In Seach Of: A Go-To Baby Book

Warning: it's about to get gross up in here.

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We'd grown too cocky. My husband was always bragging about how well Baba G slept, and I marveled publicly (on this very site, just days ago) about how lucky we were that BG had never gotten sick.

After a brief bump in the road with BG's sleeping schedule (which I wrote about in June), he returned to sleeping through the night without a peep. As in, down at 8:30 p.m. and up at 6:30 a.m. (followed by an hour or so of cuddle time before breakfast). Beautiful.

Then a few weeks ago, that all changed. He started waking up screaming (and I do mean screaming) multiple times a night. Were his two additional top teeth coming in to blame? Was his nursery too cold... or too warm when the heat came on? Was he doing something to startle himself? Who knows. But when he woke up, he was not a happy camper.

The good ol' days

Needless to say, I was dreading this week because my husband was going to be traveling for work overnight on Monday and Wednesday, and then not home until after BG's bedtime on Tuesday. I've said that it's my husband who handles BG's bedtime routine, right? A bath at 7:30 (after which I change him into his sleeping outfit) followed by a bottle, and then it's into his crib about an hour later.

I'll have to write about why it's so hard for me to give BG a bath in another post, but suffice it to say that IT IS HARD for me to give him a bath. But I'd somehow managed to do that successfully on Monday night, thought everything was going OK after he went to sleep, and then was awoken by his fits at 10:30 pm., 11:30 p.m. and 5:45 a.m. I was running very low on fuel by the time Tuesday rolled around.

Things started seeming off with BG around noon that day. He threw up (as in, the real thing, not spit up) about 15 minutes after his bottle. However, his 4 p.m. feeding came and went without incident. That evening I'd managed once again to bathe him, had fed him his bottle (with a successful burping midway through), and was about to burp him again after he'd finished up the 8 ounces.

I faced him toward me to get ready to put him against my chest, and dammit if that entire bottle didn't come back up on me, Exorcist style. (Disclaimer: I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to have ever actually watched The Exorcist, but I have seen the infamous "puke scene" thanks to the wonder of animated .gifs.)

At first I honestly thought that BG was getting revenge for me continually muttering, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope" an hour earlier while taking pictures and videos of him in his bathrobe.

 

But that wasn't it. He wasn't like "So there!" or anything after he threw up. In fact, he pretty much collapsed onto my chest... thereby getting the puke all over himself as well.

I had no choice but to bring him upstairs and clean both of us off—all the while wondering what exactly I should do. He didn't feel hot. But should I finally bust out the ol' rectal thermometer? Should I feed him again? Should I keep him up or attempt to put him back to sleep? Should I wait for my husband, who was stuck in traffic on Lake Shore Drive, to get home before doing anything else? Or should I call his pediatrician?

You know I chose the latter. While I waited for the doc on call to contact me, I pulled out Baby 411. Expecting 411 was the only book I read while pregnant, and I'd skimmed through parts of Baby 411 immediately before and after BG arrived. But the problem is that book is arranged in a weird Q&A format, which makes it kind of tough to quickly find information on a specific issue. When I searched for "vomiting" in the index, there were like 50 pages listed.

While my pediatrician's office called back within 10 minutes and instructed me to just put BG to sleep and reintroduce liquids slowly the next morning (along with an order to go buy some Pedialyte to have on hand for dehydration that could follow if he started having diarrhea, which they predicted he would), I realized it would've been nice to have an all-encompassing, easy-to-navigate baby book on hand. 

Anyone have one they'd recommend?

And no, I'm not going to "just search the internet" for this type of thing. I don't need to come across some wack-a-doo's site that will scare the crap out of me!

The good news is that last night Baba G only woke up once at 10:15 p.m. and then slept through to 6:30 a.m. And no more throwing up today. I think he's as tired as I am. The even better news is that his daddy's back today and will deal with any drama tonight!

The Happiest Baby on the Block

Yep, I jinxed us.

