Babywise

Now that Josiah is about a month old I've decided it's time to work on a routine. He's been eating and sleeping according to "his schedule" since he was born and since I'll be heading back to work soon I thought now would be a good time to start implementing an eating/playing/sleeping routine. I had a friend suggest the Babywise method to me and I really like the idea! It involves feeding your baby every 2.5-3 hours (since it takes that long for them to digest, unless of course they are going through a growth spurt or just happen to be hungry), allowing baby to be awake (or "play) for 30-45 minutes after eating, and then putting them down to sleep for 45 minutes or until the next 3 hour feeding. By following this schedule I am helping my child learn what to expect throughout the day and also keeping him from nursing to sleep (which has been an issue from day one!) Plus, he will learn how to self-soothe and put himself to sleep rather than being rocked to sleep every time (also an issue since day one!).

The toughest part about this schedule is the CIO "cry it out" part of the sleeping time. I've been going back and forth on whether or not to let him CIO-heck, he's only a month old, isn't that a little young to let your infant cry and cry and cry? Well, I've decided to give it a try since I've heard so many great responses from people who have done it. My philosophy is that I want to teach him to fall asleep on his own but also let him know that I'm there and have not abandoned him (maybe this is more for my comfort!). What I'll do is I rock him until he is starting to fall asleep, then I'll lay him in his crib and leave the room. When the initial crying starts I'll go in and check on him just to make sure he's ok (clean diaper, not still hungry, pacifier in mouth, etc.) and if he's fine I'll pat him until he's calm and then leave the room again. Then if he starts crying some more I'll wait 5-10 minutes and then go in and try to calm him again. We have yet to see him cry himself to sleep-it seems that even though I'll lay him down when he's basically half asleep he will somehow cry himself so that he is completely awake! This morning he gave himself the hiccups and I decided to bring him out to the swing and after 2 minutes he was half asleep again. It's hard to hear him cry, but my hope is that after being consistent and sticking to the schedule that he will be a happier baby when he is awake, eat really well when nursing, and sleep well during naps and throughout the night! Maybe I will eventually be able to let him cry longer than 5-10 minutes but right now I'm just not sure. We will have to see how this first week goes!