Babies Babies Babies

In the last 5 days I have been in the car 28 hours...it is good to be home! Thankful for time with my family back in Kansas and thankful for a couple of days away just Jason and me...alas I am home and excited to be writing again.

While I was out on the road I got a text from a friend asking me some specific questions about her little guy and getting him to stretch through the night on feedings. She thanked me...and I thought "Gosh I LOVE this stuff! I love helping people trouble shoot baby schedules, baby sleep patterns, feedings - all of it!" So I thought I might dedicate a couple of blog posts to some practical baby things that I have discovered and have worked.

Let me preface this again as I did in that very first post - New Words - this is what has worked for our family. Everyone is different. Choose what works for you all. So no pressure here saying this is the only way. Nope, this is just A way.

All of the info that is to come was thought about and prayed about. I wanted a system (b/c that's how I am wired) to help me know what to do w/ a new born. Because I am the primary care giver this is where I landed. If Jason had been the primary care giver we might have ended up with a different system. Also, I took bits and pieces from these different resources and applied them to our family. Here goes.

The 3 books I would recommend reading.
1. "Growing Kids Gods Way" by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo
2. "Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano
3. "Dr. Denmark Says" by Madia L. Bowman

The first one was such a great biblical and "this is why" we wanted to train our kids from the day we brought them home from the hospital kind of stuff. It also gave great physiological reason to let an infant cry it out (great exercise for their lungs, only way to get rid of any kind of frustration etc) - awesome information for new parents.

The 2nd one was/is a huge blessing. While I love "Growing Kids Gods Way" I didn't feel like it offered the practical ways of getting your child to stretch between feedings during the day and through those oh so precious night time hours. This book gave a step by step (go in order people...I tried it out of order with Wyatt b/c I simply forgot and it didn't work) way to cut those feedings back. It made sense to me. I would say to Jason - "Ok babe the next two weeks are baby boot camp weeks." He would know what that meant and we were able to be a team in the middle of the night as we let our little ones figure it out. That is a blessing as our last one did it on her own with out any major "boot camp" from me at 7 weeks. That means 12 hours moms! Now it is important to keep in mind that I do not believe that our kiddos are sleeping for a solid 12 hours - some nights maybe - but what they have learned is that they are okay in their beds and they can self soothe back to sleep again. Sometimes I hear them in there in the middle of the night talking or blowing raspberries and then after awhile they fall back asleep. This is a great life skill for them to have. On a side note that phrase is often said in my mind as I think about training our kids with anything. You know, potty training is a great life skill to have. Eating with utensils is a great life skill to have. Even teaching your little one (we will be doing this with Hope soon) how to crawl up and down the stairs is a great life skill to have.

Book #3 is a unique one. Dr. Denmark is an amazing pediatrician I believe around 109 years old and happened to be my husbands pediatrician when he was a little boy. So yes, she was practicing medicine well into her 80's I think. Now this book, while I didn't like her infant schedule (didn't make sense to me - for some it does) I did love her thoughts on nutrition and home remedy medical advice. Her baby food "goop" that I feed my kids has been amazing for their diets and getting them to eat ALL foods! So thankful. Another great thing I took from her book was tummy sleeping our kids. With Caroline it took me about 3 days to do it...the other two they were tummy sleeping in the hospital. Her thoughts on it and SIDS just flat out made sense to me. In a nut shell...we are the only animal species that tries to lay its young on their back. They feel like they are falling when on their back which is why they have that startle jerk. Laying them on their tummies also helps w/ tons of reflux issues. For me it was peace of mind to know that when spit up happened they weren't on their backs and likely to choke on it. Being on their tummy means I change sheets a lot, but no choking! Thankful for this resource.

Finally, I also did this stuff to set Jason up for success. I have had to do some contract work outside of the home to earn money and I think this system enabled Jason to know what was next and how to implement it with our kids while I was away.

All of this information I hope is an encouragement to you to try to figure it out with your infant. You are doing a good work and you can not come down from it! Press on. I say this as I am "training" sweet Hope that nap time is not over yet. I still have 45 minutes!