Graceful Parenting in Austin

“Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” (Marc Weissbluth)

I reviewed Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child about a month ago and I said it was just all right. Well, hmmm, now that Baby Girl takes great naps and I can schedule lunch with my girlfriends, I would like to update that review to say, it is pretty good. Three stars our of four, if I had stars.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t take back what I said about him…

I still think he says ridiculous things that only a male pediatrician who hasn’t taken care of a baby himself would say. Like when he says don’t take a ride in the car when it isn’t near your baby’s nap time, because he might fall asleep in the car seat and not take a real nap later. Then he says don’t take a ride in the car when it is near your baby’s nap time, because he needs to fall asleep in his crib, not the car seat. And, of coarse, don’t wake your baby up to go for a ride in the car either. A Mom will tell you that this means there won’t be groceries in the house until your baby turns two.

A Mom will tell you the real story. A Mom on my Moms email list handles this by running errands when her baby has just been fed and is sleepy. Her baby stays asleep during the errand, getting a decent nap. I do it the opposite, I run errands when Baby Girl first wakes up and I carry her in a Baby Bjorn in the store, so if she does take a catnap in the car seat, it isn’t very long and she still takes her regular nap later on.

Since I wrote the original review, when Baby Girl wasn’t on a schedule yet, I made a little adjustment, feeding Baby Girl before she goes to sleep instead of when she wakes up and it all fell into place. The general times-of-day that Weissbluth recommends for naps work for Baby Girl. Doing awake-things when she wakes up and sleepy-things near her nap time works. She is more well rested and less fussy than before the schedule started to work. And since I know about when she’ll be sleeping, I’m able to plan lunch with my girlfriends again. So I feel it is only fair to revisit my original ‘it’s OK’ review and say ‘It’s pretty good. This book that really helped.’

See my Review Philosophy.