This Sucks

So the thing about being a first-time parent is that you have absolutely no clue what you are doing. Sure, you've read the books and you have advice from friends and family. But that doesn't mean you really know anything.

With most things, we can wing it and everything is fine. Don't like that toy? Okay, let's try another. But then there is the sleeping thing. Here, uncertainty in what the "right thing to do" is will drive a person mad. Some new parents, including some of our friends, are blessed with babies who magically fall asleep on their own and sleep through the night without the parents even trying. Others, like us, well that's just not the case.

So, as I have been documenting, we have been studying how to improve Joaquin's sleeping habits and attempting to implement the suggestions we have found in books written by "experts." But, unlike advice from experts to feed your baby every three hours, which is basically undisputed, advice regarding sleep training runs the gamut - don't let them cry or they will become emotionally withdrawn - you must let them cry or they will never learn to fall asleep on their own - only let them cry for certain periods of time - don't leave the room - the list goes on and on.

And because we have no better idea of what we are doing than the next set of first-timers, this is extremely frustrating, to say the least. Every time he cries our hearts break. If we knew for sure we were doing the right thing, those cries would be more bearable. But listening to your baby cry and not being 100% certain that you are doing the right thing is pure torture. The only thing we are certain of at this point is that what we were doing before was not working for our little guy or for us and we all need to be getting better sleep. Hopefully we will get there soon.