Sorry Mr. Dentist

I have read "the sleep books" and all the sleep experts say that it's not good for a baby to be nursed to sleep or to have the bottle as the last thing before bed. Well, the people who wrote those books either didn't have babies or maybe they did but they were probably the rare kind of baby that went along with anything and never cried. The last thing in our bedtime routine for Natallie is cuddling up on the futon and nursing. She used to be complelety asleep after that and I just pick her up and put her in her crib but now she's usually still awake after but completely calm and after a few more cuddles and pats on her bum, she is counting sheep in baby dreamland and usually sleeps til the morning.

At first I told myself that after Natallie has 2 teeth, I will change up her bedtime routine and brush her teeth after I nurse her but it makes her so angry when I shove the toothbrush in her mouth. So I said I'll wait til she has 4 teeth. And then I said I'll wait til she has 4 teeth on top. And then I said I'll just wait til she's 1 year old. Now she's 1 and has 6 teeth and I am still brushing her teeth before and not after I nurse her.

I talked to the public health nurse today and booked a dentist appointment for Natallie, I asked her if it's really that big of a deal to not brush her teeth after I nurse her.I expected to get a bit of sympathy but nope, I was just told horrible stories of babies who had "bad mothers" who didn't brush their teeth and they ended going to the hospital for nerve damage in their teeth. Way to make a mom feel guilty, eh?

So being thoroughly traumatized after talking to the nurse, I nursed her and then we brought her back into the bathroom to brush her teeth, then read bedtime stories and turned on her sleepy music and attempted to put her in her crib. An hour later, she was still crying and up and lifting up my shirt for milk. And I gave up and just nursed her and then she slept til the morning.

Tonight, we decided to do bath, then books, then nursing just like usual but after she was done, I tried to jam the toothbrush in her mouth before putting her in her crib. She was pretty displeased about it and screamed but ironically her screaming and wide open mouth made it ten times easier to brush her teeth and I was done in 10 seconds.

I guess we'll keep trying it this way but as Simon says, "they are baby teeth and they all fall out anyways, who cares if we brush her teeth after?!"