Dear Lactnetters-
Today I have to give a speech on the warm fuzzies of breastfeeding and I have
to thank you all for sharing some of your stories regarding the 20/20 piece
on the family bed. I must admit that as I read some of them yesterday I had
tears come to my eyes as I recalled my experiences with our family bed and
our 4 children. This has given me lots of fuel for todays talk. It also made
me think of the pictures in my children's memory books of them with their
grandma (now home with the Lord) when they were babies- cuddled in bed and
loved, and a grandma eyes closed, head tucked to theirs and humming, praying
or just being at peace with the world. That extension of family caring has
deep roots. I also recall how some of the controversy over allowing
bedsharing was handled by our family councelor hired by our church. He said
once "Do you not recall having fears in the night?, How many of you were
permitted to hop in bed with your parents when you needed to know they were
there?
Was this not comforting" He suggested having a throw pillow close to the bed
if you had a problem with them crawling in bed and a blanket to toss on them.
He explained the normalacy of night terrors at certain stages of a childs
development and this probably helped legitimize the family bed to those who
may have originally oppossed it. Our councellor is also not into this Exxo
(that was deliberate) method of parenting- for this I am thankful. To
terribly misquote scripture "As for me and my house... we will share our beds
whenever"  Thanks- Gloria DeHaven BSN, IBCLC

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