Does this make Gwyneth a hypocrite?

[emkana]

All vegan and hippy-dippy on the one hand,
but on the other hand employing a maternity nurse who advocates leaving a less than six-week-old baby to cry for 20 minutes...

\link{http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1774405,00.html\hmmm}

absobloodylutely Caligula
and FrayedKnot
it's the expectation gap that causes so much of the pain and misery.
btw like you Caligula, my dd1 slept for twelve hours at a stretch from three months. She was fed on demand and fed all bleeding day and the evening too which was fine.
dd2 isn't quite so keen on sleeping for long stretches though

as my wise mum once said 'they don't come with an instruction booklet love' and indeed they don't. What worked with dd1 certainly didn't with dd2.

I am constantly amazed at how different two children can be who have the same genes and upbringing.

So why on earth would a set fixed routine work for them both?

I'm tellin' you, peeps, wet nurses will soon come into vogue again. 'My baby was exclusively breastfed'. By someone else.

So I could go the gym and make crap films.

oh come now, expat, she's made some good ones

If she has, I haven't seen them. She's a one-trick pony - Gwennie as simpering damsel.

Only got her start in 'acting' - and I'm using the term loosely - b/c her dad was some hot shot producer.

Christ Martin is just a Guy Ritchey who takes himself seriously.

I like the simpering damsel look

Am practising it right now

I think she's rather good at the acting actually - definitely not simpering damsel in the Sylvia Plath film or the Royal Tenenbaums.
(However, she was a simpering damsel in Emma, Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors and Seven, so perhaps it's quite a good description after all )

Spielberg is her godfather and gave her her first film role. I suspect she may be a better stage actress than screen [though i haven't seen her on stage] I do find her generally a bit pathetic in her screen roles, thought that just may be what is expected of her. Surprised she's going for this approach with her babies.

Think it's woprth remembering that books by nannies, maternity nurses and similar are describing methods which are probably quite appropriate for a nanny or a maternity nurse who has to more or less justify what she does...I mean, would you pay £4k a month plus food and expenses (this is what Gwynnie's lady charges, according to the piece in the Standard) to someone who didn't make it all sound complicated and busy???

Frankly, mothers of new babies who have cash to spare are better off paying for a nice cleaner who is flexible enough to do your shopping and your washing (both jobs, as well as cleaning, most maternity nurses might think are rather beneath them), while you just care for the baby, lolling on a sofa or lying in bed.
If you want to 'get the baby into a routine' then you can do that as well (and good luck to you....) - you don't need to pay someone to do it for you.

Caring for a tiny baby basically means feeding and cuddling and bathing. The mother (with cuddling and bathing input from dad) can do it herself, while someone else does the less appealing jobs round the house, plus the supermarket run.

Oh, and they won't be £4K a month, either.

Off topic slightly but reminds me of the BBC4 programme last week on the Waughs (as in Evelyn, Auberon etc). Apparently, latter was raised by nanny. As huge country pile was always full of similarly idle upper class women, he did not actually know or understand which one was his mother. How sad is that? Personally, whether it cost £4k a month or not, I would be devastated if my DS formed a greater attachment to someone other than me before he was a year old.

We knew I had very high risk of PND before DS born, so we had in place a plan with friends, rellys etc to pull together so I had to concentrate on baby when he was awake. Think it is kind of sad if you have to pay someone to do the basics...although accept each to their own (is there a diplomatic emoticon?). It isn't as though Chris could only take two weeks paternity leave is it?

However, to be just a little catty for a moment...can we archive this thread so we can laugh our heads off in ten years time at this future conversation: 'Er, yeah, like Thanks parents for, like, giving us weird names. Whatever, it is so unfair. I hate you, you noodle-weaving, gas guzzling macrame yoga hypocrites. Dad, it is so uncool to write stuff on your hands because you can't remember your lyrics. Your songs make me want to top myself more than Radiohead does. And, Mum EAT something normal! Do you know how embarassing it is when you say things like 'Oh, her first words were 'Pomme' and Humous' when normal kids are saying 'HappyMeal' and 'Eminem'? Why couldn't you just call us, like, Jack , and erm, Ellie, like, whatever?

Maybe it will become a status symbol at the school gates. 'My parents paid £10k a month to get me to do what I was going to do anyway' 'Really? My parents paid £20k to get me into a routine before I was born' 'That's nothing, my mum was swaddled in a dark room before I was conceived so I was sleeping through' (OH god, that last comment made me think of straight jackets and mental institutions...

LOL