The one about being "babywise"

If you have spent any time reading parenting books you will be completely befuddled by the udder contractions spelled out in each one. Some same feed every 2 hours like clockwork, some say feed whenever baby is hungry.  Some say use a swing to lull your baby to sleep and insure a nice long nap, some say No! Some say take your baby out and socialize, some say keep baby away from others because they might have germs! Each book does a great job of convincing their take on the subject and disputing the opposite. It's enough to make one go crazy and just give up!

I had heard a lot about the book "Babywise" but was never too interested in reading it. All i knew was that it has to do with establishing a schedule for baby. Me being free-spirited (aka disorganized) have not been capable of living by any kind of structure since Judah arrived. Scheduling seemed like a chore. I was not interested and therefore not interested in Babywise.
For unknown reasons i decided last week to read it anyways. The first thing i learned was about helping baby sleep.

The three most important things according to Babywise:
1) Do not rock baby to sleep (this includes rocking chairs, swings, and car rides)
2) Do not nurse baby to sleep
3) Do not sleep with baby

Hmmm.... 3 strikes, I'm out!

According to babywise I'm a total failure. I couldn't even fathom how to get Judah to sleep aside from the aforementioned taboos! After reading the rationales about how these sleep props become crutches and soon baby won't be able to fall asleep without them. Well I guess Judah was living validation of that. So i decided to set out and correct my mistakes.

The other things I learned was that hyper-scheduling is crazy, but some structure adds needed predicatability to his life- and mine. Even though it was contradictory to the first books i had read and how i had been living i decided to go for it. It spelled it out and made it seem simple:

feed... wake... sleep

that's all there is too it, and gives a rough time line but mainly just feed for 30 min or however long it takes, play with baby (it even gives ideas: read, sing, etc...), then put him in the crib while he is still awake so he learns to fall asleep on his own.
The first 2 days were a bit rough (coincidentally the day of and after his shots so that might have had something to do with it), but now he is doing pretty well. He sleeps in his crib!!! Woo-Hoo! and he only wakes up once at night to eat. According to the book it shouldn't be long til he sleeps completely through the night with no night feedings, so i'm looking forward to that.

So in conclusion, amidst the plethora of parenting books out there I'd say baby wise is a winner. I'm glad Judah's been such a trooper in adapting well to the schedule. (we'll see how well that lasts when grandmas and aunties want to hold him all day!)

 sleep time- shhh...

play time!