Baby Whisperer books

[JODIEhadababy]

Can someone please run through with me a 'normal' day in the BW routine for a 7 week old please?

Have the GF books, but not working out, I'm so not strict enough , but with a toddler in the house too, I think I need to find a routine, and not muddle along like we have been doing (I know he's still young, but humour me please!)

Has been mentioned that BW isn't as strict and I'd like to give it a go, but before I go shelling out on the book I'd like to find out abit more... And I'm sure some MNer somewhere has tried it!

There isn't a routine, that's the point. It's responding to your baby's needs and giving them a bit of structure so that you can reach a position that suits you both.

She works on the premise that babies should be encouraged to eat, be awake and then sleep (in that order). The length of time for which they do each thing is up to them. She also recommends that you put a bedtime routine in place (to get them used to winding down at the end of the day) and that you swaddle.

I think that is more or less it!

Bin 'em! Burn 'em! I ruined the first few weeks with my new baby because I was brainwashed into thinking "getting a baby into a routine was crucial asap".

He was too young, he wouldn't have it and I stressed myself out.

Having said that, I guess all babies are different. Mine responded to some Gina Ford timings at about 4 months. If you can make it work sooner then happy days, otherwise just don't stress it and try to enjoy this early days for what they are without added aggro!

OK, OK, I;ll admit defeat. TBH I think he;s fine during the day, I;d just like to get bedtime sussed, maybe I am just rushing things

I used BW to give me something to aim for. I read it as there was no routine. You take your cues from the baby. You use the eat, activity (ie change nappy at 7 weeks), sleep to give you an idea of what comes next. Eg don't feed them to sleep, know the signs of being tired.

It gave me the feeling of knowing enough to tell other well meaning people to keep their advice!

Try a copy from the library

I swear by BW! I think there is a routine but it's not fixed times. You always follow the order Eat, Activity, Sleep. In the early weeks the activity bit may simply be a nappy change but it's all about separating eating and sleeping.
She also gives guidelines about how far apart those things should happen, e.g. if they had a good feed then they probably aren't hungry an hour later, maybe tired or overstimulated.

I know it's not everyone's priority but I really wanted a routine that never involved leaving baby to cry - BW achieved that for me. It took me a while to get into it with DS but he slept 7-7 at 12 weeks (no dreamfeed, just a straight 12 hour sleep) and DD was 9 weeks.

They are now 4 and nearly 2 and both have excellent sleeping routines. I will be using BW again with number 3!

I think it did my head in because you had to follow "EASY" (eat, sleep, activity, you time). It started at 7am and then you were supposed to do each activity for a set amount of time and then start again at the beginning. Thanks to thath stupid book, I got up at 7am when my baby was a week old, dragged him downstairs and tried to get him to wake up and do some "activity". Complete lunacy - should have been asleep!

Also am a bit about getting babies to sleep through asap; they're not designed for it and especially if you're breastfeeding it's not the best thing at a very early age. (Granted, all babies are different.)

Sorry if am sounding a bit down on it, I just wouldn't want anyone else doing what I did! I think routines are fab and DS has been in one since 4/5 months, but you need to find the right thing at the right time or you'll just get frustrated and wonder why your baby isn't doing what the book reckons it should.

It'll all settle down soon enough - good luck!

Oh, I also never left DS to cry either - I just found that by loosely nicking the times from GF's routines (didn't buy the book ortake any of the other stuff on) that DS settled down into it like magic. His main prob was that he didn't know how to relax/get to sleep, and putting him in a dark quiet room really did the trick. HTH.

I didn't read BW, but absorbed some of the advice from here and spent ages agonising because DS was more like Eat Sleep Eat Active Eat Sleep... you get the picture. Once I relaxed about the fact that he seemed to feed pretty much all the time it was fine.

We did always have a bedtime routine from fairly early on, but at 7 weeks this can be really simple.

I should have said that I was formula feeding which I realise makes it easier to follow a routine in the early weeks. If you are breast feeding then I wouldn't worry about a routine too much, just get it established and kip whenever you can

I BF - by routine I don't think the BW meant it to be really prescriptive. In the early weeks its just a pattern to follow. The activity isn't getting up and playing it's winding/nappy changing not letting the baby fall asleep on the boob/bottle.

I had 2 other dc and the school run to fit the 'routine' around and it worked for me so it's not that strict.

There's a BW website that has an interview with the BW on. I found this fab and will go and see if I can find it. Almost better than the book as she explains what she means more!

Agree with the PP. Look at her website, and I found her interview particularly useful. I followed her advice, and made up my own 'routine' after observing the natural rhythms of my Dds. The idea is that the baby then 'knows' the routine and what is likely to happen to her and so is more relaxed. I liked her philosophy of always treating the baby as a person from day 1. I also found the cluster feeding / sleeping advice really useful and despite exclusively bfeeding DD1, found that from 6 weeks, she could sleep 6 hours, 7 hours at 7 weeks and so on. I did exactly the same with DD2 (although she had one bottle of formula a day) and she followed the same pattern of sleeping - 6 weeks by 8 weeks, which I was able to increase over the following weeks until I was getting a decent night's sleep too. I would really recommend her as I found her advice really useful, particularly the fact that it is all about learning about your baby and giving structure according to your baby's needs and not some random one size fits all routines.

Good luck with it.

Been AWOL for a coupe of days, but thanks for your advice. Might hot foot it down to the library over the weekend and see if they've got it in (just to read through of course)....