I made a few mistakes with Tommy like all parents when he was a newborn. Let’s be honest actually, I made more than a few. Sharing 5 of the ones I openly can identify and try not to repeat with Connor. You can watch the video below or here on YouTube!
- Cave in to Nipple Confusion fear
With Tommy, I feared giving him a bottle or pacifier until it was too late. What was I afraid of? Nipple confusion. Someone planted a seed inside my head that if you give your kid a pacifier or bottle too early they won’t want the boob. As a result, Tommy never took a paci or bottle. EVER. It was torture on mom because whenever I traveled for work, I felt guilty that my child was starving because he wouldn’t drink any milk. I never went away for longer than a night until he was eating real food. With Connor, we gave him a paci early and it was a blessing. Around 4 months, he stopped using it by his own choice.
2nd time around, I swore Connor would take a bottle so we introduced one early. Guess what? He took it!!! Then I got cocky and stopped doing it regularly. At 6 months, he has stopped taking a bottle. Noooooo. I’m currently pumping after he goes down for a morning nap and trying to give him a bottle for his second feeding of the day. We tried Comotomo, and it has been a fail. He also hated my Dr Brown’s glass bottles. Today, we are trying with a new bottle from boon.
I hired a part time nanny to watch the boys two days a week and it’s amazing but I still feel like I need to be close to home to nurse Connor. I’m also afraid to make plans that have me not home at bedtime. So if we have a third, I will put this one down as a mistake I made with both of my children that I’m trying not to do again!
2. Fear of Sleep Training
I was also afraid of letting my baby cry. It sounded excruciating. My baby needs me. He must be crying for a reason. I’m going to ruin him if I let him cry. However, I was losing my mind. I waited too late with Tommy to sleep train and a result he was a terrible sleeper and still is to be honest.
With Connor, we did try sleep training at 14 weeks because I was nonfunctional. I was agitated. I was not a happy mom. Mothers who do sleep training are less likely to have postpartum depression and my mood was definitely correlating to the amount of sleep I got the night before. Our efforts to sleep train Connor worked great but then he got Croup and all progress was lost. We did it again once he recovered around Thanksgiving but all progress again was lost because we went away and stayed with family. This happened one more time, we technically used the sleep training efforts here but then Connor started teething and I couldn’t bear listening to the cries.
So yes, we shot this video over a month ago, and my baby is waking up every two hours in the night. I’m waiting until his 4th (!) tooth cuts and then we will try again because it is incredibly stressful going to bed at 9 each night because you’re afraid you’ll be up all throughout the night. I miss my 90 minutes of me time between 8:30-10 pm where I get to relax or work.
Watch the video for the remaining 3!
