Mama Pajama Rolled out of Bed
So I've gotten asked about Joshy's schedule and what magic potion we give him to get him to sleep through the night. I've said it's a bit of schedule and a bit of luck. Here's baby J's schedule:
Yes, his whole day is planned out. He eats at the same time and sleeps at the same time every day. This makes for a very happy baby and a very happy mom. Our magic potion is babywise and a heart of stone.
So if I haven't pushed Babywise enough--here goes! I would recommend this book to any mommy or mama-to-be. The book is all about sleep training your baby, nothing crazy. I've never encountered a family who used babywise and didn't like it. Critics of the book haven't followed the Babywise program which makes no sense. They're usually kinda crazy and tell you to breastfeed your baby every time they cry, sleep with your baby and never put them down. Cah. Razy.
Here's the heart of stone part: you have to let your baby cry. Never more than 15 minutes, but it is still rough when you first start out. You have to let your baby cry themselves to sleep. And they will cry, every. single. time they need to go to sleep. I cried along with Joshua the first time Cam and I decided to let him "cry it out." It was so hard. But now I have a heart of stone and his "hey hey! No! no sleep! I'm falling asleep!" cries have no affect on me. (Affect? effect? I've been out of school for a while. Grammar nazis help me out here.)
I finally decided that I had to let him cry himself to sleep the day the mother in law left and Cam went back to work. It was just me and J, and I realized that I was spending 40 minutes trying to rock and sing him to sleep and I couldn't do it anymore. I really do have a heart of stone because I would rather let him cry for 3 minutes than rock him to sleep for 30 minutes. But let me tell you, this whole sleep training thing is awesome. I've actually seen him wake up in the middle of his naps, look around and then fall quietly back to sleep. It's fantastic.
So maybe next post I'll put some pictures of Joshua (because honestly thats the only reason people read this blog) and I'll try not to get on a soap box. Also, you can take a look at this schedule and not call me during feeding times (that wasn't meant to sound cheeky.)
Effect (noun), not affect (verb) :). So glad you've got a routine, and baby J is gettin hip to it! lol
ReplyDeleteHi Katie--Emily gave me your blog address so I could see your cute baby. He's adorable.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Babywise worked for you. It was also great for my friend who recommended it to me when I was pregnant with Jamie. I was so excited to have a plan when I read the book during my pregnancy. When Jamie was born, we followed it exactly as outlined. She screamed at the top of her lungs for more than an hour without sleeping every time she was supposed to have a nap. A neighbor (whose baby was sleeping from 6:30 pm to 6 am every day) recommended the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." (It doesn't tout attachment theory where you have to feed your baby constantly--it's just all about helping your child develop healthy sleep habits.) I was so relieved when it worked for me. By two months Jamie was sleeping 12 hours per night. It was heaven. :)
I got the second book of Babywise--I can't remember the name right now. But it is for older babies. I loved the sign language idea and we did it with both Jamie and Ethan. I also liked the information it had on feeding the baby solid food. (Maybe that was in the first one, I can't remember anymore.) It's nice to have good resources to draw from.