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Originally Posted by yehudit
Whirled_Peas gave some good information, but please know that you don't have to do everything to bond with your baby. Sometimes as moms we get so caught up in doing everything "right" that we put too much pressure on ourselves and we're not able to function. For example, we were not able to co-sleep with thing 1. He would just get excited and thrash around, and no one got any sleep. Take what you can, but please don't feel like you have to do everything. And that goes for the rest of parenting, too.
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I can't emphasize this enough!!! Honestly I can say that reading online forums has made me feel awful at times! You don't have to be the 'perfect' mom for your children to be happy and trust you.
In my case we adopted twins that were preemes so they had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital at birth, and it was 2 hours away so we were only able to visit 1-2 hours a day also... then I was alone with them at home most days, so obviously there was no way for me to do baby wearing alone (we did swaddling and used pacifiers the first four months and they rarely fussed). We didn't do co-sleeping (don't think it's safe, but that's my opinion), we've done CIO and I don't play with my kids all the time yet they are very bonded to me.
IMO babies just naturally bond to the person who cares for them. Some fuss more than others, but it doesn't have much to do with bonding and happens with bio children just as much... If you read 'the happiest baby on the block' they will tell you that it's because they miss the womb, that's why swaddling (or baby wearing), pacifiers, movement and white noise often works to calm them down.