My First 300 Babies

[sunkist]

Has anyone read this book?? It is quite old for a babycare book, copyrighted in 1964, so obviously a lot of things, like having baby sleep on stomach, are outdated. Anyways, a friend lent the book to us and I''m kind of shocked about how strict she tells you to be with baby! There is an hourly schedule listed in the front of the book and then in the chapters behind she details what exactly you should do through the whole day! And she is very strict on feeding times, tells you not to feed before 2AM (that was after the 10pm feeding and before that, going down for bed at 6pm). She tells you to scold/talk sternly to your baby if he''s fussing when he''s supposed to be napping or sleeping, or if he''s squirming on the changing table.

Anyways, I''m a little shocked by this book but wondering if maybe there is some truth to it. I''m frustrated right now cause I think my little kiddo is going to bed WAYYY too late. Last night he wouldn''t stay asleep until 12am. Yes, midnight! Since birth he has been going to sleep around 10:30pm (again he is 2 months now, that''s 9-1/2 weeks). But now it''s getting later and later. I did notice last night that around 8pm he was drowsy, so I put him down to bed. But he never slept more than 5 minutes before being up and fussing again. I try putting the pacifier back in, but 5 mins later he''s up.

I tried burping him, feeding him, letting him stay up till he fell asleep in my arms and putting him down. But as soon as I put him down his eyes pop open. We did this from 8pm to 12pm last night!

Anyways, I''m headed to the bookstore today to browse through a few of the baby books out there. I think I''m mostly interested in the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby one.

I just wondered if this My First 300 Babies book had any merit with such a strict schedule for baby. Still even if I did want to follow it, Wes would NOT be able to go down and stay down at 6pm!

 

[Mandarine]

I''ve never heard about that book....sounds a little too strict. Maybe that''s what my babies need...a little rough lovin''

j/k

I have Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins (same one you mention but for twins). To be honest...I have been too sleep deprived to actually read it (haha), but I looked through quickly and liked it. They do recommend an early bed time and thank God this is one thing that my boys do very well at (knock on wood!).

I wish someone would have told me to read the sleep training books while pregnant!!....when you are so sleep deprived it''s hard to focus on reading anything..let alone a book that tells you how everything you''re doing is probably wrong! hehe

I read Babywise while pregnant. There is a lot of controversy about that book but I actually liked it. I have the revised edition so maybe the previous one was more strict?...I also took it with a grain of salt...basically what it says is to do 3-hour cycles (but listen to your baby''s cues if they are hungry before) and do Eat, activity, Sleep...kind of like the EASY method.

I have no idea why I think I can give any sort of advice today...hahaha

Good luck

 

[sunkist]

Hey Mandy, I feel like we''re all trying to figure this out together. I guess I can just believe that he can do it, put him down for bed early, and hope that eventually he gets the message. I guess its one thing at a time. At least he seems to be over the worst of his gas/colic (knock on wood!).

 

[MustangGal]

Sounds interesting, I wonder how much has changed since 1964?

Maybe your little guy is overtired and just can get his mind to shut down? My guy was 9 weeks when I went back to work, and he was going to bed at about 9-9:30pm and sleeping until about 5:30am at that point (but he is a good sleeper!).

 

[jewelz617]

I turn off all distractions before my daughter goes to bed. No tv, toys put away, etc.

I make sure her dinner, bath and book are at the same time every night. Once we established a routine we've had absolutely no issues unless she's sick (which is rare, thankfully).

Scolding a baby is a bit much, so I couldn't follow that book. They are just babies they aren't being "bad" they just need gentle guidance.

ETA: I don't believe schedules need to be strict at all. Normally a child will naturally fall into a pattern. This can flex as they grow. I don't put my daughter to bed if she simply isn't tired, but it's just about encouraging them to get into a pattern. Once she starts school hopefully this will help her. I've never attempted cry it out, but I have friends who swear by it. It's just not for us. As long as babies are happy and comfortable they will be lovely cooperative little people

(most of the time!)

 

[Pandora II]

I read stacks of the things - Baby Whisperer I thought was good, but the Dr Sear''s ''The Baby Book'' was the one I felt most comfortable with. However I am not a routine person and have issues with things like CIO so a lot of books were not for me.

One I really enjoyed was a book my parents gave me called "Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children" by Dr Pye Henry Chavasse. He was a doctor in the UK in the 19th Century and the book is fascinating and suprisingly modern. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on ''Choosing a Wet-Nurse'' - no girls with red hair apparently!

I have an 1897 copy, but it''s available online for free!

ETA: If you want strict schedules, you might like Gina Ford''s ''Contented Little Baby''. I don''t care for her methods, but I have friends who swear by them.

 

[vespergirl]

A really great book to develop good sleep habits is "Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano. She is a wife & mother who lives in my area, who is hired by rich people as a personal consultant to get their kids sleeping on a schedule. I had heard about her locally, so I decided to check her book out, and I think it's great.

