Sleep! What is that? 😉

Sleep is so important for us and for our babies.  I have so many ideas for what I want to share with other moms and this one book always comes to mind.  The book is BabyWise.  I honestly have never read it front to back so I can’t say I’ve followed all the guidelines but there are a few chapters that are priceless to me.

My sister just had her third baby and a few days prior I was looking for my old copy and she couldn’t find hers we were laughing at how many times we have bought this book for ourselves and for others! The original one I bought was 6 years ago and I have no idea who has it now but it has been past back and forth between so many mamas. The last time I laid eyes on it it was falling apart.

I bought it when my firstborn, Hadley was 4 months old and regressing in her nighttime sleep, not napping well and getting overstimulated.  We just could not get in a good groove.  The months prior I was winging it, I felt like I knew enough because I was a “baby nurse”.  But having my own baby (especially a reflux, colicky one) that I was responsible for 24/7 was a completely different story.  A very very humbling one.

I opened the book up to the schedule pages.  My type A nursing self loves instruction. I honestly think this is one of the harder lessons I’m learning as a mom.  There is no step 1…step 2… for anything.  We have to rely on our own instincts because every baby and child is different.  They come home with a “when to call the doctor” list but other than that we are on our own.  However, thankfully this book laid it out in a way I could easily apply.

This book is known for the Eat-Wake-Sleep cycle which you’ll know more about when you read that chapter.  It has pages that tell you when your baby is x weeks – x weeks your daily schedule should look like this… stating a number of meals and naps at that age and when to expect a meal or nap to fall off and what the schedule looks like in future.  Simply seeing those future schedules took a huge weight off of me.  Sleep and fewer feedings were in my future!!

I realized I was keeping Hadley up longer than she should be after her feedings and because of this she was getting overtired and then it was hard for her to fall asleep.  Within 2 weeks of putting these guidelines into practice, she was in a consistent schedule.  Going down easier for naps- at same times of day and sleeping 12 hours at night!

Now it didn’t work perfectly every day and of course, there were more regressions in our future.  But it really helped me to feel like I could make a good routine for us.

I used it for my other two starting as newborns.  They were in a great routine within a few weeks and no exaggeration my third was sleeping 12 hours a night consistently at 6 weeks old.

This book is gold.

♥Erin