I've been attachment parenting my daughter since we were in the hospital. She's only two weeks old now. I love attachment parenting her but I'm having an issue. It seems like every time I put her down she'll cry (more like scream) until I pick her up. It's nearly impossible to find time to shower, cook dinner, and anything else I want to do... i.e. use the computer. Even if she's sleeping she'll wake up because she knows I'm not right next to her. I only get breaks when her fathers here to hold her. He works so many hours that he's hardly ever here. I'm afraid that when I go back to work in six weeks it's going to be near impossible to leave her with daycare. Has anyone had this problem? Any suggestions?

Hey there, one thing that I found that worked was to warm the baby's bed with a hot water bottle before you put them down in it. When they are fast asleep in your arms and you put them in a cold bed this wakes them up. You just let it heat up for 5 or so min and then take it out and put them in. Sometimes I would even wrap the bottle in a towel and leave it in the crib, maybe not with boiling hot water, but you get the idea. Just use warm water if you are leaving it in. Good Luck!! Jayme

Hi Monica,

how old is your daughter ?
if you have to go work again in six weeks, you'll have to get her 'weaned' from the attachement parenting, or it will be even worse. I would advise you to now start to slowly get her used to being held less and becoming more independent (= playing alone a little and falling asleep alone). So, even though that is the hardest thing, make sure she's fed, and dry and let her cry herself into sleep. What I did, is the 5 minute method. Put her to sleep, and then go away, and look on your watch. You cannot go to her before those 5 minutes are over. Seemed like eternity to me, but funny enough, very often that is long enough and they're asleep.
I feel really a bit out of place giving others advice on this, as my son only recently started to sleep well, and we had 3 really hard months of work on that...Still, I wish you a lot of strength and good luck.
Daniela

Hello Monica,

is it getting better with ypur baby ?
Are you ready to go back to work ?

quote:

Originally posted by ArmyMom2B:
[qb] I've been attachment parenting my daughter since we were in the hospital. She's only two weeks old now. I love attachment parenting her but I'm having an issue. It seems like every time I put her down she'll cry (more like scream) until I pick her up. It's nearly impossible to find time to shower, cook dinner, and anything else I want to do... i.e. use the computer. Even if she's sleeping she'll wake up because she knows I'm not right next to her. I only get breaks when her fathers here to hold her. He works so many hours that he's hardly ever here. I'm afraid that when I go back to work in six weeks it's going to be near impossible to leave her with daycare. Has anyone had this problem? Any suggestions? [/qb]

Just as a suggestion from one AP parent to another, its really hard to have a routine established at 2 weeks old. I had some of the issues you talk about, especially being concerned when went back to work (I was a paramedic). I gave myself the permission to pick and choose what worked from AP and fly solo on the others. I couldn't solely breastfeed, so my son had the bottle too. Whenever there was an opportunity to wear him, my partner at the time would do that. And when he first started daycare, he didn't last there long, but that was because the owner really didn't do much with the kids. I'd call and hear my son crying in the background. It tore me up. Be easy on yourself. You're still in post-partum and lots will change for you. Just prioritize the things that are truly special for you and your baby, and then look at what other things you might do or what just won't work. I wish you the best. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more.

Get the baby used to other people ..that way she can hook onto someone else during the day,lol.
I was constantly handing my littlest one around and it helped her gain trust for the rest of the world (and she didn't get sick from all the people..she was never sick until going to into the germ filled land of daycare).
The transfer to childcare went fairly smoothly. They only had to call me down 2 times in the first 3 weeks..lol..that's pretty smoothly. Every once in a great while she would refuse to take a bottle from anyone but mama and they'd call me...thankfully I was only a block away. After the first month there was never a problem.

Good Luck

Thanks for all the advice. My daughter is 9 months now. She still wants to be held all the time but she's starting to give me time to get things done. She'll play in her playpen until she sees me then she puts on the water works and if I don't pick her up right then she'll scream until I do... even if it's an hour or more. On the bright side she loves her babysitter, so dropping her off didn't become a big task.

It gets better when they learn how to move by themselves, well, better but also more stressfull, because then you have to have your eyes EVERYWHERE. But at least you don't have to carry her around all the time any more.
Are you working now ??