Babywise

At the strong recommendation of one of my friends, I purchased the book On Becoming Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep.  I finished it last week, and I generally agreed with most of it.  Granted, it's the first baby book I've read, so I might feel differently after I've gotten some other perspectives.

Although the title of the book indicates that it focuses on getting your child to sleep through the night, Babywise actually touches on all aspects of a baby's life, specifically feeding. 

Things I particularly liked about Babywise:

- It considers the relationship between the father and the mother to be key to establishing a good feeding and sleeping routine with the baby.  According to the authors, one of the best ways to make your child feel secure and loved is to witness a strong relationship between his or her parents.

- It strongly discourages parents from feeding a baby every time it fusses (because then the parents might miss what the baby is trying to communicate to them).  It also discourages parents from routinely letting the child fall asleep during feedings, or transition from a feeding straight into a nap (because the child might learn to need a feeding in order to fall asleep).

- Instead, it recommends a feeding-waketime-naptime routine to be repeated throughout a baby's day.  In the beginning the cycle will repeat quickly -- every 3 hours or so -- but as the child gets older it will lengthen to include full nights of sleep and 4- or 5-hour cycles during the day.  Of course, it will be hard to keep a newborn awake during feedings, but at least I have a goal to work towards, and they gave several recommendations of things to do that will help keep your baby awake.

- The authors recommend that during the very first week, we focus only on one thing: getting Otto to take full feedings each time I nurse him.  Apparently babies are keen to "snack" if you let them, and it will set us up for a lot of frustration if he doesn't learn to eat each time until he's full.  The sleeping schedule during this first week is not as important as getting a good foundation established for nursing.

- Babywise discusses the different kinds of cries a baby makes, and how to identify them.  And sometimes, the authors say, you just have to let a newborn cry for a little bit in order for them to learn how soothe themselves to sleep (assuming they are fed, clean, and not sick).  On the surface, I agree with this.  However, I know that it will be difficult to hear my baby cry, so I may not be able to let Otto go 15 minutes or so without intervening.

I'm a first-time mom, so all these theories might go straight out the window once Otto is here!  However, I'd like to read several more books before the birth, so I will have different perspectives to consider.  I will probably end up using some tips from each book. 

Next on the list: The Happiest Baby on the Block.