any of the other accusations that anti-routine hysterics like to throw at sensible mums.
You know something? I've been deleted on MN about 4 or 5 times in almost a decade. One of those times was defending a mother who chose to use routines, against vitriol from someone calling her abusive for doing it. She had every damn right to parent as she chose, as felt right to her, and as suited her family, and nobody had the right to snipe and sneer at her because of it. A mother whose sleep deprivation causes depression isn't doing the best for her baby, either, and children can and do thrive under strict routines. But your attitude on your posts here is every bit as unpleasant as the women you are so spitefully mocking, and I've not seen anyone post like that on the other side yet. The one posting with arrogance and disrespect is you. People who respond to their babies' cues at once as the research currently indicates is best for the baby, if they can cope with the sleeplessness themselves, are perfectly sensible - not to mention unselfish. Obviously a mother who needs sleep, or who feels unable to parent differently due to her own temperament, is doing it right for her circumstances. Happy, settled children can result, which is all that matters, and they'll result from parents who adopt a parenting strategy and style that suits their instincts, as long as those instincts are loving and sensible. But let's be clear: a baby isn't crying for fun. They aren't crying because they want to control you. They are crying because they are a small infant mammal wanting comfort, food, or drink - or all three - and in denying them that in order to prioritise your own sleep, you're on desperately shaky ground in judging other people.
I see no reason why mothers should be martyrs. If they can't cope with sleeplessness and need to manage things so they can function, then that's still doing the best for their baby. But attacking people who, for whatever reason, are able to cope with sleeplessness in order to meet the baby's very early needs are hardly lacking sense, and it's deeply unpleasant to seek to justify your own parenting choices by attacking theirs in the manner you have. I do hope you plan to be more flexible when the small people you are bringing into this world express views and opinions that differ from your own, or this start will be the very least of everyone's problems.
It's so depressing that women are so insecure in their own choices that they comfort themselves by attacking women who choose differently. My kids are happy and settled, so I must be doing okay. People who parent very differently - both ends of the spectrum - are also doing okay. My way is to respond immediately and lovingly, day or night, until around 18 months when I slowly implement self-settling, sleeping alone, firmness around bedtimes and silent returns to bed if they get up. It works. By preschool, DS had a set bedtime we kept to almost all the time (as in, not if there was a wedding or a major family birthday) and slept in his own bed. He wakes at night sometimes and wants a cuddle, but that is okay. It's what he needs - he's never been trying it on. And very recently he was diagnosed as high functioning, but on the autistic spectrum, so his sleep issues are indeed biological in nature and it's just as well I respected them and didn't try to force his little square sleep needs into a nice book-advocated round hole. DD, on the other hand, is almost 6 months and slept through from tiny. Goes down at 8, stays down till a 5 am feed, then up at 8. Did that from 5 or 6 weeks old. She has different needs, because she is a different child. And if you think swallowing and regurgitating one single book, with the experience of less than a half year of motherhood behind you, therefore entitles you to lecture all other mothers on How To Do It Right, then frankly your posts sound deeply gullible. Kids are people, you see. They vary. So do their needs, their temperaments and their responses to your parenting. And while some kids thrive on routines, others become desperately distressed and will cry until they vomit - and yes, there are books that approve of that and say "this is when you must not give in!" An Australian friend of mine raves about that (unqualified, self-appointed) "expert" on babies and adopted all the methods advocated, and honestly, I think creating helplessness in a tiny baby and the conviction that crying is pointless, because nobody will come... that's not okay. That's my opinion. I'm not going to judge anyone for choosing otherwise because at this time God's not popped down from on high to assure me I'm doing everything right, and people can opt to do as they think fit. But honestly - why would I put myself through night waking with my kids if they need it if I didn't think that best? And therefore, how can I or mothers who parent as you do in good conscience say they think your choices are right? We can't. All we can do is say we can see the pluses for all concerned, and that we are sure you in turn are doing as you think best.
I'm equally strongly in favour of sleep routines and set bedtimes for children, btw. There is a lot of evidence on the harm sleep deprivation does children, and how much less sleep they get than we did as kids. I just don't see how you can possibly apply that to a baby. It's a biological nonsense. Stupid, in fact.
Sleep training is for parental convenience. If a saner parent results than baby-led sleep, sure that can be really good for the baby. But please cut the sanctimonious codswallop - it isn't a superior form of parenting. It's as good, at best. My cousin was, rather entertainingly, like you when she had her first (though her manners were light years better than those displayed on your posts, I do have to say!). She would gently and smugly suggest I parented as she did, because her baby did X, Y and Z. Her second has stopped her doing that. Oh boy, has her second stopped her doing that! 
You don't seem to grasp that your baby is not an extension of you. Your baby is their own little individual. It's not Me, A Mother. It's Me And Baby. A duet, not a solo. And your baby's patterns of behaviour may be innate and not down to how you parent at all, I'm afraid. Stubborn things, small humans.
Finally, giving water to an exclusively breastfed baby instead of milk, prior to weaning, is bloody stupid, and if your advocated book says that then it's straightforwardly wrong. Pointless and unnecessary risk. Bedsharing has advantages to all concerned to weigh against the risk (which I personally think is too great - my baby sleeps in her grobag, in her cot, as advised). Water instead of milk has none. Can't fathom how anyone could think following some barmy book rather than decent medical advice is a good idea. Sounds more like a religion than childcare. Which may of course explain your exceedingly aggressive and combative style of posting.