BabyWhispererForums.com
ACTIVITY => E.A.S.Y. Forum => Topic started by: rachelle on November 27, 2003, 18:58:52 pm
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Just thought it would be interesting to see when everyone implemented EASY. Feel free also to share how it went when you first started.
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For me it was a matter of when I discovered Tracy's book. I found it at about five weeks and implemented it immediately!!
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I started using EASY around 2 months. I had read several books. I was going crazy with sleep deprivation and a colicky dd. I read BABYWISE and it was just too strict. I read a book on Attatchment Parenting (which I tried for a while) it was too demanding on me. A friend of mine had seen Tracy on the Oprah show a while back and thought she was interesting so I went and got the book and it changed my life! I have had challenges along the way but with BW and this message board supporting me I finally felt like I sort of knew what I was doing!
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I started EASY right from the hospital and my baby has been so happy people can't believe it. He knows what will come next in his day and generally has been doing extremely well. My DS is 14weeks and has been struggling with 45minute naps but has been sleeping 12hours at night and once the naps are straigtened out all will be perfect. I love EASY because I can plan my day better and am so thankful my babe is happy.
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Nathans Mom - can you give me an example of your DS's schedule?
I have a 12 week old who is a great sleeper at night but also struggling with 45 minute naps and would be interested to see what your day is like!
Thanks
Rebecca
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I started EASY right away as best I could, it did not always look like that so it was a loose version of EASY. Not to mention that my dd had terrible gasiness. But, I did use the book for the cues and tried to keep to the routine as best I could. I would say for us it didn't really stick until around 1 to 2 months which was shortly after I found this site. I found that this site helped me in much more detail than the book. Which is to be expected - if the book had everything that this site does - no one would read it because it would take a fork-lift to get it home :P
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I read the book while pg..any implemented the philosophy right off, but didn't get on a good EASY schedule till around 2-3 mos.
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got the book last week and started easy three days ago .. so far he seems to be doing better we are having 90 minutes of activity followed by a 45 minute nap ( and i'm trying to get him to go longer) in his cot ( as opposed to on me, my bed or in his rocking chair)
Night sleeping is getting better we are down to one night waking
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I kept it in mind from day one with Caleb but didnt worry too much about him falling asleep after nursing for the first week or two. They sleep all the time anyways you know? But I did make sure he ate every three hours in the day to keep his days/nights straight.
He is 4.5weeks now and we aim for a loose EASY schedule. He definitely nurses every 2.5-3.5 hrs and is starting to go a long stretch once at night, 4-5hrs. He has trouble with naps in the AM so sometimes he will be awake a whole cycle then sleep a whole cycle. But I always have EASY in the back of my mind.
We will work on independent sleep later/soon. Right now I hold him to sleep most of the time and love it! :D Its much harder with two! :wink:
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We implimented EASY yesterday! I had been trying to get activity to come after eating for a while though. DD is 5 1/2 weeks, and already seems to be a happier baby!
Putting her down on her third yawn has gotten her off to sleep by herself 5 times in row!
DH can't believe it... he said he didn't realise babies could go to sleep without you doing something with them!
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We started to try to establish easy from day 1.
Its been confusing, but now at 51/2 weeks Lizzie seems more on schedule, she doesnt always manage going to sleep right, and then gets a bit confused. we are now on a 2.5 - 3.5 hr schedule, usually a 3 hour stint, and sleeping a couple of 3.5 - 5 hour stints at night (usually one at one end of the range, and the other at the other!)
cues have only really been developing and visible in the last fortnight, prior to that, we just fed regularly, had some play and then muddled around to find a way to sleep that works!
its been intense, and tough, although how I would have coped with AP or demand feeding I have no Idea!
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for those of you who started your baby between 4 & 6 months, how did you get started?
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I started about it about 2 months. I have been on this site since Bobby was about 6 months but never got the book or anything. I found the video at the library and started to use EASY right after viewing the video. It has worked wonderful for me. Liam at 3 months is sleeping about 8 hours a night w/o waking on a regular basis. I think a lot of it has to do with EASY but also the fact that he has a big brother that makes a lot of noise and doesn't let him sleep as much during the day as Bobby did at that age. I do a dream feed right before I go to bed and that helps sustain him. It's so great b/c w/ Bobby he didn't sleep through the night until after he was a year old. I am planning on checking out the book from the library too so that I can learn more of Tracey's tricks.
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I started this method yesterday!!! :lol:
It is already working!! :D
I was recommended to read The Book, and I finally got it from our local library, my son is 3 months old, and had no routine at all, he would be up all day, and wake evry 3 hours in the nght.
