Having a baby is scary, I know. I've had three, and each time I leave the hospital, I'm altogether certain the hospital is going to call me and say, "Whoops! You shouldn't be in charge of a baby! We're coming to get it now."

It's like the college graduation dream (the one where you're one credit short or the university calls you to tell you they're revoking your diploma), but a whole lot scarier.

And with me, It's happened with each baby. Somehow, though, I've managed to raise those babies into wonderful people. My secret?

It's simple.

We don't let our kids cry it out. Recent research has come out saying how Ferberizing a child is dangerous, though I have always felt that letting a child cry alone in their room was not just damaging to the child, but to me as a mom. So we never did it.

This doesn't mean my twins don't ever cry. They do -- they are kids. It just means we don't leave them in a room alone to cry until they fall asleep. It also doesn't mean we never sleep. We do. Soundly. Mostly. Though we have worked out a unique way to keep our sanity and the kids happy, and get some zzzzs.

This is what we do ...

I don't remember when it was, exactly, that I decided I really needed to buckle down and try to do something about my youngest son's inability to sleep through the night. I think it was maybe around the time he was a year old, after enduring all the wee-hour wakeup calls I thought I could possibly bear. My first son slept like a champion from eight weeks on, so I had no experience with babies who woke up every few hours, apparently just to drive me clinically insane.

I do remember, however, how insanely difficult it was to do the Cry It Out method.

I have friends who have done various forms of crying it out, and cried it out themselves. Me? I never managed, which is why I’m now doing the swore-I-never-would family bed, with either myself or my husband often hightailing it to the futon halfway through the night.

I did, however, accidentally cry it out with Penelope when she was about a year old, though: she was having a terrible time getting to sleep, and shrieking in my arms for over an hour. I finally just thought, “I need a break” and put her down for long enough for me to pee and step out on the back deck for a breath of fresh air.

By the time I had stepped inside, the apartment was silent, and I peeked into her room to find her fast asleep in the crib where she had just been shrieking. Oh. She needed me to put her down! This is why each kid needs to come with an FAQ, but that’s another story.

Last night, I tried the same tactic with Abby. Like I said, each kid -- different rules.

Just when you get the hang of this whole motherhood thing, that baby in your arms decides to change it up. At around 4 months, Kiddo wasn't doing "the transfer" -- my husband's term. When she was a newborn, she'd fall asleep in my arms after eating as most babies do, and we'd "transfer" her to the crib. Now, she was waking up as we'd oh-so-gently place her in the crib. I'd pick her back up, try to get her to sleep again. She wasn't getting good sleep, she was having a hard time figuring out how to fall asleep. Something had to change.

I always knew I would probably do some sort of sleep training. I know. That's a weird term, a dividing term, isn't it? Many moms don't like that it ... but it makes sense to me. We say we potty train our kids -- and everyone uses that phrase. Anyway, that's probably a topic for another post. I had a baby who was struggling with sleep. Somehow, I was going to sleep train my daughter.

I had the opportunity to talk about crying it out on NYC's local WPIX news today for their "Mom's the Word" segment. It's a topic I am very passionate about -- very passionate against. I do not believe in letting your baby cry it out. Not for 30 minutes. Not for 10 minutes. Not at all. Babies don't manipulate -- they don't have wants, they have needs. And as a mom of 16-month-old twins, I have to help them with their needs whether they need a diaper or need to be held. Babies cannot speak, so crying is the way they communicate. If your baby said, "Hey mom, can you hold me? I just had a bad dream and really need you to tell me it's going to be okay," would you ignore your child?

I believe that if we ignore a baby's cry, it's like we are turning our backs on them. It's like we are saying their needs don't fit into our busy lifestyle. That our beauty sleep is more important than them. Ignoring isn't going to train your child to sleep.

There's a lot of confusion as to exactly what Attachment Parenting is. Is it natural parenting? Some hippie movement? Helicopter parenting? Parenting influenced by Dr. Seuss?

Perhaps those who are AP spent some time in Seussville along with their reading of Dr. Sears. Yes, the birthday guy, Dr. Seuss, has one single quote which I think sums up the idea of AP easily:

Some heated issues got everyone hot and bothered and clicking this week in baby.

Sasha let us in on a disturbing fact. The IRS deems a breast pump as not medically necessary, and therefore no tax breaks will be given even as acne medication and astroturf for allergies gets a pass. She wasn't the only one upset about this, as almost a hundred of you weighed in on this anti-working mom decision.

Michele had four moms battle it out over crying it out. And the rest of you battled it out in comments as well! Do you think all that fighting is making the babies cry more?

Christie called for the rejection of Babywise, the anti-Sears parenting book. Most of you seconded and rejected. A few, however, got behind the Ezzo's schedule.

Image via kelli0585/CafeMom