Sleeping Habits - San Rafael,CA

Your Boyfriends family is WRONG!! Listen to your gut - mothers have a built in sense of what their children need and what is 'normal' for their own child.You are only at the beginning of this journey - If you start letting others guilt trip you and tell you something is wrong with your wonderful baby it will make you feel crazy and full of a resentment that has no place in your loving relationship with your child.There will be dozens and dozens of people who will do this - from friends, inlaws to future teachers.

If you hang tight with your most loving instincts your child will turn into an incredible human being - all parents get that chance and yes we will 'blow it' off and on but truly - children if raised lovingly give us and our whole society a gift of a loving person walking among us making good decisions not based on trauma- who can see clearly , care about others and the earth.As opposed to so many of us who are reliving past pain which causes selfish damaging behaviors.

Nature has given mothers something special USE IT as much as you can.Just think of all the times you ignored or listened to your intuition and have either regretted it or felt so happy.It's the same only you get an extra dose of it when you become a mother if you are in touch with your true nature.
THe more you use it the stronger it becomes. The bond you have with your child also teaches you what that unique child needs - NO body else has that - you are the one who carried your child in your womb.

Raising children is horrible and wonderful at the same time.Don't forget that there are a lot of people out there who have accepted suffering as a kind of religion. We can't do away with suffering obviously but we don't need to manufacture more of it either.

Other people will of course sometimes offer good guidance and you will FEEL that in your gut too. It sounds like you have have a very good one - grow it like a garden C. !

R.

ps I'm going to send you some other mama source responses that might help you.

It is within the range of normal and the previous poster said it well: listen to your instincts.

Every child is different, and you will find that much well intentioned advice makes things harder, not better. Take it all in, but with a grain of salt. Allow your instincts and knowledge of your unique child to be the filter. Trust yourself. No one knows your unique baby better.

Don't worry, it is normal. Especially if you're breastfeeding. Even if you're not, some babies still have a hard time sleeping through the night, even older than 6 months, for many different reasons.
We havce 15 month old twins, and I know it helped them to sleep thru the night when we started them on solid foods, though we didn't start that until they were a year old(some people start sooner at 6 mos!). Also, make sure they have a bottlebreastfeed right before bedtime, and get enough naps during the day(they'll sleep better at night if they're not overtired, and try not to put her to bed too late... We put our babies to bed every night between 6 and 7, no later than 8pm. It could also be that her teeth are starting to come in...
Anyway, even once she starts sleeping through the night, you may find that she wakes during the night on occasion.
Good luck!

Get the book "healthy sleep habits happy child." It really helped us. My daughter is 4 months and sleeps really well(only wakes once if at all during the night.)

Good luck