Baby Wise

When Travis was born, he had jaundice really bad and ended up being hospitalized twice. We spent 7 of his first 10 nights of life in the hospital where I would feed him, change him and then put him right back in his bassinet under the bililights.

When I got home all I wanted to do was to hold and snuggle him. That led to him only sleeping in my arms during the day, which I didn't mind because I just wanted him near me all the time. At bed time I tried to put him in the co sleeper and he would cry and cry and cry, and Jon and I would get no sleep. So I pulled him into bed with us, sleeping with him in the crook of my arm where he would nurse until he fell asleep.

These things combined to create a child who would only sleep in mommy's arms or the swing and wanted to snack all day instead of eating a full meal. Some days he would fall asleep eating and then he would wake up a few minutes later acting like he was starving. Basically he was never satisfied with food or sleep.

We stayed with my sister Angie last month when we were in town for our sister Fish's wedding. I told her that I really wanted to get Travis on a schedule and she lent me the book Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam . When we got home I went to find the book and it was no longer in my bag...turns out that Jon thought our 1 1/2 year old niece had put it there when she was playing in out stuff, so he put it back on the bookshelf.

When we were there for Christmas Eve I made sure that the book made it into my bag so that it would make it home with me.

Saturday evening I sat down and read the whole book. I was so excited to try it that I almost started right then. I thought about it some more and decided to wait until the next morning.

Sunday morning I got up and started the routine. I decided to start with a three hour cycle. Feed, wake time and then nap time.
Rinse and repeat.

First nap time he screamed the whole time.

Second nap time he screamed for the first part and then slept for a bit.

Third nap time he screamed, slept and then screamed.

That continued all day.

His last scheduled feeding was at 10pm. I fed him, changed him and put him down in the co sleeper where he cried until 1:45am. Every 15 minutes or so I would reach over and give him his pacifier and tell him it was nigh-night time. At 1:45 I decided to feed him. Afterall, he was going to need to keep up his strength if he was going to continue to cry like that. I put him back down at about 2:15, he fussed for a few minutes and then slept soundly until 7 this morning when I woke him up to eat.

I am so tired, but I am seeing promising results with him already...

First nap today he turned his head to the side and went right to sleep! Victory!

Second nap today he cried then slept and is now crying again. **sigh**

I just have to stand firm and give him some time to adjust. I think he is going to do well once he gets the hang of it, and if not, I will find another method that works for him.

I am just so thankful for all the great mommy friends who talked me through last night....even though I knew I was doing the right thing it helped tremendously to have the support of other mommies who have gone and are going through this with their kids.