A book called Babywise

I have decided to post a little something about this book. My sister-in-law gave this to me for my birthday just before I had Annie. She used it with her 2 boys and it worked awesome. I am just going to share a few of my thoughts about it. Take it for what its worth...which probably isn't much.

I read Babywise the first time highlighting everything I thought I might need to know. But as soon as the baby came I had no idea what I was doing. The things the book said weren't working with the way Annie was sleeping. Apparently it takes time for them to be awake long enough for you to be able to start working on what it says. For us it was about 3 or 4 weeks.

This book is all about a schedule, getting them to eat, have wake time, and then sleep. The book says it should make your life predictable. They should wake up at the same time everyday and naps and everything will follow the same. That's not the way it worked with us for the first little while. During the first month I found it impossible because Annie slept all the time. She slept when she was supposed to, but she also slept while she ate, while she had baths, and while she was getting her bum changed. There was no waking this baby, she preferred to be awake from around 11pm to 3am. After that first month it was much easier to get her to eat, be awake and then take a nap. I was really good at the routine part. I fed her when she was acting hungry as long as it wass close to 3 hours in between, then wake time which was only about 45 minutes that includes eating time, and a nap would follow. It wasn't ever the same time everyday, but it worked. By 10 weeks Annie was sleeping through the night, and has ever since. With Maycie I knew that I had to wait a little while to try and get her to stay awake long enough to try doing what it says in the book. At her exact 8 week mark she slept through the night, and she has every night since. She has her last feeding at 8pm and goes right to bed after and we don't hear from her until 7 or 8 the next morning. I need as much sleep as possible and so it is awesome.

It sounds horrible but I don't want to have to be there for my girls to fall asleep. This book tells you that they need to learn to be able to put themselves to sleep. So now I put them in bed and they fall asleep without any fussing. That isn't how it starts out though. They have to learn to console themselves, so for the first little while they will cry themselves to sleep, if you have a hard time listening to your baby cry you may have a little trouble with this book, but it gets shorter and shorter every time. If they wake up during a nap and are crying I leave them in their beds and they always, always fall back to sleep. I don't ever let Annie get up from her nap unless she is happy. If she comes out crying I make her go back to bed, sometimes she falls back to sleep and other times she will lay there until she is ready to come out happy. Either way she is learning that when she wakes up from her nap she has to be happy. I feel like if she comes out of her room happy after a nap I know she has gotten enough sleep.

There other things the book talks about, like when you should be able to drop feedings, how many naps they should be taking, stuff like that.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a schedule and not wonder what each day will bring. To someone that wants their kids to be able to fall asleep by themselves. Those are the main things I have gotten from the book.

I am sorry this is so choppy and I probably didn't explain it very well but I love it and it works for us. This book has worked wonders and I have happy girls and I am a happy mommy because I am getting the sleep that I need too.