Trusting my mummy instincts

Generally I feel like I know what I'm doing with this whole 'mummy' thing. For things I don't know, I always have my mum or Google to ask, and I have a lovely group of mummy friends with babies a similar age that are good for advice, sympathy or just an ear to moan to about lack of sleep etc.

But then there are the people with the advice that you never actually asked for and certainly don't want. You know the type, the ones that tell you never to feed your baby to sleep, certainly don't breastfeed longer than 6 months, leave your baby to cry blah blah blah. Now I have no problem with people doing these things with their babies, but don't be telling me how to bring up my baby if I haven't asked for advice. I would never tell someone else what they were doing was wrong, even if I thought it inside. It seems that not everyone is so kind.

Generally I don't listen, but yesterday I let this unhelpful 'advice' get to me a bit. I started doubting myself and the instinct that us mummies have had for millions of years. Henry feeds to sleep every night. Breast feeding is meant to be comforting, breastmilk contains oxytocin, prolactin and melatonin, all hormones that are designed to make us happy, relaxed and sleepy. Why, then, do we listen to advice time and time again that tells us not to feed babies to sleep? 

Last night Henry woke up at 11:30pm. I knew he couldn't be hungry so decided maybe I was doing something wrong. Maybe all these people were right and I was wrong to be feeding Henry to sleep every night. So I decided to try to get him to sleep in other ways, rocking, singing, cuddling...you get the idea. It was hell. I had a screaming baby until almost 2am who would not sleep. He wasn't crying for a feed or rooting around for the boob, there was something else unsettling him, I think probably his teeth. But I could have settled him back to sleep in 2 minutes with a quick feed. I wish that I'd just listened to my mummy instinct and done that. I'm so cross with myself that we had a completely unnecessary horrendous night. 

Don't get me wrong, Henry will nap during the day without a feed and often goes back to sleep on a night with just a quick cuddle. But why is breastfeeding an unhappy, unsettled baby such a crime? 

Needless to say, tonight I won't be sticking to the same plan as last night, sleep is way too precious at the moment. If those horrible teeth are giving my baby pain and mummy's milk can help, then that's exactly what he will get.