God bless you, Jennifer! You rock! Jen sent me two books to read: "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "The Happiest Toddler on the Block". I skimmed through the baby one and we have used some of the 5 S's for the past few nights and it's been WONDERFUL! Granted Maeve doesn't sleep through the night, but she has slept for 3-4 hour stretches. What an improvement! The most amazing thing is that she sleeps IN HER CRIB! She'll sleep there or in her swing.
For those that want to know, the 5 S's for getting baby to sleep better and quit crying are: Swing, Swaddling, Shhhh (white noise), Side-Laying Position, and Sucking. The ones that have been extremely effective for us are swaddling, shhhhh, and sucking. Richard and I have been swaddling Maeve up really tight before bed. Think of how tight they swaddle them in the hospital. It's like that. We found (and the book states this) that Maeve was waking herself up a lot by flailing her arms. This is because babies have an immature nervous system. I'm sure you've seen how babies do this with their arms and with their legs (they kick nonstop). Swaddling with their arms and legs in the blanket eliminates this. Babies LOVE to be swaddled. For the shhhh, we put a little radio on AM and don't get a station (on purpose), so that all Maeve hears is static. This works well too. Her Godmother also bought her a heartbeat bear that mimics sounds of the womb. That's another thing that helps. And yes, Maeve takes a pacifier. Kyra never took one. Maeve is obsessed with sucking. She'll definitely be a paci child. Kyra is my blankie child.
Richard goes back to work this week. I'm pretty nervous about not having his help at night. But, his mom is here this week, so I'm safe! Maeve hits the 6 week mark this week and she should be sleeping more at night. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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I'm glad you've had a chance to read them! And I'm glad they helped! I'd wondered if you'd need those suggestions or not.
It took my sister 3 months to listen to my mother and start doing the swaddling and shh-ing! We were so annoyed with her, because when we'd watch Gomer, we'd swaddle her and she was no trouble at all! Then her mommy would come and unwrap her (so everyone could see the cute clothes, I guess) and she was always crying!
My theory is that babies are so confined in the womb that they don't feel "safe" when they aren't wrapped up really tight. Think of all the constant sounds they hear, too! The big, wide world is such a new, unfamilliar and different environment! We ought to keep things as close to what babies are used to as we can!
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