Breaking the rules

Baby experts give you all sorts of rules for infant care, and Leigh and I were really going to follow them, honest. But then we actually had a baby, and the rules went out the window, mostly because the rules often impede our primary parenting goal: GETTING SLEEP. Here are just a few of the rules we've already broken in the first two weeks:

1. Always place your baby on his back to sleep.

Grant likes to sleep on his side. So do I. Who am I to deny him that small comfort? (For the paranoid parents: side sleeping doesn't cause SIDS)

2. Don't put anything in the crib other than the baby - no blankets or toys.

Grant likes being snuggled inside a warm blanket. Sometimes the blanket comes off in the crib. He doesn't seem to mind. If it helped him sleep, I'd throw a cactus in the crib.

3. When first breastfeeding, wake your baby to feed every 2 hours to ensure good milk production.

Wake a sleeping baby? Riiiiiight.

4. Don't give the baby a pacifier in the first few weeks. You need to make sure breastfeeding has been established.

We really tried to avoid the pacifier, but it soon became apparent that the alternative was having a 7-pound baby attached to my nipple for the better part of the day.

I'm sure as Grant grows, there will be other rules to break.