I wasn't going back to work, so I started her scheduling when the baby was 4 weeks old, but wasn't worried about getting him to sleep totally through the night by 12 weeks - just to get him to only one waking/feeding per night by 6 months old. Also, even though I strictly followed the sleep schedules, and I gave my son a bottle of formula at night after BFing (I had to supplement because of low milk supply) I did BF my son all day long on demand - the book advocates a feeding schedule, but I fed my son more frequently than the author recommends.

My friends were picking on me for having my baby on such a strict napping schedule, but my son was sleeping from 7 pm to 7 am EVERY NIGHT by 9 months old (and waking up only once a night at 2 am feeding from 4 months - 9 months old). He also took two 2 hour naps every day until he was 18 months old (now he is 3 and still takes one 2 hour nap every day, and still sleeps 12 hours per night).

The book said that if you follow her process, your children will be asking to go to bed at naptime and bedtime, and I swear, my child does this. In fact, today at 1 pm, after preschool, my son got his milk & blanky, started walking up the stairs, and said, "Mommy, I'm tired, I'm going to go take my nap."

He also never fights us at bedtime or naptime.

I tried reading the Ferber book, but it was just too long and complicated. This book is short, matter of fact, and gives you a step by step schedule. I highly recommend it. However, it is not for the family-bed types - this book advocates getting the baby in his crib at one month old, and not running in there every time the kid makes a peep. I think establishing a strict nap/bedtime schedule so early on really made a big difference in our lives - I am probably one of the only mothers I know who was not sleep-deprived after my baby turned 4 months old.

http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Hours-Sleep-Weeks-Step/dp/0525949593

 

[E B]

Date: 1/19/2010 5:28:03 PM
Author: PinkAsscher678

Scolding a baby is a bit much, so I couldn't follow that book. They are just babies they aren't being 'bad' they just need gentle guidance.

No kidding!

I just finished "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. I liked that she suggested several different things for parents to try (to eventually form their own solution). We've tried a few of her techniques and so far, they appear to be working! He's cutting four teeth at once, however (according to his pediatrician) so I won't be seeing 8 hour stretches of sleep any time soon, and I've accepted that.

 

[Mara]

I am reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and I just finished No Cry SS as well. They were both gifts. The No Cry was a really easy read so I have finished it whereas HSHHC is only halfway thru.

We don''t PLAN to do a no cry OR a cry solution, I just plan to figure we''ll try a few things and see what works for us...trying to keep an open mind. But the No Cry book was interesting to me because it really advocated a lot of the same things that we tried with Portia when we trained her. Basically it''s routine, consistency, and positive reinforcement..even down to something like crate training and crib training... crib should always be a positive place, just like crate should be for dog, etc.

The funny thing for me is in the end of the No Cry book it said basically if NOTHING ELSE works for you in this book, then here is a ''modified cry'' option for you. It''s basically the soothing cry solution, not total CIO I guess. But I thought it was ironic that it''s No Cry and how CIO is bad but then if you absolutely can''t make anything else work, maybe crying has some merit in the end anyway.

 

[fieryred33143]

Sunkist-I highly recommend going to the library for these books. Not all methods will work for your LO. For example, I really disliked HSHHC because I felt like I needed to keep my eyes glued on Sophia and as soon as she gave a sleep signal, drop everything to put her to bed. I really liked EASY because the routine made sense and HBOB was heaven sent (the 5 S''s). Luckily I read through most from the library and only purchased Baby Whisperer.

As for the bed time, Sophia had really late bed times to start with and slowly moved it up on her own. She started at 10:30pm and slowly moved to 7:30pm. She is now demanding an earlier bed time, my guess is she''ll be in bed by 7pm by the end of this month.

If you want to move it earlier, my suggestion is picking a bed time routine and sticking with it. Showing him its not "play time" is key. Let''s say you want to start at 8pm, I would put him to bed at 8pm and even if he wakes every 30 mins keep him in the darkness of his room without talking to him and if you can wing it, skip the diaper changes. At his age, I think its fine to still rock to sleep until he realizes that 8pm is bed time.

Sorry you are having sleep frustrations. That stage is really hard what with the no sleeping, then Yay sleep, then boo sleep regression, rinse and repeat. It does get better though.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Date: 1/19/2010 7:28:01 PM
Author: Mara
I am reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and I just finished No Cry SS as well. They were both gifts. The No Cry was a really easy read so I have finished it whereas HSHHC is only halfway thru.


We don''t PLAN to do a no cry OR a cry solution, I just plan to figure we''ll try a few things and see what works for us...trying to keep an open mind. But the No Cry book was interesting to me because it really advocated a lot of the same things that we tried with Portia when we trained her. Basically it''s routine, consistency, and positive reinforcement..even down to something like crate training and crib training... crib should always be a positive place, just like crate should be for dog, etc.


The funny thing for me is in the end of the No Cry book it said basically if NOTHING ELSE works for you in this book, then here is a ''modified cry'' option for you. It''s basically the soothing cry solution, not total CIO I guess. But I thought it was ironic that it''s No Cry and how CIO is bad but then if you absolutely can''t make anything else work, maybe crying has some merit in the end anyway.

LOL you just compared your baby to your dog!