Things you discover as new parents, Part 2

- Many books tell me that infants love to follow a routine. Well, my child has obviously never read those books because his schedule still changes every day! Now granted, that may be because his parents are useless at maintaining a schedule and shiver at the word "routine", but we're all working on it.

- Bringing your baby to see anyone, doctor, lactation specialist, etc., is like bringing a car that makes a noise every time you start it except of course when there is a mechanic present to the garage... Makes you look like a liar.

- The best way to wake up a sleeping baby is to put him in his bed. Instant wake up call. Gabriel however finds all big and noisy crowds to be just as efficient as a sleeping pill.

- We have recently entered the "cholics" era, and can therefore spend hours trying to comfort our baby with a lot of different techniques and danses, going from the cha-cha (and joropo) to the waltz. Music helps a lot (at least to give us a little bit of rhythm), going from Zachary Richard to Leonard Cohen and Buena vista social club. He usually loves to be comforted and to be held, resting his belly on your arm. But other times, after trying everything unsuccessfully, you put him in his crib for 10 seconds to relax your arms, and he stops crying immediately, fascinated by the sight of the blank wall... which makes the parents feel quite inadequate and plain useless.

- Although I know it is asked with all the best intentions, I don't like the question "Is he a good baby?". What kind of mother would I be if I said NO?!? Like anyone, he has good and bad moments, but overall he's perfect, no need to exchange him, we'll keep him thank you!

- There are 2 schools of thoughts on letting a baby cry and on putting him to sleep. The oldest one says that, to put a child to sleep, you have to let him cry a little, and that when he is going through a crisis, you have to let him cry it out. That way he learns that crying is useless and that nothing bad happened, and he'll eventually put himself to sleep and be more independent. The other philosophy who is usually preached by other new mothers who are reading the same baby behavior books as me says that "you can't spoil a newborn child", and that up until at least 6 months of age, you should respond to your baby's needs, even if what he wants only is comfort and help falling asleep. A baby who learns that his needs will be fulfilled when he expresses them becomes more self confident. Although we tend to lean more towards this second approach, we're still kind of torn a lot of times, so I guess our child will be half-independent and half-self confident.

Hasta la proxima,

Lys, Alejo & Gabriel xx