Well, after a few days of crying, I decided that I needed a break from babywise. It's a terrible feeling when you want to do what's best for your baby, but you have no idea what that is!! He was crying WAY too much though. This week I have kept the babywise philosophy (feed time, wake time, nap time) in mind, but I have also kept my "go with the flow" philosophy in mind at the same time. Sometimes he sleeps in his swing, sometimes in the bouncy chair, and sometimes in his crib. If he cries for more than 15 minutes or so, I try the pacifier, and if that doesn't work, I rescue him. I have been so much more relaxed, and I think he is a happy baby! (see pictures below!!) He is going to bed around 9:30 or 10, waking up one time in the middle of the night...around 3:30, and then sleeping again until about 6:30.
I came across a babywise blog that had some great tips. (This woman is like super-mom or something and she is a super scheduler and super organized and I really don't want to be her, but I did find some great things on her blog...)
http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/
The nice thing is that she also incorporates tips from other books, not just babywise. She gives some great tips from The Baby Whisperer book. A few things that we have tried that I think have made a difference are sitting and swaddling. We did swaddle Colby the first few weeks of his life when he slept. I think we just did this because they did it in the hospital, so we figured it was the right thing to do! :) But after a few weeks we noticed that if we didn't swaddle him, he liked to sleep with his arms up, so we thought maybe he didn't like being swaddled anymore. What I didn't realize is that babies don't really have much control over their arms, so a lot of times, their flailing arms actually wake them up! It makes sense....his arms do flop around a lot...and it seems like the swaddling really helps him to fall asleep faster. Although, a lot of times, he squirms his arms out first and then falls asleep, but whatever works!
Also, before we put him in his crib, and after we've swaddled him up, we just sit in the dark room and give him a chance to calm down. Babies can get overstimulated really easily and that is another thing that makes it difficult for them to fall asleep. This really helps Colby calm down. (you're not supposed to rock, but I usually do anyway....whoops!) We also have 2 fans going and some ocean sounds turned up pretty loud.
All that being said, we are very pleased with our happy little baby. Don't get me wrong, we still have lots of fussy moments, but they are usually short-lived and can usually be taken care of with a bottle or some rocking. As Travis has said several times, we are finally coming out of "survival mode" and able to enjoy this little miracle more and more. He is truly AMAZING!!
1 comment:
We tried the Baby Wise book and it was like the worst week of our parenting lives!! :o) The rest of my family threatened to burn it because all Landyn and I both did for a week was cry!! So we opted for the go with the flow and were both much happier. Granted, we didn't sleep as much as I would have liked, but we were much happier while we were awake! The first eight weeks are definitely survival mode, but once you get past eight weeks, it is smooth sailing. Then they become FUN! Yall are doing a great job!!!
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