I also started him on a bottle top up before bed, instead of the Breast, and last night was amazing, he slept from 9pm to 3am, and was happily awake for 1/2 an hour, then he started whining, so I got him up to feed him coz my boobs were sore :roll: and feed him 5 mins on each side, he went straight back to sleep. :lol:
I know it is only a start but I am definitely keeping this going, and will recommend it to anyone and everyone, I will also be able to use it at the start for our next baby. (not to be here for at least another 2 years. LOL)
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I orginally started motherhood with the idea of doing "attachment parenting" which is a popular notion in Seattle right now. I read a book about it when I was pregnant and impressionable, and had made up my mind to co-sleep, carry the baby constantly in a sling, and nurse on demand, etc etc.
Four weeks into baby Luka's life, my mother said to me "You've got to get some time for yourself." She said someone at her office had recommended this miracle book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer...I was very resistant at first. Then Luka kept me up all night again, and I hadn't had a shower in days, and I started thinking about how many other things my mother had been right about . . . to make a long story short, I read it and was totally converted on the spot. No more attachment parenting! Tracy Hogg's philosophy was EXACTLY what I had been looking for. (Indeed, some of the things she teaches, like respect, would have been extremely useful in other relationships in my life had I learned them sooner.)
What I was looking for was a method to show my love without becoming a doormat to my child, or alternately, instilling structure without becoming a drill sergeant. Tracy's method is so SENSIBLE. I was having a terrible time co-sleeping because we were both getting too hot and dehydrated, and I felt like I couldn't move during the night. I also worried constantly about SIDs and smothering her. But I felt guilty putting her by herself. This book showed me that putting her in her own bed is not a hateful thing to do, nor is feeding her sensibly--these are loving things to do. My baby is 110% happier since we got on E.A.S.Y. and I am a much more confident parent.
I now feel sorry for those attachment parents. When their child is 4 years old and still breastfeeds and sleeps in their bed holding their parent's ear or whatever, I wouldn't want to be them. Come to think of it, I didn't want to be them for even one month. I can't imagine a relationship that could survive that. Thank God for Tracy Hogg!
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We started easy at 4.5mnths as this was when we discovered the bw book.
When we started we had alot of accidental parenting habbits to break :oops:
As we had been doing esa (and no y!) we had to break the feed to sleep problem first so we kept to esa but not letting dd fall asleep feeding then we moved to feeding when she woke, this took a little while for her to get use to and to start with she was just snacking as she was not hungry when she woke.
The best thing about easy for us was the sleep. before I read the book dd would only sleep in her pram when we went out for a walk as she did not know how to get herself off to sleep so at 4.5 mnths she would only have 1/2 naps a day (exhausting) and as a result was over tired most of the time.
After a month she would take 3 naps a day and sleep most night through to 6am :D
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We have been doing EASY with our DD for about a week now. We are all much happier, although still having issues with 45 min naps. I also put back the 3am feed because we spent every night from 3 to 7 trying to get her back to sleep. Much better than the 3-4 night feedings we were doing. Will work on phasing out that feed in a month or two. My mother watched her for a few hours for my b-day and could not believe how my DD did everything right at about the time I said she would, and was blown away that after her bath and cuddle took her paci and went right off to sleep! :wink:
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With my first child, it was about 4 or 5 months. With Olivia however, I knew better and started right away.
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Right away with Zoƫ and at about 3 months with John :D
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I had initially read babywise, which I feel is a very similar concept to baby whisperer, and knew that a rountine is what I wanted to establish right away. I also had the baby whisperer book on hand and pulled it out when I was trying to figure out DD's crying that seemed to never end. However, those first weeks are not what the books make them out to be. The baby won't wake to eat very easily, and has no activity time. I didn't find babywise to be strict or cruel, just not very realistic. I like Tracy because she gets real with you as to what to expect and assures you that some things don't always work, and that it's very hard!!! I don't understand what other's do if they don't have a routine. I appreciate both books for their guidance, and I take suggestions from both and throw in a little motherly instinct.
Best wishes to all!
