Sleep Issues and Book Reviews: The Happiest Baby on the Block and The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program

This past week we have had some terrible, terrible nights in our house with no sleeping. Madelynn has been driving me crazy at night for some unknown reason and thus made me pull out every trick known-to-mom. I think we finally figured it out, or a combination of things that could have been the problem(s). More on her progress at the end of the post.

But since I was at my wits-end, I quickly read through two books I found at the library on sleep and sleep problems/issues/challenges:

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer by Harvery Karp, MD

and

The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program: Follow Your Child's Natural Sleep Rhythms For Better Nights and Naps by Polly Moore, Phd

These reviews are much shorter than my last review, but I just wasn't as convinced with these books on ideas for sleep.

I'll first start with The Happiest Baby on the Block, which is written by a pediatrician. I thought it was an ok read. It is a really great book if you have no clue how to parent or care for a newborn. If I had not had all the experience I had before my girls were born, I'm sure this book would have taught me a lot, but since it really focuses on newborns until 6 months, I didn't find much use in anything that I read to use now.

It focuses on The 5 S's...which are Swaddling, Side (or Stomach), Shhhhh-ing, Swinging and Sucking and how to combine all five to create a calm baby to sleep the longest possible. Most of this I did and some I still do, but like I said, if you are a first parent and have no idea what to do and want some advice, I think this is actually a pretty good and easy read too.

There were kind-of strange little facts in the books, like this one: History has recorded that Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Jesus were all swaddled as babies (pg.109). Really? How do you know that? Where is that listed? I'd like to know, because I'm not sure if Mary wrote down that Jesus was swaddled, but maybe??

The next book, The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program was strange to me. I really didn't think there was much use to this book, and probably could have written a better book myself after only 6 months of trying different sleep solutions for my three. I didn't learn anything new, I guess, but not that it was not well written or anything like that. It did however, reiterate what I am doing, which that I was glad for. Such things as, putting the baby to bed early often leads to baby sleeping longer, following baby's natural sleep patterns, never letting a baby stay up more than 90 minutes when they are newborns, making sure baby is warm, making sure baby is getting enough napping during the day but not too much, how to get baby to sooth herself on her own, not picking her up when she cries at night and making a sleep plan and STICKING TO IT!

It also goes through a lot of "what if's" and common sleep problems that many parents face, which I did find good to read, especially since it focused on many of the issues I saw in Madelynn.

But after reading these two books and of course my favorite book of 12 Hours of Sleep by 12 Weeks Old,  I just decided to do a few different things in hopes to get Madelynn back on the same page as her sisters.

Our issues were: Waking every hour and flipping over onto her back and then playing/talking which then lead to screaming (not crying, but just more like "hey Mom come flip me back over on my tummy NOOOOWWW!!!!") and then continuing the process about 25 times throughout the night. Which then this lead to getting way over-tired and crying and crying and crying and then wanting to eat more frequently and so on.

We tried diaper changes (dirty? or diaper rash? or was something was pulling? or pinching?) changed jammies (was she uncomfortablee? or mad she didn't get another jammie she wanted that night?--LOL, or didn't want socks? or wanted socks?, didn't want any pants and just a onesies?), no blanket (too hot?), extra blankets (too cold?), gas drops (was her tummy hurting? or was she too full?), tylenol (anything to help calm her down and/or teething?), gave her her lovie, put her music on.... I rocked her, held her, calmed her, sang to her, fed her, walked around with her in the dark..ALLLL NIGHT LONG. She would fall asleep, just enough for me to go lay back down and then BOOM, back to crying. It was miserable. And then Natalee would wake up and then Claire and then back to Madelynn. I just laid on their floor most of the night when they weren't screaming, almost crying myself because of how tired I was. Oh, and during this whole time, I was the one sick with laryngitis and a bad cold. I couldn't stop coughing, which kept waking them up too, it was just miserable all around!

It's hard to just let her cry it out because I risk waking the other two girls up. I let her cry it out as much as I could but it's hard to do so with multiples and emotionally--or even a single baby for that fact! 

So after reading the books, talking with my mom and my MIL, things changed and sleep got better for her and in turn everyone else too: I went back to rice cereal at night for Madelynn and only gave her a little bit of veggies with it (I had been giving her oatmeal cereal with veggies but maybe it didn't sit well in her tummy as well as rice cereal). She slept well. We got out of the house for the day. She slept well. We made her stay awake from 4:30pm until 8:30pm, NO MATTER WHAT. She slept well. I gave her tylenol before bed. She slept well.

It also might have been that we had moved Claire into her own bed and then this all started up so maybe she was just getting used to being alone also. It probably was a combination of all things and just growing pains. I am sure it will be not the last time that we have to re-evaluate our sleeping patterns and such. But since these improvements, Madelynn has slept from 8:30pm until around 5am, when Claire and Natalee normally wake-up to eat a quick 3 ounces and back to bed it is until 8:30/9:00am. I can't complain on that! We are all much, much happier!!