First a few pictures. The last one is proof of Elliott's first tears. Tough times! We have started Elliott fashion time since we have so many cute 3 month outfits and it seems like she will probably outgrow them before she can safely make her debut into to world and leave the shelter of the house. Who needs a special occasion to look cute, right?!
Now onto the crazy stuff....
All of you know that I am a student by nature. I loved school, hence the 3 degrees. I loved the research aspect and acquiring new knowledge. So, I have been reading and researching in my limited free time all the different ways the experts think one should raise and train a baby. There is baby wise (not created by a pediatrician or child development expert, fyi). Then, there is the baby whisperer book. And don't forget the happiest baby on the block with the 5 S's.
I am working on the getting your child to sleep book right now.
Why all the research you ask? No, there isn't anything wrong with Elliott. But, we are trying to prepare for life when I go back to work and to help Elliott adjust. We have been tracking her daily to see if she had a natural pattern and found that she did. So, we have put her on a schedule based on that pattern but that works better for our schedules too. She is on a four hour schedule and hopefully this will lead to her sleeping through the night soon.
The rock and hard place moment for me concerns the rock not rock controversy. Baby Wise states that you must let you child cry it out when you put her to sleep and not use sleep props like a swing or rocking and shushing. The reasoning is that she will not learn to self soothe and be dependent on you to get to sleep.
The Baby Whisperer encourages parents to rock and soothe their baby's. But, you are to comfort them, lay them down and if they cry, pick them up and pat them and lay them back down. The reasoning being that the baby will eventually learn to self soothe.
The Happiest Baby on the block uses the 5 S's to soothe a child: swaddle, side, suck, shoosh, sway. It directs parents to use these to calm their children and get them to sleep. We have been using these since day one and it really does help to calm her and to get her to sleep.
So, we are trying to figure out how to balance the theories and what works best for Elliott. I tried the whole cry it out bit last night and ended up with an upset baby from 10-midnight ish.
She was awake through her entire 4 hour block. Not fun! I let her cry for 10 minutes and would pick her back up and calm her and lay her down and the process would start all over again.
Now, I know from my training that a baby will cry on average anywhere from 2-6 hours a day and that the APA states that crying is healthy and needed to facilitate sleep. We let her cry before feedings and for a few minutes every time before we put her down for a nap. However, we use the 5 S's to calm her and get her to bed. This method meshes with what I have learned about attachment theory and bonding.
So, bottom line. We are working on it! The 4 hour schedule seems to do well. Just need to figure out the whole how to soothe/ sleep thing. Pray for us as we seek wisdom and guidance in this. Oh yeah and sleep at night for Mommy would be awesome!
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment