Secrets of the baby Whisperer

Cat and I have been reading this book recently and it has been really helpful in parenting.  We have always been torn between the rigidity of the baby wise scheduling and the let the baby lead the way method of no scheduling.  "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" has been a helpful middle road.

We have been learning how best to get him on a schedule of eating, playing, followed by sleeping.  What has been cool is that we want Krieg to learn to fall asleep in his crib, which he has not been doing.  And the author, Tracy, really does a great job of explaining how to train an infant to learn to fall asleep in the crib.  We have made some good progress over the last few days, which we are excited about.

In one section of the book there is a quiz about your baby.  After answering all the questions a score is given and the score reflects a corresponding baby description.  Krieg was described as a spirited baby, which fits him to a "T."  Here is how she describes a spirited baby.

"This baby who has a mind of his own, may seem to resist your schedule...Spirited babies show you what works for them and what doesn't.  Bart, for example, suddenly started falling asleep on his mum's breast every time she tried to feed him.  Then she'd have trouble waking him - this after he had followed EASY (her method) for four weeks.  I suggested to Pam hat she take a day to listen and observe her son carefully.  What she saw clearly was that Bart was sleeping for shorter periods during the day; when he woke, he really hadn't had his quota of nap time.  She also realized that she was intervening a little too quickly when he started to wake up, instead of listening to his cues.  When she waited awhile instead of rushing in, she found he would put himself back to sleep for a little longer and then was more alert for his feeds.  Thus she got him back on track.  It takes a spirited baby about 12 weeks to start sleeping through the night.  They act as though they don't want to stay asleep for fear of missing something.  They also often have a hard time winding down."

The last part about winding down and hard time sleeping because they do not want to miss out on life are a perfect descriptions of Krieg.  He hates to miss out and fights going to sleep until he is totally tuckered out.