The soother situation...

This is Nevada here; too lazy to sign out and back in with my name!

I'm not sure what all the hype is about soothers. I've heard they are 'bad' but I am not really sure why, whereas I know some reasons why they are good. Number 1 is that they are reccomended to help prevent SIDS. I read that somewhere and it came printed on a special flyer in one of Gemma's new Christmas toys. The second reason why I like the soother is that Gemma will self-soothe. When she is almost asleep and fighting it I can usually pop in the paci and she sucks herself into dreamland. We can even put her in the crib with her eyes open now and she'll happily suck on the soother till she goes to sleep. So far she is not adicted to it; sometimes she wants it and other times she just goes to sleep on her own.

And on the whole sleep thing; we never did 'adopt' a method. When she cried I picked her up, when she fell asleep in my arms I'd put her in the crib. Now, just over 2 months old, I really think she understands that a) her crib is a safe place, b) her crib is where sleeping happens, and c) she can trust her mommy and daddy to be there for her if she needs it. I totally get how being attentive encourages confidence in kids, rather than the myth of 'not letting them be spoiled'. Now Gemma goes to sleep by herself most of the time. We still rock and cuddle her until she's dozy and then pop her in the crib. The eyes open and flutter, and then she drifts off to dreamland. Babies are soo great.