"Baby Wise" by Gary Ezzo and "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg

On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep by Gary Ezzo and The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg

Britt's Review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m not ashamed to say that I was an absolute mess the first few weeks after Abby was born. I usually pride myself in being a relatively prepared person, but for prepared for infant, I was not.

My sister recommended I read Baby Wise. The theory behind Baby Wise is basically to let your baby ‘cry-it-out,’ pretty much from day one. My implementation of this technique lasted for about…two nights.

In my continued desperateness, I had a couple of people recommend The Baby Whisperer. The theory behind Baby Whisperer is basically, almost always respond to your baby’s cry, with a few techniques on different ways to respond and calm. My implementation of this technique lasted for about…four nights.

Six days later and complete post-partum depression/zombie-ness, I was nearly suicidal. I can remember on several occasions while implementing Baby Wise and Baby Whisperer techniques thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding, have these people ever really had their own children and implemented their own techniques?”

In the end, what resulted was a successful combination of the two theories. I didn’t let Abby just completely cry-it-out, but I also didn’t respond to her every single cry by picking her up and doing the, ‘shush-pat’ for 45 minutes. And when I was letting Abby cry-it-out, I usually sat in chair next to her crib with my hand on her tummy, comforting her, but also letting her know it was time to sleep.

It required a lot of persistence and there were many a difficult night, but about eight weeks after Abby arrived, she was sleeping for relatively long stretches during the night.

Abby’s sleep patterns still have their ebbs and flow. As she’s gotten older and her patterns have changed, I’ve sought more advice from, The Happiest Baby on the Block and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. The bottom line for me has been that I don’t think all the answers can be found in just one book. It has taken a lot of reading different opinions about sleep habits, then considering Abby’s wellbeing as well as my own, to find the best fit for us. However, I definitely have to say, my success with Abby’s sleeping has only been helped by my being disciplined, persistent, and letting her have the occasional, ‘cry-it-out’ session. Happy parenting to all and to all lots of sleep!
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