babywise

Now that I have been a Mom for almost 9 months, I wanted to take a chance and reflect on my Babywise experience. For those of you who don't know, Babywise is a book with a certain methodology on how to schedule your baby's day to encourage a happy, healthy baby that sleeps through the night. First of all, I read the majority of the book before Ben was born and agreed with the methodology quite a bit, especially since my sister recommended it. I did not read the sections on reflux and multiple births before he was born since I knew I only had one baby in my tummy and I figured, "What are the chances he'll have reflux?"

Anyway, once Ben was born I did my best to follow Babywise. I wasn't perfect, especially when it came to crying it out. But I did follow the eat, awake, sleep routine as much as possible, tried to stick to the 2.5 hour space between feedings, and I put him down in his crib, awake, with no passifier, 70-80% of the time.

According to Babywise, babies on this kind of routine sleep through the night by 12 weeks and take 1.5 to 2 hour naps during the day.

Ben was not the typical baby. Despite my efforts, by one month old Ben would only nap for 45 minutes at a time, no matter what I did. Also, he woke up every couple hours at night to eat. Plus, he would be up until 11:00 at night and would scream during feeding time. Also, he would nurse for 45 minutes to an hour at each feeding. Ben was also starting to spit up, a lot. Before I could even get him off the breast to burp him, he would spit up. And he would keep spitting up the whole time he was awake. Even 30 minutes after eating, if I laid him on the floor, he would spit up all over himself. I was going through clothes and spit up cloths like crazy.

After talking with my sister, she suggested Ben may have reflux. I went ahead and read the section on reflux and yep, Ben fit the bill. So, we switched from an attempted 2.5 hour schedule to a 2 hour feeding schedule. For about 3 months Ben would be awake for 1.25 hours, asleep for .75 hours and then up again. And, he was still taking 45 minutes to eat.
We also put Ben on reflux medication. The medication did not stop the spitting up, but it did help with not fussing during feeding time. No more crying after eating for Ben, Yeah! Also, it helped him feel better so that he was more relaxed at night, and went to bed easier. It was amazing. After a week of being on the medication, he went from being up until 11:00 fussing, to waking up and eating around 8:00 and falling back to sleep practically as I fed him. It was such a change. His tummy wasn't hurting him at night, so he slept better.


Despite keeping to a strict schedule, naps did not improve until Ben was almost 6 months old.
And, there was no end in sight to night time feedings. At four months old we did crying it out to drop the second night time feeding. 6 nights of crying and no luck. So, I gave up for the time being. I decided, because of his reflux, he was not ready to go that long without a feeding.

As my husband can attest, there were many times where I thought about throwing in the towel. Despite my Babywise attempts, my baby still ate twice at night when, according to babywise, he should be sleeping 9-10 hours straight with no feeding. Eventually I came to terms and decided that Ben just was not the typical babywise baby. I had a love-hate relationship with the book. I read sections over and over again to make sure I was doing things right, but also got frustrated with the book because it was written as an ideal situation. what I needed was a troubleshooting book, not a picture of what the perfect baby would do if I did A. I needed a book that told me what to do if after doing A, my baby did B, and how to get my baby to do C. But, alas, as a new Mom, I had to figure out how to work with my baby.

Let me pause here and say Ben is a wonderful baby. He is a happy little boy and such a joy. And i love him dearly. I just really wanted good naps so I could get some stuff done during the day and some uninterrrupted sleep at night.

It has been an uphill battle, but today, when Ben is nearly nine months old, I think all of my hard work was worth it. I am still nursing Ben more than the typical nine month old should be and he still does not sleep 9 hours without a feeding, but we are getting there.
His reflux is basically gone. No more spitting up, yeah! And, no more medication, yeah! He is now going 7-8 hours at night without a feeding (80% of the time), which has been wonderful for me.
The best part of all, Ben takes two naps a day. Each 1.5 - 2 hours long! His naps are perfect and wonderful for me! I can actually work out, shower, and do my hair. All before he wakes up! It has been amazing. He has been napping well for the past 3 months (minus my visit to my moms). His naps during the day have allowed me to gain back some of my sanity and the better night time sleep also helps.
And, he can go to bed for his naps and at night without a passifier. I go through our routine, put him in his crib awake and he either goes right to sleep or might fuss for a couple minutes, but that is it!
And, I must say I think it is because of Babywise. It may have taken nine months, but scheduling is well worth it. Especially since I am a type A personality, I love a schedule. I like to know what comes next. There are still hiccups sometimes. Going to church, or doing other things that mess up the schedule, sometimes have consequences that last a day or two. But when it is a typical day, Ben is a good napper and a happy baby! Which makes me a happy Mamma!

Now, our next battles are dropping the 11:00 night time feeding and weaning...