break, it's later down the track. And I haven't arrived that far down the track yet, though I fully understand how some women DO need that break. I digress, my point is about the hospital mix up. They could have potentially taken the wrong babies home!

ETA: Sorry, Nic, if I've made you feel 'jumped on'...not my intention! I just see a falsehood being perpetuated about something I know about and I feel compelled to rectify it here. I'm not attacking you in the least, just illustrating how TV 'current affairs' scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to keep audiences so that the advertisers feel their dollar is going further. I just hate that people are afraid to admit that they do co-sleeping, babywearing, EC etc because they know that its misunderstood and that they'll have to justify it if found out. Me, I'm not afraid to say it to anyone who asks how Oscar is sleeping and how I'm coping with demand feeding (fine, thanks, cos we co-sleep!). I think this is why I prefer my ABA group to my mothers group - by virtue of where I live (Dandy Ranges - tree hugging hippy land!), there are lots of AP and Natural Parenters in my ABA group and we share information and experiences. It's nice to talk about what you do with your kids without feeling defensive or deviant! Again, nothing personal, Nic - it's just typical of commercial TV to distort the truth.
ETA again: and because I am so full of integrity and the need for truth, I'm off to check out Hollywood Rag online for celebrity gossip...