Sigh.
I don’t even know how to start this post with anything other than a sigh.
Sigh (again).
So, Everett is 11 weeks old this week. Here are my thoughts on the matter, in this order: 1) HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! 2) My baby is getting so big! 3) When oh WHEN will he sleep through the night so I can function as a human being again?!
I picked up a copy of Becoming Baby Wise at Goodwill last week. Before I get flooded with comments from attachment parents (and, more power to you!), let me be clear: I plan to use Baby Wise as a flexible guideline for creating a schedule for Everett. I have no intentions of following the book to a T (or starving my child or letting him cry until he’s blue in the face or any of the other common negative perceptions of Baby Wise).
For the past eleven weeks we’ve been feeding on demand and sleeping on demand. That is, every time Everett is hungry, I feed him, and every time he is tired, I put him down for a nap. For the first six weeks or so, this worked perfectly for us. I was pretty in tune with his hunger and sleep cues, and he went down for naps easily.
But now? At the risk of sounding dramatic, every day is a battle field, and I find myself just trying to survive.
I think I had this idea in my head that because I’m home with Everett (all day every day, and sometimes those are looooong days), I should be following his cues instead of forcing him on a schedule, because really….why would I not? I eat when I’m hungry and sleep when I’m tired so why shouldn’t Everett be given the same luxury while we’re both at home figuring out life together?
Well, I’ll tell you why. Because Mister Everett recently decided that he hates napping. And, contrary to popular belief and intuition, the better babies sleep during the day, the better they sleep at night. Can I get an amen, moms?!
Everett went from a good napper to a bad napper in a matter of days, and after a few rough nights, I was over his protesting. It was time to regulate (with love of course). We’ve been doing the eat/play/sleep cycle for a few weeks and decided to finally start implementing some of the other Baby Wise recommendations. We are only two days in at this point so I feel unable to make an assessment, but I will say that day one was torture and day two has been wonderful. I’m sure I’ll have a better idea of whether or not it’s working at the end of this week.
I’ve been stalking this blog religiously, but I’m curious to know from all you mommas out there—did you try Baby Wise? Or portions of Baby Wise? Any other sleep training books I should know about? We are pretty open at this point to new ideas and recommendations. Like my pal Kelsey recently stated, raising a baby is like a science experiment. We are experimenting a lot these days.
Wish us luck!