I don't think Brinkli is an "easy baby" by mere coincidence. Perhaps the fact that I sort of know what I'm doing by round three has a lot to do with her temperment? I"ve tested too many parenting theories and strategies to count. To be honest, Sydni was an experiment. I had NO CLUE what I was doing and I say "I", because (and not to diss Donnie) what do men REALLY have to do when you have a newborn? If you choose to breast feed, Mommy pretty much does the dirty work. Don't get me wrong, Donnie did what he could with our new babies, but it wasn't until they were off the boobie could he really help out and take on some of the work load. I remember some days he would be frustrated because he COULDN'T help, so don't think I'm bashing him in any way.
During my last month of pregnancy, I reread all the books I'd collected on parenting and babies during the past seven years of being a mom. To be honest, I cringed while rereading "Baby Wise" and had flashbacks of Syd's awful wails from her nursery. I knew after finishing that book that I would never again "train" a baby in that way. It was awful for me to have to endure, and Donnie would have to leave the house so he wouldn't go pick her up during her crying jags and "undo" all of our training. I'm actually pretty embarassed to admit that I let my baby "cry it out" because I now know how EASY and tear-free the method I used with Brinkli can be. I was pretty much a zombie after having Mak 17 short months after Syd's birth, and most of Mak's baby days are foggy. I just tried to keep my head above water and try not to lose my mind. (By the way, I would never recommend PLANNING to have your babies that close together....talk about a HARD three years. Yeesh! I was determined to ENJOY Brinkli's newborn days and didn't want to repeat my former mistakes.
I came across the book THE HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK by Harvey Karp during the tail-end of Makenzi's babyhood...she had colic the first four months of her life, so I was desperately reading anything I could get my hands on that might help her. It saved my life when it came to figuring out how to soothe Makenzi. During the reread, I also thought Dr. Karp's priniciples matched my beliefs on newborns. He feels that you can't "spoil" a newborn by holding and cuddling them...they are fresh out of the womb. Cuddling and closeness to their momma is all that they know! Now that I had the luxury to take my time with Brink and didn't have any other babies to tend to, I felt confident that employing Karp's five "S's" would help me turn Brinkli into the happiest Hart girl...and her first four months have been a breeze thanks to his methods. I've been buying this book for my pregnant buddies and HOPE that they just take the time to read it, even though it probably goes against what others are telling them about the best ways to bring up a newborn.His methods are unconventional in that he encourages swaddling, sleeping the swing or carseat, and treating the newborn like its first three months of life are the fourth trimester. I was getting a full five to six hours of sleep a night by the time Brink was six weeks old thanks to this book, and she is currently sleeping eight to nine hours without a nighttime feeding. I owe it all to her Graco swing, swaddling and her white noise machine. I guess since she's been such a breeze we should just go ahead and plan on a fourth? Hahahahaha!
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