Friday, January 1, 2010

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer

I used to think that this book was probably silly (of course not having read it :( ) I now recant all thoughts and statements and wished I had read it when we had Mr. A as an infant! There are definitely things that I would have done differently. I am only a few chapters in, but it has already helped to "steady" Little Man's sleeping patterns and get him closer to sleeping through the night!! The program is simple...basically you follow the E.A.S.Y. pattern as a routine. I am all about routines/schedules, so this really seems to work for me (without having to look at a clock at all).

The E. is for eat; The A is for activity; the S for sleep and the Y for yourself (time to do what you need to do). Little Man's typical "routine" had him falling asleep after his bottle (this was started with his birhtparents) and then getting up and playing so he was more of a E. S. A kind of kid. By consciously making him stay awake after a bottle and re-working that habit he now sleeps from 7pm-2:00am. He still is getting a night feeding, but it is really because he is hungry (you can hear his stomach growl!) and he goes right back to sleep until 6 or 7am!! He is a BIG boy so I can understand the need for those extra calories at this point, plus he is starting move! Of course I hope that will soon end as well and he will just sleep ALL NIGHT!! This is a HUGE improvement from where he was.

I really expected a rough night last night following his birthparent visit, but it was just fine! He did wake up at 11:30 for "no reason" and then at 2 for a feeding, but nothing like what I had anticipated. That sparks some questions in my mind...it had been a whole month since he had seen his birthparents...did he know who they were? They must have seemed familiar (smells,etc)! I have no idea how the brain works in that manner at 6 months old, but there didn't seem to be any grieving happening last night. I have no idea-lol! I really made a point to keep him close once he got back. He always had me in sight if he wasn't in my arms and I made sure to keep everything the same as usual. Maybe that helped? This is quite an adventure!

I look forward to reading more and getting Little Man slowly but surely putting himself to sleep :)

1 comment:

Mary H. said...

Sounds to me like he feels secure in your home and didn't need to grieve! Yea!!!
Could you email me privately with his name? "Little Man" is cute and all but...