Cross one big goal off the list: we now have yard chickens!! Well, they're only two weeks old, so they are not "yard" chickens quite yet, but in a few short months we'll be gathering fresh eggs from our very own birds!
I think one of mes dames might actually be a garçon. From what the Internets tell me, there's really no fool-proof way to tell until they either lay an egg or start crowing (unless they are a sex-linked breed). A veteran flock-keeper who follows me on Instagram (Luckiest, if you're interested in viewing inordinate amounts of pictures of my child and chickens), saw a picture of one of my Barred Rocks and said she bets it's a rooster. Upon further research of the Internets, she may be right. He has a wide bar pattern on his wings, his legs are more gray than black, and his head spot is sort of splotchy. We'll see! Austin allows roosters, so maybe we'll just have fertile eggs and a self-perpetuating flock!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Redefining Sleep Success
I'm a bad parent. Felix wakes up 4, 5, 6 times a night. Thus -- bad parent.
Right?
I'm not sure when or why sleeping through the night (shortened to STTN on parenting forums) became a benchmark of parental success. The ability to sleep for hours and hours without waking is seen to be a sign of a healthy baby, healthy habits, good parenting. If your baby doesn't sleep "well," never fear! You can take your pick of literally hundreds of sleep training methods (ok, there may not be hundreds, but that sounded better than "literally tens"), peruse thousands of articles on baby sleep, read testimonials on every trademarked program out there (but to find the true secret to its success, first you have to buy the book or DVD).
I get why there is such a demand for these programs, I really do. But the truth is that we've created our own problems through our cultural standards of infant care. The problem isn't that babies wake up a lot. They just do, they're supposed to. They have tiny tummies, they need to eat frequently. Even when they get older, frequent waking is assurance that you are still near and they are still protected. Even the best sleepers will go through phases of frequent waking with every bout of teething and every growth spurt. The problem is how we perceive and handle their wakings.
Right?
I'm not sure when or why sleeping through the night (shortened to STTN on parenting forums) became a benchmark of parental success. The ability to sleep for hours and hours without waking is seen to be a sign of a healthy baby, healthy habits, good parenting. If your baby doesn't sleep "well," never fear! You can take your pick of literally hundreds of sleep training methods (ok, there may not be hundreds, but that sounded better than "literally tens"), peruse thousands of articles on baby sleep, read testimonials on every trademarked program out there (but to find the true secret to its success, first you have to buy the book or DVD).
I get why there is such a demand for these programs, I really do. But the truth is that we've created our own problems through our cultural standards of infant care. The problem isn't that babies wake up a lot. They just do, they're supposed to. They have tiny tummies, they need to eat frequently. Even when they get older, frequent waking is assurance that you are still near and they are still protected. Even the best sleepers will go through phases of frequent waking with every bout of teething and every growth spurt. The problem is how we perceive and handle their wakings.
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