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[AugustWest]

Sorry, that was snippier than I intended.  I have physical plane issues and was probably venting a little.

My point is just this, while letting your baby cry for a little while may seem cruel, it isn't necessarily so.  First and foremost is the child's safety.  We learned quickly how to distinguish cries.  Pain/wet/hungry/in danger sound subtly different from each other.  Come pick me up cause I don't want to go to sleep is also identifable (or was so for us).

[Va]

Well, August, I think my child will have emotional as well as physical needs, and I intend to minister to both.  If she's crying, she needs something, and I will never ignore it.  Since I intend to babywear and co-sleep, I don't think it will end up being much of an issue, since I'll pretty much always be holding her.

[AugustWest]

Best of luck to you.

[Limmo]

Best of luck to you.

Seconded.  You'll start getting some sleep roughly around 2007 or so.

[AugustWest]

I wasn't trying to be snide.  Parenting is a very personal and individual thing and everyone should proceed in the way they think best.  I wouldn't malign someone for making reasonable choices in this area or pretend that my method is the only valid one.

[Va]

Seconded.  You'll start getting some sleep roughly around 2007 or so.

See, now that sounds just ludicrous to me, Limmo.  What's more disturbing to my and my husband's sleep:

waking up to a screaming, angry, ravenous baby, rushing into another room, calming her down so she can eat, then finally getting to the nursing, and then getting her back to sleep in a crib, before I schlep back to my own bed, fully awake to hopefully get back to sleep for a little while before she needs to eat again

OR

waking up a few seconds before my baby starts rooting, sticking a breast in her mouth, and drifting back to sleep, my hubby all the time blissfully slumbering?

Frankly, I can't understand why any breastfeeding mother would want to go through all that crap.

[Limmo]

stuff about breastfeeding

Our experience was different, in that my wife was only able to breastfeed for the first three weeks of Audrey's life.  After that, it was bottles.  

At a certain point, it's time to stop eating in the middle of the night.  The Ferber method is a fairly quick and mostly painless way to make that happen.  It isn't easy at first, but the results speak for themselves. it's better than having an entire family of sleep-deprived people who are cranky and more susceptible to illness.  IMHO.

I didn't mean to fire up a debate about parenting methods on a fan website for cartoon stuffed animals. That's about as useful as, I don't know, attempting to change Republican minds by going to their convention and burning big paper dragons.

Just do what you're going to do, and I sincerely wish you and yours well in whatever choice you make.  Except if you name your kid Nice Pete.  Then I will have to put my foot down.  

Parenting is a very personal and individual thing and everyone should proceed in the way they think best. I wouldn't malign someone for making reasonable choices in this area or pretend that my method is the only valid one.

[Va]

Our experience was different, in that my wife was only able to breastfeed for the first three weeks of Audrey's life.  After that, it was bottles.

Audrey, beautiful name!  I anticipate I'll be breastfeeding for quite a while.

At a certain point, it's time to stop eating in the middle of the night.

Yes, and my daughter will show when that time comes.

The Ferber method is a fairly quick and mostly painless way to make that happen.

Painless for whom?  That's all I'm sayin'.  And I won't say another word.

[arkabee]

i had a cat once.  he showed up on the doorstep.
from personal anecdotal experience, then, i'd say don't have babies, just wait for a grown child to show up on your doorstep!
and make sure you have a litter box!

and, vote for jough!

and, to get back to the comic, at least beef didn't wake up being smothered by a pillow:
"mmmmmmmfffff!"
"you were breathing on me again."
"mmfffffffmmmmffffff!!"
"it's stinky breath."
"mmmmm"
"well, don't breath on me and i won't smother you."
[1]

[1] note: this is MY interpretation of the events.  i'm sure her interpretation was something like:
"it can't be healthy for him to breath on people while he sleeps.  why, if he keeps doing it, he could end up smothered to death with a pillow! it's for his own good!"[2]

[2] sometimes footnoting is ludicrous.

[Limmo]

Painless for whom?  That's all I'm sayin'.  And I won't say another word.

I should have boldfaced the word "mostly."  The first night is horrible for all three parties involved.  The second night is less horrible for all three parties.  The third night is horrible for a minute or two.  Every night after that is peachy damn keen, because all three parties are getting a good night's sleep.  

I anticipate I'll be breastfeeding for quite a while.

Don't anticipate anything.  Just take what you get and love every minute of it, because DAMN it goes fast.  Seems like yesterday she was this little thing that had to sleep between big hair curlers so she wouldn't roll over, now she's running around turning light switches on and off.

And now I won't say another word about this, either.

[AugustWest]

Just take what you get and love every minute of it, because DAMN it goes fast.  Seems like yesterday she was this little thing that had to sleep between big hair curlers so she wouldn't roll over, now she's running around turning light switches on and off.

My first baby starts high school in a year. HIGH SCHOOL!!!

[Limmo]

My first baby starts high school in a year. HIGH SCHOOL!!!

I don't even want to think about 'dree starting high school.  I'm buying a chain-link fence and a shotgun.

[jough]

Va, I just hope you don't have a boy.  Because if you molly-coddle him he will be a pansy, and the other, stronger kids will sense this and will beat him up, take his lunch money, ##### him, and otherwise humiliate him and make his life a living hell for about 14 years (assuming preschool).

Why put your child through a lifetime of emotional scarring that can be so easily prevented by not sissifying him at an early age?

AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE

[V-Adore]

Just take what you get and love every minute of it, because DAMN it goes fast.  Seems like yesterday she was this little thing that had to sleep between big hair curlers so she wouldn't roll over, now she's running around turning light switches on and off.

My first baby starts high school in a year. HIGH SCHOOL!!!

Wow. I now feel terrifyingly young.

Best of luck to everybody, whether Ferberizing is involved or not. (The only "kid starting high school" tip I have, August, is that you should make sure that she figures out where everything basic in the school is -- her classrooms, the restrooms, the library, the cafeteria -- before school actually starts. My high-school orientation did not involve a complete tour or telling us where the cafeteria was, which made the first few days horrible, if hilarious in retrospect.)

[AlohaDawg]

My daughter is 5; my son (I think) is T-minus 22 weeks. August and Limmo are articulating perfectly exactly how we took care of 'Becca and will with JJ. (if that winds up being his name).

What I've found is that everyone who tried to plan out every detail of how they are going to handle a competely foreign and unique situation is that eventually, you fall back to instinct and instinct is usually right.

We basically went with what seemed right, ignored the prattling of the old and especially that of our childless contemporaries and raised a really smart, sweet, and well adjusted child (with a high degree of independence and self-motivation) who just started kindergarten.

So what I'm saying to all y'all expecting your first child is, meet their needs and provide your child with a normal living environment with normal expectations for 'intervention'. They learn best experientially (and so do parents) and you'll be surprised at how good you are at this when you relax and let nature do it's thing.