I never set out to be a Dr. Sears attachment parent. I thought I was a Manila Mom at heart, with yaya on hand wherever I went and leaving most of the tasks of infant care to someone else. I don't believe that having a nanny takes the bond away from the mom, same way I don’t believe that formula-fed infants have less of a bond with his mom than breastfed infants. Yet somehow I ended up being a full-blown breastfeeding, baby-carrying, co-sleeping, cloth-diapering, crunchy granola Dr. Sears fan-girl.
Intermission: Check this out! Babywearing around the world.
It all changed between childbirth and month 2 of having an infant. It all changed because of breastfeeding. I am stubborn, and goddammit I wasn’t about to get beat on this breastfeeding thing! With the pedia on speed-dial on-the-ready in case we wanted to buy our first can of formula, I slogged through the constant nursing and all the pain and sleeplessness associated with it. When you're nursing a growth-spurting infant, co-sleeping is a survival tactic. It will help everyone in the family get more sleep and stay more sane.
Exclusively breastfed babies can either poop a lot, or hardly poop at all. Our baby pooped EVERY SINGLE TIME HE ATE! That meant 12 or more diaper changes in a 24-hour period for at least 2 months. That's a LOT of diapers to throw out if you're on disposables. I never thought I would cloth diaper, it sounded like a lot of laundry, but when you need a dozen disposables a day they no longer are affordable! We could see the money being thrown into the garbage, all covered in poop. So cloth diapering it became. Then as you start to move around and try to get work done around or outside the house you have to bring your baby with you, hence, the babywearing, which incidentally also helps you make more milk.
The whole Dr. Sears attachment parenting system all cascades down from a singular decision to breastfeed exclusively. Since I did all of it, the babywearing the co-sleeping the everything else, there was really little room for a yaya. Of course I am very fortunate to be able to do this because I didn't have to go back to work full-time after 2 months. I am in awe of all those who did and successfully maintained the bfing (see chronicles).
All the other tenets of attachment parenting are based on what will make life easier for you if you breastfeed. Not that it's impossible to do on the bf part and have baby in a crib and stroller and disposable diapers, it is possible, it's probably just harder on mom.
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