The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior--Beyond the Basics from Infancy Through Toddlerhood by Melinda Blau

122 views, 0 favs, 0 embeds more stats

I bought this book after doing MUCH research and re more

I bought this book after doing MUCH research and reading. At the time my daughter was 9 months old and I had managed to get in the habit of nursing her to sleep. She had to nurse to sleep for every nap and bedtime and every night waking and if, God forbid, she woke up as I lowered her into the crib, we would have to start all over again. She was up every 1.5 hours EVERY night for months, and finally I just had it. I had read books that reccommend cry it out, or controlled crying but even the ones where you went in every 5 to 10 minutes and soothed the baby seemed so cruel to me, and she would get soooo upset. I have even heard of babies vomiting from this. Plus I had more than one person who did "cry it out" tell me that 1. There baby became more clingy during the day and feared/hated his/her crib and bedtime and 2. When they went on vacation or the baby got sick they would have to start CIO all over again when they got home or the baby was well again. There was no way I was going to do that more than once! So I looked for other options, one is the "No-cry sleep solution" I loved the idea, but I didn't like how long it was going to take. I tried it for a while, but I wasn't seeing improvement quick enough (for me), I needed something that worked faster, since I was a walking zombie!! I found this book and thought I would give it a shot, I decided to give it a week and if I didn't see improvement I probably would have given up. The first night was hard (but way easier than the first night of cry it out would have been). The second night my daughter who had never slept more than 2 hours at a time at night, went 4 hours without waking to eat. On the third night she put herself to sleep all by herself with NO crying (just a little fussing) and slept for 4 hours again each stretch. In less that a week she was putting herself to sleep for every nap and bedtime with NO CRYING at all!! She would babble and play and then fall asleep! And she was only getting up once or twice a night (a vast improvement from 7-8!) Within 3 weeks she slept through the night for the first time and has been ever since (with the exception of when she gets sick, however she gets right back to sleeping after she is better, no crying! yay! We are now using this book with my son. I started right away with him and at 2 weeks old he put himself to sleep all on his own for naps and bedtimes and at 8 weeks he slept through the night. Then he was diagnosed with severe reflux at 3 months and he would wake up in pain at night and the only thing that would soothe him was to feed him. So now at 8 months we are using the book to get him to sleep through the night again now that his meds for reflux are finally right. He had been getting up ever 2 hours at night because of the pain and then it just became a habit once his meds starting working. I started the book 2 days ago. Last night he only got up ONCE to eat. He slept from 7pm-1:20 and then 1:20 till 7 AM! 3 days ago he got up 7 times in one night. This book WORKS! If you follow it for two days you will see VAST improvement. Your baby most likely won't be sleeping through the night on the 2nd day but usually by 2 weeks they will be. And after the 2nd night you will see such improvement that I guarantee you will be encouraged to continue and it feels so good too because you have saved your baby (AND YOU!) the emotional stress of crying it out! Basically you get your baby on a routine, NOT A STRICT SCHEDULE. You CAN fluxuate from it, I did with both my kids and it still works/worked for them. You basically just want the baby to get to the point where he/she knows what's coming next. Eat, activity (awake time), sleep. The only con I found with this book is that she does sound condescending at times, she calls you Luv, and sometimes makes it sound like you are a little kid who doesn't know what you are doing. But, honestly, WHO CARES? So long as it's working I don't care what she calls me! lol Some people claim she sounds like she is against breastfeeding, but I did not get that impression at all.I think she is just trying to say, breastfeeding or formula, whatever you decide is right for you is best. I BF my daughter for 13 months and this book worked perfectly for me and I plan to do the same with my son. To the people who are considering doing cry it out but looking for an alternative. Give this book 3 days, just 3 days, if you are not convinced that it is the better choice than crying it out, then go ahead and do cry it out. I pass no judgement on people who do choose to do CIO, it is better to do that and have a happy parent than to have a sleepless unhappy parent IMO. But if you are on the fence and feel guilty about having or deciding to do CIO, just try this first! It's just 3 days, and if it doesn't work, you can always do CIO afterwards. I have reccommended this book to 4 people already and ALL FOUR of them said it worked for them, and 2 of them give it as a shower gift they loved it so much.
less