Call Me the Baby Whisperer

One of my favorite parenting books is The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracey Hogg. The theme of her book is how to get your baby on a routine, which in her case, she calls E.A.S.Y. You put your baby on a 3-ish hour rotation of Eat, Activity, Sleep, time for You. So, your baby eats, is awake for awhile, sleeps, you get your stuff done, and the cycle repeats. Except at night, of course, when you leave out the activity part.

We love this routine for a couple of reasons. One, your baby learns to go to sleep on her own without any props. Two, it helps take out some of the guesswork of why your baby may be fussy. If your baby is fussy after being awake for awhile, you know she's probably sleepy. Or if she's just gotten up and is fussy, you know she's probably hungry. Three, your baby gets used to the routine, and just sort of knows what to do next in her day. It's wonderful.

The author describes several baby personalities and how they may adapt to this routine. We've discovered that Daphne is a Spirited baby. She's very vocal when she needs something, doesn't like to sit around in a dirty diaper, moves around a lot, needs to be swaddled for sleep. It's a nice way of saying that she's high maintenance.

We've had a hard time getting her to go to sleep and to stay asleep. This book gave a great tip...watch very closely for your baby's sleep window. Whatever sign she might give to show she's tired, immediately start your sleep-time routine. I've finally discovered that our spirited Daphne has a very small sleep window. It's more like a sleep sliver. You miss it, and getting her to sleep is like pulling teeth. So basically, the whole time she's having her activity time, I am watching like a hawk for her first yawn. Then it's time to go to her room where it's dark (she's very distracted by lights), swaddle her up, and put her to bed. Within a few minutes, she's sound asleep. I catch her on the first yawn and everything goes perfectly. I get lazy and wait for yawn #2, or even worse, yawn #3, and it's all over. She cries a lot.




























If you miss her sleep window, er, sliver, pretty much the only way she'll sleep is if you strap her in the baby carrier and run up and down the stairs. Seriously. Simple rocking or walking around doesn't cut it anymore. So if you need a work out, feel free to come over here and carry Daphne up and down the stairs. It's great for your thighs.














Of course, by now I'm very good at catching yawn #1.