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I checked out Tracy's first book from the library when Lilah was 2 1/2 months, and realized I was already following some of the principles-- basically, she had a short activity time before sleep. I could just swaddle her and lay her in her crib and she would go to sleep. I never did a dream feed because she is breastfed and won't take a bottle, and how in the world do you get a baby to breastfeed while sleeping? I never could. She would sleep 8-10 hours at a stretch at night during this time, until about 4 months. I guess at that point I should have been transitioning her to a four-hour routine, but either the first book doesn't tell you that or I somehow missed it. What ended up happening, because I didn't know what I was doing, is that she'd nurse, play, nurse again, and then sleep, often feeding to sleep. She also hit a growth spurt and started waking hungry once a night, so I just kept feeding her. But it wasn't so bad, and didn't take so long anymore, and eventually that night feeding wasn't until 5:30 in the morning, so I didn't try to get her to go without a feeding. Everything was manageable until teething hit and she was waking several time a night, and needing to nurse to go to sleep. Also, around 8 months, she would try to stay up and party at bed time if she didn't conk out during the bedtime feed. It would then take an hour or more to get her to go to sleep. Arg! I had started out with an Angel baby who slept great early on and then accidental parented her into a night-time devil! Obviously, something needed to change. First, I night-weaned. I then found Tracy's newest book about a month ago, and wish I had had it from the beginning. I used P.U./P.D. and within four nights Lilah was sleeping 10 1/2 to 11 1/2 hours at night, with only occasional night wakings that needed my attention (she often calls out somewhere around midnight, and by the time I have gone to the bathroom and am ready for P.U./P.D., she has gone back to sleep on her own. She also is (usually) putting herself down for naps. I have my Angel back!
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Sabrina, your story sounds familiar! I have a very angelic baby who does wake to feed in the night.
Did you find your baby screamed when you tried PU/PD the first nights: that is when you refused to feed her as usual?
I really need to allow my husband to sleep at the moment so I'm a little afraid to try!
Melba
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from birth but wished i'd waited a little longer before starting. i was getting very stressed about the easy routine and not demand feeding, and I think that may have contributed to me having a low milk supply.
My fault, read the books during pregnancy and forgot some of the important bits, maybe they removed it when they did my c-section.!!!!
next time i'd start it at 4-6 weeks.
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i just got the book out of the library and am going to start EASY after reading it. parts of it sound really great so far and parts of it are hard.
It makes me sad to think about giving up parts of our routine which are lovely (every moring around 10, i BF my DS to sleep in our bed whilst listening to a french language CD - its one of my fave times of the day). i could use some major encouragement around stopping this ritual. (i can just feel myself hoping that i can somehow leave it in!)
its exciting to think tho that i will actually know what my DS is crying about tho, not that he isn't a textbook baby which makes it easier. i just want to be the best mommy i can be.
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I'd been watching Tracy's show on Discovery Health when I was on my Maternity Leave and ordered the book after seeing that. I'd read it cover to cover before I had DD. I took it to the hospital along with my EASY logs so for me it was pretty much from day 1 (and thank Goodness for it - I think it helped make Grace the easy baby she was (every pun intended) and certainly saved me from going loopy in the beginning)).
love
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Hi everyone. It's so interesting to hear about how / what other people are doing!
I read the book while I was pg and thought it sounded great so I implemented easy from birth. We live on the other side of the country from our families though, so for the first few weeks we had almost constant visitors - not easy when your're a new mum and trying to establish a routine. But luckily my Darling lo is a textbook baby, and after a few ups and downs, we both got ourselves on track and have been doig really well.
I'm a bit concered hearing from Mums whose lo's are a bit older than mine, and hearing about the 45 minute nap problem! Daragh seems to be starting this now, and it takes me at least 20 mins to resettle him. (whereas before he resettled almost straight away) Anyway, I will hope for the best (I should probably post this in the sleep forum!) But if anyone has any advice ...
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I started my son on EASY in the hospital ! I even printed out log forms and packed them with my stuff and filled it out in the hospital. The midwifes were soooo impressed !
He is now 8 mths old and is such a happy baby (he's spirited/angel). He knows exactly whats coming next and goes down for his naps (twice a day now) and his night-time sleep awake and falls asleep himself within 5 minutes.
This also helps me plan my days and outings around his mealtimes and nap times. If I go out - he will nap in his pushchair, if shopping he can usually only manage shorts naps, but then I make sure I get back home for his afternoon nap where he can have a better quality sleep in his cot.
He now sleeps through the nights, thanks to buying a sleep bag thing - they are great ! I bought him a novalty one and its green - shaped like a frog ! (from http://www.verbaudet.com or co.uk) It keeps him warm and he can't kick off the blankets like he used to - therefore sleeps through the night.
I could have ten more babies like him !
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I started EASY when my daughter was about 7 weeks. I was following the Gina Ford routine, but that was so strict, I was going out of my mind. Then I found this site bought the books, and life has been happier and my DD has been so happy.
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I'm tying to implement easy for a 2 week old. Any suggestions? And type with one hand... :wink:
What did your schedule look like???
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I was offered the first book by a friend from the US while I was pg with dd#1, and reread when pg with dd#2, so for both of them EASY came pretty much from day 1. Everyone gets admired at how great my babies are (both textbook) and how easy it is to handle them. Whenever I meet a mom-to-be I tell her about BW and how it was my life-saver. We hardly have any baby books in my language so I see a LOT of accidental parenting, and it's a great feeling to know that had it not been for Tracy, I would have gone down that road too, but didn't !!!
