Attachment Parenting

I never heard of attachment parenting until I became a parent.   For those of you who are unaware, attachment parenting is a pretty recent term given to a style of parenting.  According to Dr. Sears, there are seven characteristics of attachment parenting.  You can view them at http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/attachment-parenting/what-ap-7-baby-bs .  Without even trying, I fit the profile perfectly.  Let's go through the seven characteristics: 
1)  Birth Bonding. 
I'm not sure exactly what this means, but Baby and I certainly bonded right after she was born.  She never left my side in the hospital, and Husband was always right there with us.

2)  Breastfeeding
This is one thing I completely advocate and made sure to research and prepare myself for.  So far we are sixteen months strong (I know, it's a long time!), with no plans to stop.  I want her to wean herself when she is ready, not when Mommy is ready.  Maybe by the time she reaches college...

3)  Babywearing

Hello Moby Wrap and Baby Bjorn.  Baby never wanted to be put down, so we wore her.  We still do, actually.  Gotta love having a small child. 

4)  Bedding close to baby
Yup.  We've done co-sleeping since she was born (remember, I'm lazy and don't want to walk to the next room to get her for her feeding).  Only recently have we moved her to sleeping in her crib in her own room. However, she's usually back in our bed around 2 AM.  I think since I'm on summer vacation now I'll be working more on getting her to stay all night in her own crib.  We'll see how this goes. 

5)  Belief in the language value of your baby's cry
Yup, I cannot stand to hear her cry.  It grates on my nerves, makes my  blood pressure rise and I end up snapping at Husband.  Therefore, I attend to her when she cries (hence the reason she ends up in our bed at 2AM). 

6)  Beware of baby trainers
Before I had Baby I completely thought we would adhere to a nice little schedule; eat every few hours, nap at certain times, sleep through the night (HA!), but little did I know that was a nice little fairy tale.  Since I can't stand to see my child upset (don't get me wrong, she has tantrums that I ignore), I couldn't go through the agony of trying to train her to conform to something that wasn't natural to her.  Thus, no baby training for us. 

7)  Balance
Having balance between when to say yes and when to say no to your baby.  Also making time for yourself and your Husband.  I think Husband and I have been pretty good at this.  We communicate really well and make sure we are on the same page in terms of parenting.  We might not always agree, but at least we know where the other stands. 

And there you have it, I practice attachment parenting.