needed: BABY WHISPERER!!

chatouli

Thu, Aug 26 2010, 10:42 am

Baby Whisperer is a great roadmap, as far as I'm concerned. I'm an adherent of the Whatever Works school of thought. I really like EASY but it may not work for every baby. It so happened that my baby wanted to eat every three hours at first, but when she said to switch to every four at four months, I didn't do that. He was pretty much EBF at that point and needed to keep eating every three hours for another month or two. Flexibility is key. You have to know your own baby, which is a huge part of her philosophy anyway. Now I will often nurse him a little before a nap because it seems to calm him and help him get in sleep mode (although I NEVER nurse him to sleep).

The Baby Whisperer has excellent suggestions for winding a baby down before a nap. I used to take him in the rocking chair and rock him and sing a special pre-nap song, then take him into the bedroom, change his diaper, and rock him a little and sing to him there, then put him down. I spent at least ten to fifteen minutes winding him down. This routine was the same each time and it told him it was time for sleep. I forget the acronym she uses but it's in the big book. Babies love routines.

I also found co-sleeping to be the worst possible way for us to sleep. I co-sleep only when DS is sick because he won't sleep without me (he's had hand, foot and mouth disease a couple times, and yes I got it this way once Exploding anger

). He kicks, tosses, turns, and wakes up kvetching every hour until I nurse him for a minute, then he falls back asleep. If he's in his crib he sleeps quietly for much longer. And so do I!