For the past three nights, Baba G has screamed his head off every hour on the hour (OK, sometimes he goes two hours). What happened to the peaceful little baby who was sleeping through the night a mere few weeks into his life? What happened to the Buddha-like being we bragged to all our friends about? What happened to the tiny angel who would awaken all smiley and squealy and playful?

BRING HIM BACK!

There are several factors that could be to blame for why BG is suddenly sounding like he's been thrown in the Pit of Despair when it's time for bed, but since my goal is to have this be a product review site, I'll spare you my theories and instead sing the praises of The Happiest Baby on the Block. Because I give it all the credit for the past five months of peaceful nights.

The aforementioned book by Dr. Harvey Karp, Expecting 411 and a small part of Baby 411 are the only books I read while I was pregnant. EVERYONE told me about The Happiest Baby, so I figured there had to be something to it. I actually watched the Happiest Baby DVD as well, which is worth checking out for pure entertainment reasons alone. Or maybe I'm the only one who finds it hilarious to watch a bunch of crying babies turn into blissed-out zombies in a matter of seconds after Dr. Karp works his magic on them.

Catchin' flies on Grammy

Anyway, you know a "how-to" baby book is good when you read it cover to cover and it actually makes sense. My general attitude about parenting books is that—much like diet and exercise books—they're based on of-the-moment trends or fads and are therefore not worth my time. But once again, too many people had told me about The Happiest Baby to ignore.

In it, Dr. Karp explains a multi-step method that is something of a "miracle cure" for babies who refuse to sleep. And the reasons behind his recommended methods (which involve swadding, shushing, and a bunch of other s-words, for real) make total sense. He pulls in evidence from different cultures all around the globe as to why these methods work, in addition to providing the medical/scientific reasoning behind why human babies probably used to stay in the womb up to four months longer than they do in the present day. You'll find yourself nodding your head when you read it, trust me.

So in my desperation over these past few nights, I've turned to The Happiest Baby yet again. Unfortunately, the book is really only meant for newborns up to three or four months. It couldn't help me with BG's current issues.

But then, LO AND BEHOLD, what do I receive in my Inbox but an email entitled "See baby expert Dr. Karp LIVE at a movie theater near you!" I kid you not. It was pretty freaky, actually. Like this guy has ways of knowing when parents are ready to shell him out some more dough. Just like he has ways of calming babies.

So what's going on? It seems that the good doctor is hosting some sort of live webcasted event that will be shown this Thursday all around the country at various movie theaters. I didn't pay much attention because I already know I can't go so I didn't want to make myself more bitter than I already am.

BUT the other thing this email mentioned was that Dr. Karp has a new sleep book. (See, he'll get your hard-earned money one way or the other!)

So I freakin' break my wrists typing in "Amazon.com" to get this thing in my hands, and damn it all to hell—it's not out on Kindle until TOMORROW.

THAT IS NOT GOING TO HELP ME TONIGHT!

Tonight, when I'm alone with BG while my husband's traveling. GRR.

Guess who is hoping that "June 19" equates to "Available for download at the stroke of midnight tonight?"

Seriously, if tonight is even remotely like the last three nights, I WILL be up and checking Amazon at 12:01. And in the meantime, if I get a spare second I'm going to see if the "Browse this book" feature lets me skim through the first few chapters and learn any tidbits I can put to use in the coming hours.

I am very much aware that my husband and I have lucked out on the sleep front overall, though. Sure, the past few evenings have been rough, but we've enjoyed a spectacular run for nearly five months. The sunken-eyed, pale-faced stage of parenting totally bypassed us, and if we have to pay our dues and suffer a little bit now while Baba's trying to figure this sleep thing out more thoroughly, so be it.

The bottom line: If you are pregnant or have a newborn, read The Happiest Baby on the Block. If you're going to be a grandparent, you should read this book, too. If your friend is pregnant, you should buy her (or the dad-to-be) this book. I think you get my point. If you were here I'd loan you mine!

Here's hoping Dr. Karp's new book helps us get THIS face back on Baba G in the middle of the night... and soon: