Infant and Baby Needs

Maybe, as you’re awaiting the birth of your baby, you’ve heard of attachment parenting and are wondering if it is for you. You’ve heard it could be beneficial to your baby and help just in case your child is high needs.

A term from Dr. Sears, attachment parenting is a parenting style that is empathetic with baby. There are seven steps of Attachment Parenting

1. Bonding at and after birth
2. Breastfeeding
3. Babywearing
4. Bedding close to or with baby
5. Baby’s Cries. Listening to them and understanding the different ones.
6. Be-ware of Baby Trainers
7. Balance

You can read more about these steps at the Dr. Sears website , and in the book The Attachment Parenting Book : A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby

The nice thing about attachment parenting is that there are no hard and fast rules. Not every thing will work for every situation. As foster to adopt parents breastfeeding  and bonding after birth were out for us. Our sweet peanut had not had a parental figure in her life for the first two months she was in the neonatal intensive care unit. Worried about how she would bond with us I purchased Dr. Sear’s other book The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition) picked out few things we could do to bond closer with our daughter.

I purchased a sling and wore her as much as I could.  I did not do it exclusively and used a stroller when out walking (I still didn’t trust that the thing would tilt and I would drop her). But I did wear her at home and to church and other functions.

We didn’t and could not co-sleep with our baby but we kept the baby monitor going and have never shut her door for bedtime or naps. Another thing we have found for sleep is soothing music. As six this is still important to her. She picks her own songs now and has a series of Christian hymns she prefers.

I tried my best to learn her cries and as she got older I laughed to realize that one of her cries was a yell for me to come get her and hold her. It’s a known fact that baby’s that survive the NICU come out fighters. She’s a little fighter and was fighting to have Mommy come hold her.

We also had to balance her needs with our and with what our licensors wanted.

As she gets older (she’s now six) I see that our method of attachment parenting worked and is working for us.  The love of the family is great. She is a happy and secure member of our family who knows she is loved and cherished. Our sweet peanut finds joy in her family whether a new baby, her teen cousins, or her aging grandparents.