To be or not to be Babywise?

The majority of this post will be about principles of Babywise, I will also share some pictures of Micah and the non gory part of labor and my hospital stay so if youre not interested in babywise just scroll down.

Having studied child development for the past 8 or so years, I have a few problems with principles of Babywise.

First, it is parent centered.  Isn't this supposed to be about raising our children?  So why in the world would we focus the process on ourselves?  That kind of thin king flies in the face of everything I know about Child Development, and it is the most developmentally INAPPROPRIATE practice I believe I have ever heard of.  I think their main premise of making this parent centered is the goal of trying to get baby to sleep through the night by 8 weeks, and I am not denying that it happens but every baby is different(which brings me to my next point.)  Seriously parents?  Lets just do what we want while raising our children because its convenient for us?  COME ON!  A friend of mine also pointed out to be that completely discounts any and all guidance we have from God in this.  According to Babywise, if you are successful then you are a good parent, if not then its all your fault, and God gets no credit and gives no guidance.  Now I understand everyone is not a christian and doesnt live their life the way I do, so I can let that one slide.  But still why are we blaming parents for not having a baby just the same as theirs?


Second, they say that to say that every child is different is "an outdated statement".  Really?  When did we stop being individuals?  Again, extremely developmentally INAPPROPRIATE.

My last babywise point is that they say the model the principles..........at least of sleeping after principles of Behaviorism and classical conditioning.  Let me explain classical conditioning, it was coined by Ivan Pavlov who(way back whenever) did an experiment with dogs(yes they compare babies to dogs first of all, anyone?) in which he started with the dogs unconditioned response of salavating at the presentation of the stimilus-food.  He then started ringing a bell every time he presented the food, after awhile the dogs started salavating at the ring of the bell-conditioned response.  So let me take a specific example from the book, they say dont rock your baby to sleep because they get used to the rocking and cant sleep without it.  Ok here we have the unconditioned response-sleeping only after being rocked and we want to eventually have a conditioned response-sleeping on their own.  How can you expect to get that conditioned response with immediately extinguishing the stimulus-rocking- and not taking it away over time?  So my point is the are not modeling things they way they think-they are contradicting themselves as well as ignoring well established theories-not only from Pavlov, but also from Piaget, etc...  The only only theorist they mention is Freud, and dont get me started with that quack.

OK, it out of my system now.  So now about Micah.
I was induced at 4 weeks, around 7pm on a Sunday Night and delivered on Monday, September 12th 2011 at 12:55 pm.  Micah was born at 7 lbs. 12 oz.  19 inches long.
He was 7 lbs 1 oz at two weeks and we also discovered that week that he has pretty severe acid reflux.  It is controlled now (somewhat) with Prevacid and  Similac Sensitive Formula exclusively.  Yes, I set out to breastfeed and wanted to for at least nine months and yes my pediatrician is pro-breastfeeding.   But we both are also pro-best thing for Baby.   He slept better with the formula, Nick and I could tell he was not in as much pain, and gained weight past his birth weight(he previously lost 14% of his birth weight.  So I, Nick and our pediatrician agreed that this is best for Micah.  So it might not be what I would choose, but this is the stuff you(God) use.

Micah is 4 weeks old and will officially be one month old tomorrow.  Here are some pictures from when he was born and some more recent ones.