And another great Babywise sucess story. This one is from reader Stephanie L.
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We put our son Kyle on a schedule at 11 weeks when I noticed he seemed really unorganized during the day like he didn’t know when to eat, when to sleep, etc. It was driving me crazy! I also felt like I couldn’t tell what he wanted so I would just try and feed him whenever he cried. He also started to suck his fingers which gave me the clue he was learning to soothe himself.
I had heard about the cry it out method and thought it was really cruel and said I would never do that to a newborn that didn’t know what they wanted. I decided to do some research on the Becoming Babywise book (one of the cry it out methods) because some friends had success with putting their babies on a schedule of eat/play/sleep.
During my research I found this blog Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. It was literally a life saver. I read about the philosophy of Babywise and it really made alot of sense. Babies look to us to figure out how the world works. They look for patterns and really thrive on consistency.
It was rough at first. He would cry through every nap. But eventually he started sleeping. He was behind some of the milestones according to BW because we started later. For example he didn’t STTN till 6 months. But that was probably be cause we chose to not let him CIO at night.
I had to learn alot of things too like that his schedule would never be perfect, and that he wouldn’t start a bad habit from someone picking him up when he cried during a nap one time.
So fast forward to today and he is 11 months and is the best sleeper. I can feel confident in leaving him with people that he will nap and it’s easier for them because they know what to expect.
I recommend “scheduling” to all my friends..cause you have to be careful when you say, “babywise”. It’s sad that people who don’t know anything about it give it such a bad reputation. I hope to change that with my story.
Stephanie L.