About Me

Valerie Plowman

My name is Valerie Plowman. I have a BS in English with an emphasis on Technical Writing. I have a minor in communications.

I am often referred to as “The Babywise Mom.” Over the years, I have helped thousands of parents. If you have a question, I have probably heard it before and very likely have a blog post addressing your concerns.

My husband, Nate, and I have been married for eighteen years. We have four beautiful children, Brayden who is seventeen, Kaitlyn who is fifteen, McKenna who is thirteen, and Brinley who is ten. I am privileged to stay home and raise my children-I could not ask for a more rewarding career. And, of course, I also write this blog.

July 2013

My Journey with Babywise

I started following On Becoming Babywise with Brayden when he was 9 weeks old.

I had heard about it from a friend while I was pregnant but never got around to getting the book until Brayden proved to be hard to get to sleep.

I am forever grateful that he was as hard as he was. If not, I may not have turned to Babywise.

Brayden soon became a model Babywise baby, and we have continued on in the series with On Becoming Babywise Book Two, On Becoming ToddlerwiseOn Becoming Preschoolwise, and On Becoming Childwise. We are about to embark into On Becoming Pre-Teenwise.

My children July of 2013

With the wonderful results I saw in Brayden, I knew Babywise would be something I would apply to all of my children.

I started Babywise with Kaitlyn at birth, including teaching her to self-soothe at one week. She had it down from the beginning. She was such an easy baby, and while I know a lot of it is her disposition, I also am sure a lot has to do with the principles of Babywise.

Here we are September of 2014

Adding Baby Whisperer Principles (and others)

Shortly before the birth of McKenna, I read the Baby Whisperer books. When McKenna was born, I meshed Babywise with the things I liked from The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer.

McKenna was an even easier baby than the first two :). Brinley has proven to be another success story of the principles found in these books.

I also read and loved Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and applied a lot of that knowledge to my practices.

About This Blog

I have been helping parents get their babies sleeping and on great routines since 2007!

This blog is intended to be a quick reference to find answers to questions you encounter while implementing On Becoming Baby WiseOn Becoming PretoddlerwiseOn Becoming ToddlerwiseOn Becoming PreschoolwiseOn Becoming ChildwiseOn Becoming Preteen Wise, and On Becoming Teen Wise, along with other books I love!

If this is your first time visiting this blog, please see: Using This Blog. Be sure to take note of the Blog Index for a list of all articles on the blog. If you are new to Babywise and want info, see my Starting Babywise Late Guide. If you are here to debate, please refer to my debate policy.

It is important to note that anything I say in this blog is my opinion or quoted from an author. It should not override your own best judgment or the instructions of your doctor. If you think your doctor is wrong, it is always wise to get a second opinion from another doctor.

I love to answer your questions. I do my best to respond to each question I get on this blog. The current wait time for a response from me is about one week. If you want a faster reply, try joining my  Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Facebook Group to get input from many great moms.

Fall family photos. Family of six in Blacksmith Fork Canyon

How The Blog Started

In 2007, I decided to look up information on Babywise online. I have no idea why it never occurred to me to do this before that, but it never had.

Kaitlyn was two months old. It started with me searching for information about reflux since she had reflux, but I found that none of it really was applicable to me since I did Babywise.

I wasn’t having problems like others did out there. So I started looking around for Babywise and reflux.

Boy was I surprised! I basically only found negative information out there! I didn’t understand that; I had never had issues with Babywise before.

Through all of my searching, however, I did find a Yahoo! group for Babywise moms with babies born about the time of Kaitlyn. I was excited to be able to talk to other moms who did Babywise.

I quickly discovered that I was one of only a few moms who had more than one child, so rather than asking questions, I was answering them.

Over the next five months, I started to answer the same questions over and over and over again. Any of you who have spent time in an online community know that is common–whether Babywise or not.

I started saving some of the “stock” answers to the questions that always came up on my computer and would just paste the answers as the questions got asked again.

In the meantime, several of my friends started getting into blogging. They were just doing it to stay connected and keep each other updated on their lives. I thought that looked fun and started doing it, too. I started a family blog.

About a month and a half later, it occurred to me one night that I should just create a Babywise blog and publish my “stock” answers on there.

That was November 20, 2007. I started with a post about me, then over the next few days compiled and posted basic, common answers. These included information about reflux, swaddling, cry it out (sleep training), consistent schedules, and waketime when baby wakes early.

I put a few posts up, then the holidays came and I got busy with all that entails.

Plowman Family June 2020
June 2020

About a month later, I remembered about my new little blog and came to check on it. To my surprise, I had some comments on it!

As I checked out the comments, I saw most were from a gal I now know to be a Babywise dissenter. She started asking innocent questions, which I answered, and soon discovered she had much to say :).

At that point, I decided I had better stick to this blog. I didn’t want all of the information online to be negative. I wanted a positive place for parents to come and find answers to their difficulties.

I wanted them to know they were not alone, and that they can get through it.

I wanted to help people because people like my negative commenter were out there putting forth much energy into bashing Babywise.

So, I started publishing like crazy! I fell into a groove of publishing. At first, I tried to just publish things extremely pertinent to Babywise. I labeled any post that was not directly related to Babywise with “Not BW” in the title.

Plowman Family outside in fall 2021
November 2021

Over time, the blog has grown into a one-stop location for parents who follow Babywise. I try to cover parenting in all its realms, from diapers, to gas pain, to educating children. The blog now attracts parents from various philosophies.

Before I started this blog, when you googled “babywise,” you basically found nothing but negative information. Now when you google “babywise,” this blog is on the first page!

I have been happy to connect with the Ezzos through this blog. They have been very gracious to offer insight when I have needed it. I have been happy to offer insight into updates of the Babywise book.

More About Me

A little about me as a person. I am super-organized. I love to do lots of crafts. I sew, scrapbook, make jewelry, and my latest thing is crocheting. I also love to sing and enjoy dancing. I am the oldest child–and it shows.

I have no brothers; my dad is a sports freak. Being the dutiful oldest child that I am, I took a liking to sports. But being the independent thinker that I am, I did not choose his football team (Go Chiefs! I know, maybe I should have followed Dad along the path to the Steelers fan club).

Fall photos with man and woman in Blacksmith Fork Canyon

I also value tradition, and in my family it is not a requirement, but rather a privilege, to be a Yankees fan. So go Yankees! Yep. I was born with blue blood. Being the loyal person that I am, the Utah Jazz is my basketball team.

New York City

August 2017

On the flip side, I also felt the need to dutifully show an interest in horses since my Mom is a horse fanatic. I showed miniature horses for several years. I also raised sheep for 4H, which actually has turned out to be a great experience to draw from.

Four children fall photos

We are a religious family. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This of course defines much of who I am and what I believe–and is the driving force behind everything I do as a parent.

Mother and four children family photos

So there you have it. That is the beginning of getting to know me. You will come to know much more as you read my blog!

Features

I have been very happy to contribute to many different sites over the years. These include Babywise.life, Her View from Home, Today Parents, and many more!

More Ways to Connect

In our modern world, there are so many ways to connect with other Babywise moms! Be sure to check out all of my social channels to connect there.

You can also get help at Growing Families.

Fall family photo. Family of six in Blacksmith Fork Canyon

October 2018

Babywise Mom family walking in the mountains

September 2022