The Happiest Baby on the Block?

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I suppose he is the ONLY baby on our block so I guess that makes him the happiest by default. Though he does look pretty sweet and innocent all wrapped up in his burrito.

Anyway, the last two tools for my quest to "cure" Luke's colic came this week...the much revered book by Dr. Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby on the Block, and the Sleep Sheep (recommended by my great friend Jen). I am happy to report that on the first night using my 2 new tools, Luke slept for 6 1/2 hours (8:30-3:00). I even tried to wake him up at 10:00pm to get one last feeding in, but he wouldn't budge. I kept waking up prior to 3, because it felt so weird for him to have slept that long. Hopefully he'll do it again tonight...and the next night and the next night and so on!

We had heard about this book in a baby care class we took when we were expecting Blake, but because he was a pretty content baby and could be calmed with just a pacifier, we never looked into it further. So, I read it and it actually made a lot of sense. He proclaims that the basis for colic is that some babies are born with less of an ability to calm themselves. Well, duh. I knew that already. And that some babies are EXTREMELY sensitive and intense and that makes the self calming process even harder. Again, duh. So the best way to calm babies that fall into that category (and yes, Luke does, I went through the checklist in the book) is to try to recreate an atmosphere most like the womb. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. So it goes on to describe the 5 S's that when combined can calm an infant "within seconds" (more like minutes for us, but hey, you have to start somewhere). This was the good stuff.

Interestingly he also writes a lot about how babies in other cultures never have colic because most of the techniques he describes are just done naturally (and that in some cultures babies are not allowed to be put down for the 1st year...okay that's never going to happen in America).

The Sleep Sheep comes into play for white noise (a key component to recreating the womb). It plays 4 sounds...heartbeat, whales, ocean and rain. It plays for 45 minutes so I use it when I lay Luke down for a nap or bedtime. So far he likes the ocean the best (me too...and specifically the Atlantic on the Gulf side).

So that's my book report/product review...I would highly recommend them for any new mom, mom-to-be or other mother who just got thrown a curve ball with her newest baby. You can always borrow the book from the Jarrett family library too. It will be stored beside my collection of Harry Potter books!