{"id":5,"date":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/following-my-instincts\/"},"modified":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","slug":"following-my-instincts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/following-my-instincts\/","title":{"rendered":"Following My Instincts"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Lilly was born 20 months ago my motherly instincts were in full swing.\u00a0 I\u2019d read a few parenting books and had decided that I would be sure to stick to proper feeding and sleeping schedules.\u00a0 As a 33 year old, I had some ingrained habits and routines.\u00a0 I\u2019d also grown accustomed to having time to myself and being able to do what I want, when I want.\u00a0 My plan was to follow the advice of others to ensure I would be back to sleeping through the night in no time and keeping a decent schedule.<\/p>\n

Despite my zombie-like state, I did a good job of keeping to a schedule for feeding and sleeping.\u00a0 I also adhered strictly to the rule of not bringing her into the bed with me.\u00a0 About two weeks into life with Lilly I gave in to the sleep monster and pulled her into the bed with me to nurse and sleep.\u00a0 It was like heaven.\u00a0 I had my baby pulled in tight, I could feel her every move and I finally got a bit of sleep.<\/p>\n

I understood the reason behind not allowing babies to sleep in the bed with mom and dad.\u00a0 There is definitely danger in rolling over in your sleep and smothering them.\u00a0 But I am naturally a super light sleeper.\u00a0 Waking up to her every little grunt while she was sleeping next to the bed was like torture!\u00a0 My instincts told me that she wasn\u2019t happy being so far from me (all of 6-12 inches since I slept right on the edge of the bed to be as close as I could).\u00a0 And frankly, I didn\u2019t like it either.<\/p>\n

Since my husband and I didn\u2019t sleep in the same room any longer (he snores like a freakin\u2019 bear) I felt safe sleeping with Lilly.\u00a0 Immediately she started sleeping soundly, no grunting or waking up.\u00a0 And so did I!<\/p>\n

I guess that is when it began, Attachment Parenting.\u00a0 We responded so well to each other that I threw out all of my original plans and just followed her lead.\u00a0 Any time I tried to control the situation, like pumping so daddy could feed her, we went spiraling backwards.\u00a0 We did everything her way.<\/p>\n

One day my mother and I were having a conversation and she referred to a celebrity having written a book about Attachment Parenting.\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 What is Attachment Parenting?\u00a0 She said, \u201cYou know, like you do with Lilly.\u201d\u00a0 At that point I was not aware that what I did to follow my instincts as a mother had a name.\u00a0 Not long after that Alicia Silverstone \u201cbirdfed\u201d her child and a young mother appeared on the cover of a magazine with her \u201ctoo old to nurse\u201d child attached to her breast.\u00a0 While (in my opinion) these are extreme examples of what is considered Attachment Parenting, I understand where each of these women are coming from.<\/p>\n

I still allow, to a certain extent, Lilly to direct how and when we do things.\u00a0 When she was ready to stop nursing at 14 months I picked up on her signs.\u00a0 Then I did my job as her mother to help her move on.\u00a0 Recently she has been showing signs of being ready to potty train.\u00a0 As soon as I am confident that she really is ready, we will begin.\u00a0 We still co-sleep.\u00a0 I still don\u2019t get much sleep since I wake up to her every move and sound, but I enjoy it and I haven\u2019t seen signs that she is ready to sleep alone.\u00a0 That may take more time, but i don\u2019t believe we were meant to sleep alone anyway.\u00a0 I just find it hard to believe that mom and dad caveman slept on the opposite side of the cave than baby caveman.\u00a0 But, that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n

Attachment Parenting, coined by Dr. William Sears, is basically the mother increasing her awareness and sensitivity to her baby\u2019s needs and signals.\u00a0 That is exactly what I did with Lilly without realizing it was a \u201cstyle\u201d of parenting.\u00a0 I simply tuned out all of the advice of others and focused on what Lilly was telling me.\u00a0 Every time I tried to follow the advice of others or make a decision based solely on my needs it always backfired.\u00a0 Life was so much simpler when she and I worked together.<\/p>\n

I also believe that she and I were able to really tune in to each other and trust each other because I worked from home.\u00a0 That allowed me to take care of business when she had down time.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to force a schedule on her to accommodate my job or what was best for someone else. \u00a0 Working from home also gave me much needed \u201cadult time\u201d without sacrificing precious time with her.\u00a0 I still work from home, writing this blog.\u00a0 I can do my thing and her thing!\u00a0 That is called \u201cHaving your cake and eating it, too\u201d!<\/p>\n

To learn more about what I do and how easy it is for you to do the same, watch this video<\/a>.\u00a0 My husband no longer needs to work full time to provide an income for his family.\u00a0 So, now that daddy is home everyday Lilly can have her cake and eat it, too!<\/p>\n

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\nHelping you find freedom,
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When Lilly was born 20 months ago my motherly instincts were in full swing.\u00a0 I\u2019d read a few parenting books and had decided that I would be sure to stick to proper feeding and sleeping schedules.\u00a0 As a 33 year old, I had some ingrained habits and routines.\u00a0 I\u2019d also grown accustomed to having time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,6,7,8,9,15,3],"tags":[16,10,11,12,13],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-opportunities","category-empower-network","category-free-your-family","category-from-our-founders","category-how-to-blog","category-motherhood","category-my-savings","category-working-at-home","tag-attachment-parenting","tag-home-based-business","tag-make-money-online","tag-mompreneur","tag-work-at-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/shannabeavers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}