With the plethora of cutesy "Shh! Baby is sleeping!" door hanger signs that abound I can guess which of two camps most parents likely fall in, but apparently there's some debate about how to treat your sleeping baby:
Camp #1: Do anything and everything possible to ensure Baby, once asleep, remains asleep. Tiptoeing and whispering is mandatory. Any errant sound, and I mean any sound, can disrupt what has become your only respite from the incessant demands of your tiny dictator.
Camp #2: You already have (insert number here) kids, what's one more? He'll sleep when he's good and tired.
While the article I'm citing makes some good points (Camp #2 may be a necessity if daycare is involved, for example, and of course balance is nearly always advised), I'm not sure that the suggestion that a child can be conditioned to join one camp or the other is all that valid. I think there are some perhaps genetic and preferential factors to be considered. My older son had silence but can and does sleep through anything. My younger daughter would only sleep, until she was almost four, if I was holding her. Ugh. Now, she too sleeps through anything.
So is the need for Camp #1 derived from desperate sleep-deprived parents? Can you truly make your child join Camp #2? What camp do you fall in?
