And A Mommy In A Pear Tree

So you might have noticed over there on the sidebar, a list of recommended things. I’m hoping to change those up every couple weeks or so, and I’m hoping to continue to do what I’m going to do today. Actually recommend them.

First things first: I should change the title of this post to What Got My Both My Babies Sleeping Through the Night.

I love all things Baby Whisperer! Before Ellie was born, my sister gave Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby to me, saying that it was a book that actually took into account different baby temperaments in helping moms come up with good and healthy routines for babies and that it explains how to decipher a baby’s cues and determine what they need when they cry.

Well, she was right! Holy cow it is SO helpful! There is a section that explains the many temperaments of babies, along with a quiz you can take to find out which your baby leans towards. And then throughout the book Tracy (the author and I are on a first name basis, that’s how close we are) continues to specify different techniques you can use for each temperament in establishing a routine. And not only that, she has really practical tips and tricks to help baby sleep, without relying solely on crying-it-out. Unlike other books that preach somewhat the same “eat-awake-sleep” pattern, this book is one that I went back to time and time again thinking, “but how can I do that?” and then the answer would be right there in black and white!

And when Ellie and Emma would cry and I wouldn’t know what their cries meant, I would race back to the book and look at the chart of different baby cries. It didn’t tell me everything, because every baby is different, but it definitely gave me some ideas and some things to try.

For both my girls, who have very different personalities, this book was invaluable! Practical, step-by-step kinds of stuff was exactly what I needed as a new mommy who, with our house concerts and worship leading and the like, needed my babies to be on a somewhat predictable routine.

Secrets of The Baby Whisperer is a book that gives a great overview to The Baby Whisperer methodology, and you can find even more practical tips in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior–Beyond the Basics from Infancy Through Toddlerhoodwhich is organized by common issues that arise in early parenthood: nighttime sleep, naps, early waking, potty training, weaning pacifiers, and more.

The other fantastic thing about The Baby Whisperer is the online forum. All the mommies that participate have the same Baby Whisperer (BW) outlook on things, and so the advice you get when you post a question is usually really good. Like everything, you have to weigh the answers you get with how you want to parent, but for the most part, I’ve had great luck with the forums. There are extensive articles on the forums, too, about sleep training and sleep patterns. There’s a forum on breast feeding, on toddler eating habits, and lots more. I spend hours on that thing.

Just writing about it gets me excited. That’s how much I love it.