Poppa Large

A MOMENT OF REST

*Originally published at MetroDad

Nothing too heady today. L has both Sam and I exhausted. As predicted, at six weeks, L has found creative new ways of being fussy. We're rather nervous since we're about to take L on her first out-of-town trip this week, to visit family down in L.A. Usually, driving with L is a breeze because she tends to fall asleep when we're moving. Lately though, it's been like that movie Speed - if the car falls under a certain speed, L wakes up and her internal baby bomb goes off. Freeway driving will probably be better but stop and go traffic is a nightmare since we can't get her to sleep for more than a few blocks until we hit a red light or stopped traffic.

What's funny is that whenever we visit my in-laws, they remark how it's strange to them that we seem to hold L a lot. Back in their day, they were down with that ole "let them cry it out" approach, something I think my parents adopted too. This, of course, explains all my abandonment issues (at least my therapist seems to think so).

Friends of mine, who have a baby girl about half a year older than L, have recently gotten her to go to sleep by putting her on a schedule and just laying her down to bed the same time every night. If she cries a bit, they leave her be - whether for five or fifteen minutes - until she cries it out and then falls asleep. I respect their choices as parents but personally, right now, I have a hard time picturing Sam and I adopting the same approach. As much as we'd like for her to get onto a more regular schedule, I guess we have the blind hope that this will be something she'll just drift into (I'm a firm believer in the "blind hope" approach to parenthood. Until of course, such a time when it might blow up in my face.) In the meantime though, L cries, we pick her up, rock her a bit, sling her in the "koala hold", take her out for a walk. Exhaust ourselves. Repeat cycle. But the alternative? Listening to her wail for a quarter hour? Not. Feeling. That.

I'd be curious to hear how more seasoned parents handled all the fussy times during your kids' infancy?

Posted by P.L. at 9:46 AM