(dear reader, feel free to ignore... this is merely theraputic self-expression!)
I loooove to give advice... but I know it's usually the last thing new parents want to hear. I'm trying to be good and keep a lid on it- I really am! But sometimes you gotta blow off a little steam I figured this was the best place to do it. So, here are 5 things we found most helpful with a new baby:
- Sling: ours was a homemade hug-a-bub style wrap. In the newborn stage Maisy would sleep twice as long wrapped up in it. Nick went out for walks and I would get some sleep. It was fantastic.
- White Noise: www.simplynoise.com was our friend until 3 1/2 months (when we progressed to lullabies) Babies love white noise.
- The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD: the settling techniques in here were extremely helpful.
- Sleep Right, Sleep Tight: book on controlled comforting. We started doing their program in Feb. Within a few days Maisy was responding really well. Now she settles herself to sleep around 70% of the time with no crying whatsoever. I can't stand either of the extremes and found this a good middle-ground approach.
- Baby Bee-Hinds: I wanted to do cloth nappies, but terry flats were just crap. I ended up buying these online on special ($27 each) when she was 5 months old and they've been awesome. I just wish I'd bought them earlier!
Phew, thanks for indulging me. All better now :)
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2 comments:
As always, Bron, you advice is helpful glad a relative is loaning a hug-a-bub.
Also - Luke and I have read a few books about sleep from attachment end to baby wise.
what end does 'sleep right, sleep tight' roughly fall towards?
Would be interested to read as we always like to have a lot of options :)
Thanks Amy, yeah it's good to look at all the options hey. You're welcome to borrow it.
I reckon it's fairly middle-ground. I guess you could say it's slightly to the tough end of the spectrum in there is some crying... but what we found was that she responded so well to it that there was actually less crying than when we were trying to settle her, feeding to sleep etc. Something about the structure of it seemed to reassure her.
It has 3 stages (under 6 mo, 6-12 and 12+) and for the 6-12 stage you put them down after a nice bedtime routine, then if there's crying you wait 30secs outside before going in and comforting for 2-10mins. You leave when all is calm, or at 10min then wait outside 2mins and repeat the cycles, the wait time getting longer each cycle (2, 4, 6, 8, 10mins). The baby is never left for more than 10mins and each cycle there's up to 10mins of comforting.
Initially Maisy went to the 6min cycle before falling asleep, but within days some of the time was starting to fall asleep by herself with no crying at all. Now about 70% of the time that's the case.
The really rigid structure actually made it easier to deal with the crying because watching the clock gave me something to focus on other than her. And, like I said, there was much less crying overall anyway.
I know different things work for different people... so please don't read my enthusiasm as 'you must do this'! Also, at different times, some things are better than others too. I had this book earlier on, but didn't find it so good for the newborn stage. That DVD, The Happies Baby on the Block was what we used then and it was great.
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