First time parent-hood can be overwhelming, even for those who have had a lot of experience with kids and babies. I babysat from the time I was 11 up until just a few years ago when I was a nanny. Now, I understand that babysitting is easy because the parents do all the difficult work of figuring out eating and sleeping schedules! I would just show up and do as I was told.
I am a research nut. I will research anything and everything far longer than is sane (thus, the reason I usually pay too much for plane tickets because I keep hoping they'll drop and instead just keep going up and up and up). A while back when the arrival of our first child was imminent, I began to fun process of researching baby-hood. How much and how often to babies eat, how long should babies sleep, when do they start sleeping through the night, and so on and so forth.
One of my dearest friends from college had a baby before me and recommended a book called
On Becoming Baby Wise. She said it was an easy scheduling system that would have my baby sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. Honestly, the first thing that popped into my head was, "yeah, right. Maybe that worked for you but I seriously doubt it will for me". But, being in the first time mommy stage and not knowing where to start, I thought it was worth picking up. I ordered a copy from half.com. I read it and it made sense to me! Quite a few ladies at my church also confirmed that this system worked for them.
Baby Wise is written by Doctors, so I trusted that what they were saying wasn't going to damage my poor child psychologically for the rest of his life.
The basic premise of the book is keeping your baby on a simple, flexible schedule of eating, wake time and sleeping. You feed your baby, play with them and then nap them after each feeding so that they aren't becoming overstimulated. The one thing that the book encourages you to avoid is letting your baby "snack feed", when you sit down to feed your baby, encourage them along without letting them fall asleep until their tummy is full. Then, your baby won't really need to eat for at least another 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Obviously, if your baby is indicating that they're hungry, feed them sooner. Between 8-12 weeks, most babies on the Baby Wise system will naturally begin sleeping through the night. I didn't believe this at all, but when Monkey hit about 9 weeks, he started sleeping through the night.
I must say that Monkey sleeping through the night gives me a totally different outlook on life. I feel rested and ready to conquer each day. Plus, Monkey is happy and wakes up in just the best mood, which adds to me being in a better mood at the start of each day.
This system Works for Me (and my husband) and I hope that it will work for you, too! Don't forget to check out
Rocks in my Dryer for other great tips!
Feel free to e-mail me at any time if you want to ask me any questions regarding this book and how it worked for us.