Very Honest Success Story

Here is a very honest success story that includes the hard times.

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I consider myself a Babywise mom. My baby, a toddler now, and I are nowhere near perfect, but I’m so grateful for Babywise. Even before pregnancy was in the picture, I wanted to implement the Babywise principles that my parents introduced me to in my teens.. I had a lot of confidence in the principles and wanted to help my baby learn to eat and sleep and order her day. Once my first baby arrived, I was so glad I had the book, the blog and some friends (mostly online – thank you Yahoo/Google group!) with some experience.

It wasn’t easy, but who said parenting is? Those were some long first days and weeks and months; they were hard. My daughter did great with the eat-wake-sleep cycle. She didn’t always sleep as long as she was “supposed” to, but we managed. It was hard when she wasn’t sleeping through the night by 8 weeks or by 14 weeks, a couple milestones the book had offered. We struggled a lot with reflux and short naps, but I persevered. The cycle continued and each day was new (and so was God’s mercy!). I didn’t let go of the sleeping and eating goals and it just got better!

Of course there were ups and downs, but as the months passed, she slept through the night. we dropped naps. We dropped the dreamfeed. She slept through her naps. She ate wonderfully (breastfed past 1 year) and topped the growth charts. She was alert and happy during the day. I am so proud of my little girl.

There were many crossroads where I stressed about “how” to do it. I cried, prayed, lost sleep and did my research. Then, it would just happen. We’d drop a feeding, stretch out a wake time, stop using the swaddle, and learned to do so much. I would look back and wonder why I had thought it was such a big deal. I learned I might hesitate, I might make mistakes and my baby might not live “by the book” – and it’s ok! I was doing the best I could for my baby.

I especially credit Babywise with how well my daughter sleeps, how she goes to sleep, stays asleep, and wakes up happy. I am proud of how she is learning appropriate behavior at mealtimes and at play. She plays contently by herself each morning for almost 40 minutes. She thrives in the structure and flexibility and fun of our days.

Babywise isn’t just for newborns, it’s just the starting place for a growing child. I would recommend Babywise as a starting point for any new mom or mom-again (and the whole -wise series for any age). It takes a lot of work to raise a child and you need some solid tools to work with. Babywise has benefited my daughter and I am a better mom because of it.

-Katy

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