Book Review: Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep

We never really had a problem with Sam sleeping. Granted he did wake up about 1 -2 times a night, but he is a baby afterall. I knew we'd have to move him into nursery and I'd like to get him sleeping well established and understood.

I checked out Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep. I loved Happiest Baby on the Block, so I thought I'd see what he has to say about sleep.

This book was great! I learned a lot. About baby sleep cycles, how long typical babies sleep, what to do to start getting your baby to sleep longer and how to get them to fall and stay asleep better and understand the reasoning. The second half of the book focuses on when they are a toddler, which I will get again and read before then, but now there's no point.

The book focuses one 3 main things to help your baby sleep better:

- Routine

- White Noise

- Wake and Sleep technique

Routine: We actually have a decent routine with Sam and he's pretty tired consistently at around 7:30 - 8. If he's not hungry before 8, I'll read him a book, then we go upstairs and I breast feed and give him a bottle in our room with no lights on (it's still a bit light out) and turn on the white noise machine. He usually falls asleep pretty quickly.

White Noise: Silly of us not to have used this any sooner! Sam sleeps so much more soundly. He barely fidgets when I put him down in the pack and play. Rob and I feel we sleep better too! It works great with his naps too. Also, when we do move him into the nursery, he'll be used to falling asleep with it on.

Wake and Sleep: Ok, this one is a little tricky, but it's something we gotta do. When they falls asleep in your arms and you place them in down, you are to wake them up a bit. Not like full on awake, just get their eyes to open. At that point they are tired enough to get themselves back to sleep. It works most of the time, which is great! And if he really wakes up, I simply hold him and offer him a paci.

A couple other things I've used from the book is giving him no bottle at night. I just breast feed him, which is nowhere near a full bottle, but it's been enough. We just give him extra during the evening. I tried the dream feed one night, feeding him before he wakes up, but I didn't find he slept any longer. The point is to ween him off of needing to eat at night. I think him being 4 months helps as well, he's no long a newborn.

And so how does Sam sleep now since I've read the book? Much better! He's only been waking up once. Although last night and Saturday he did wake up a couple of times, but he falls back asleep much quicker. He naps better too on the weekend. Like we put him to nap, not wait for him to fall asleep. This was the first weekend he's taken all his naps upstairs, sweet. So a typical night is bedtime at 8, asleep by 8:30ish, waking up around 12, breastfeed and back asleep within an hour and then up for the day at around 5:30 - 6.

So yeah.

Book Review: Beyond the Sling

image from here

A couple weeks ago I was flipping channels and saw a piece on Good Morning America about how stars like Danica McKellar (Winnie from Wonder Years) and Mayim Bialik (Blossom and Big Bang Theory) use attachment parenting with their kids. Mayim even wrote a book about it.

I thought attachment parenting was some super hippy thing, but after watching that piece and learning more what it's about and how these super intelligent (mathematician and neuroscientist!) do it, I was pretty interested. So I checked out Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, her book about living an attachement parenting life.

I love this book! She's like my bestie! This book is right up my alley on my views on parenting. While I may not want to follow everything that attachment parents do like co-sleeping and elimination communication, that's ok! She even says that's ok. As long as you understand why they do those things and maybe use that philosophy in your own way on how you raise your kids.

The bottom line of the book is you know your kids better than anyone. Do what feels right and instinctual to you. Don't feel you need to follow the norm and pressures of other parents around you. Kids and babies are just that, kids and babies.

Another awesome thing that she said in the book, which doesn't have anything to do with attachement parenting really is to slow down. Life is super crazy these first few months and you won't and can't do everything. And I've heard it many many times before, but for some reason hearing "slow down" rather than, "don't try to do everything" just really resonated with me.

Anyways, I really enjoyed reading this book. It makes me excited to be a parent. It made me feel good too because I've had plenty of people give me advise already and while I do honestly listen to what every tells me, sometimes it bothers me what they say. I've actually cried about some of the things people have said because it's like they are telling me (in a nice way) what I am doing as a mother is wrong. 'Specially when people tell me that I'm spoiling Sam by holding him. I spent 2 1/2 years trying to have a baby (tough years too) and 9 months carrying him inside me...I'm going to hold this little miracle as much as I want to.