The Hardest Thing to Learn, Part 1

As we dive into parenthood, we learn new things each day about bringing up babies. On Monday, I learned the following lesson: it's ok to let a baby cry.

On Monday morning, I spent the entire morning and beginning of the afternoon in Katie's bedroom, trying to rock her to sleep. She kept crying, so I held her and nursed her every 2 hours. I spent 5 hours trying to get her to sleep. She would sleep only for 5 or 10 minute spells. During this time, I picked up On Becoming Babywise to see if I could read anything that would help her sleep (and give me some rest).

From Babywise, I learned that it's ok to let a baby cry. So that's what I'm doing. If she cries more than 5 minutes straight, I go to her and access the situation: I try to burp her and check her diaper. One of these is usually the root cause of the crying. Katie usually doesn't cry longer than 5 minutes. In fact, she was crying when I began writing this blog. Now she's stopped (after 4 minutes).

The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) supports the idea of letting a baby cry; they believe that newborns (on average) need to cry 1-4 hours each day to release extra energy. Once they release this energy, they can stay longer in a deeper sleep (babies this young should nap between 1.5 and 2 hours at a time).

I, of course, could be handling the situation incorrectly. But that's ok--everything is a learning experience.