E.A.S.Y way- Opinions?

[abby81]

I have 3 week old dd and have been given book, mw mentioned Tracey Hogg and caught tv show if hers all just before gave birth. Not obsessed with having a routine but would like to get into a rhythm with dd soon. Mainly because I am totally scatter brained and not into routines, therefore live my life by the seat of my pants usually. During late pregnancy that stopped working for me and I enjoyed a little routine. Now dd has arrived and I want to be the best I can be and find the baby whisperer book quite interesting. Would love thoughts, personal experiences, particularly when to start. Dh and parents keeps telling me off for wanting to put my dd in a "routine" so early. Am I wrong?

Congratulations on your baby!

I agree with the above poster - think it depends on the baby and you.

My friend did EASY and found it fitted her baby's natural rhythms so it gave their day a useful structure (until he turned six months old and wanted to crawl and then cruise, then he wasn't interested in the same pattern so she had to adapt it). So she loved EASY and found it really helped her stop over-tiredness and so on.

For me, my DS1 was so far from fitting the EASY pattern that our whole lives would have been spent squashing him into something that didn't fit. He found sleeping so hard that he rarely napped at all (still hates sleeping at three!). I used to despair because I couldn't see how EASY would ever work for us if I wanted to get out and have a life.

Funnily enough, my DS2 would be a perfect candidate for EASY as that fits his natural patterns, but I find any real routine is pretty much impossible as he simply has to follow whatever DS1 is doing, so has to catch naps on-the-go and so on!

So why not give the principles of EASY a try and see if they work at all? If not, maybe it isn't for you and that is okay too. Having had two babies with totally different rhythms, patterns and personalities, I think it's most important just to find what works for both the baby and you, whether that is a routine or just following their signals for when they are tired/hungry (if you can understand them, which is also hit and miss sometimes!).

I really liked EASY routine, its a routine but not strict (& therefore much more realistic and manageable) We started at about 8 weeks.

Much better than GF because it's softer and kinder on you and the baby. That said, DS would not be forced into a routine and I therefore ditched this and similar books in favour of being led by him. A baby so young won't easily fall into an EASY routine and it can therefore be stressful trying to get them to - both to you and the baby. Ds was a much more settled, happier baby if I just let him do what he needed to, when he needed to, certainly for the first few months. I was a much happier person once I ditched the books. But every baby is different. I personally would not start it yet and perhaps wait until he's a bit older before beginning to introduce some loose routines. I found that beginning with a nice, relaxed bedtime routine first (though the timing would change each night at first) meant we could get our evenings back sooner. We started doing this at about 8 weeks. Ds is 3 soon and has always been a great little sleeper. He sometimes even asks to go to bed! Was never concerned about props and 'making a rod for my own back' etc. I broke every rule in the book and never had any problems. What I'm saying is, baby led is probably better and less stressful but if you need your dd in a routine because you're going back to work or you just don't have the luxury of leading a slower paced lifestyle then give it a try, but wait a few more weeks.

I used elements of it and took out what I thought would be useful to me out of it. I started getting ds into a routine at 10 weeks and it worked really well. I like the eat,activity,sleep element and think it really helped with getting,ds to self settle.

We sort of used EASY too, although it was more like ESYA for the first few weeks. She did rearrange her own routine eventually.
The thing which made the biggest difference for us was having a bedtime routine from day 1. Bum out, bath, bottle, bed.
She's 7 months now and we still do that. She has always slept like a dream - although I realise that probably isn't all to do with bedtime. I think it has helped though.

I'm thinking of marketing my own routine based on DS's pattern. It goes:

EEEEAEEAAAAAAEEAAAAAAAAAAEEEEES (then repeat x 20)

Snappy, eh?

just de-lurked to say this post made me laugh so loudly!

Jesus, it sounds like your DS is like my 2 sons were! :)

I'm waiting to see how DD's "routine" will develop (she's only 2 weeks old, so I have no idea).

Yup, I had one like Jesus too. I'd definitely buy that book.

Actually the "S" was a typo.