Sara
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I started when DD was 3 weeks old - I had been trying to feed her 3 hrly but was lost with naps and activities and things so turned to Tracey's books. Within 2 days DD was happily into her routine and it has worked ever since with her sleeping through the night by 12 weeks and even getting over the 45min nap lengths within a week of that little change! I have no idea how we would have coped without the Secrets of the Baby Whisperer - I would never have understood DD :roll:
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I too had read Babywise and found it too strict. I really like Tracy's approach and saw her on TV. I found her book and bought it. I read Babywise while still pregnant so in principal I was using the Eat, Activity, Sleep since coming home from the hospital but I didn't get Tracy's book until around 7 or 8 weeks.
My DD started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks and like other's no one can believe what a happy baby she is! She now goes to bed around 7pm and usually gets up around 7pm. She never really took a dreamfeed. I tried but it didn't work for her. I did do the top up though when she was younger.
Leslie
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When I was about 4 months pregnant I bought Tracey's book and read it religiously from front to back, so when we took DS home after 5 days at hospital we started easy then. Best thing I ever did.
Emilia
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I started at about 4 months. ds had been a very clingy baby, we'd been warned he might be due to being induced & having a traumatic birth. He just wanted to be held, and fed, and he'd fall asleep while breastfeeding. He'd also wake up if I then tried to move him and would cry as he was tired - so I'd feed him back to sleep again and then stay really still so as not to wake him. Sometimes I'd be there for 2 hours or more!
As you can imagine, it was starting to drive me loopy, and one day I was watching TV and found the baby whisperer - I'd seen a few before but none had been appropriate to my sitruation, but suddenly there was this woman who BF her baby to sleep - and Tracy showed her how to do PU/PD and the EASY schedule - and it worked! I talked it over with dh, bought the book off Ebay next day, and we started the next weekend - hubby even took a couple of days off work. He still remembers me saying to him - wow! it only took twenty minutes of it to get him to sleep this time!
It only took a few days / a week to get everyone sorted into the routine. Of course, now Isaac knows what to expect and lets us know when it's bedtime - he goes to the bottom of the stars and knocks on the stairgate for us to take him upstairs! Putting him down when awake changed our lives, and turned having a baby into an enjoyable experience. Thank God for the Baby Whisperer!
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i started using the easy routine when ruby was 2 weeks old and i must say she is an ANGEL baby and i havent had one sleepless night since !!!! it has been absolutely FANTASTIC ! i love having her around and not once have i wanted to pull my hair out !!! I cannot reccomend the baby whisperer highly enough is someone is willing to listen to me i could talk about it for hours!!!
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i started using the easy routine when ruby was 2 weeks old and i must say she is an ANGEL baby and i havent had one sleepless night since !!!! it has been absolutely FANTASTIC ! i love having her around and not once have i wanted to pull my hair out !!! I cannot reccomend the baby whisperer highly enough is someone is willing to listen to me i could talk about it for hours!!!
Do you watch her tv show too?? I've seen all the episodes and still watch them when they're on. I started my DD when she turned 4 months and we're doin great!!
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I started yesterday - my dd is 6 weeks old and was so clingy to me all day that I never got any time to myself. I bought the book on recommendations from a UK discussion forum. She's already had 3x 90min naps today it's great! :D
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I have just bought the book my DD is 6 months and a half so i will probably start EASY in the next couple of days. I have done a lot of accidental parenting so i am in a for a tough 2-3 weeks. :-\
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I have just bought the book my DD is 6 months and a half so i will probably start EASY in the next couple of days. I have done a lot of accidental parenting so i am in a for a tough 2-3 weeks. :-\
Good luck to you!!! ;D ;D ;D
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I started reading Tracy's books while pregnant, so started EASY as soon as we brought our son home from the hospital. Of course, I didn't start off quite right because my pregnancy addled brain didn't remember everything correctly as I didn't have a baby to practice on! So, we had to adjust a few things during the 2nd week of life. But we got things going pretty well by then and he's been going gang-busters ever since, and was sleeping thru the night by 12 weeks. I really liked EASY because it really matches how I was raised, and is very common sense. However, rather than just being some common sense advice given by my mom it is a formula I can follow which makes it easier! My son is such a happy happy boy, and I think so much of it is because he is well rested, well fed, and gets lots of playtime in every day. We don't spend our days running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We have this nice routine that he can count on. Sometimes we have to run errands or do things that don't follow the routine, but that's OK. Most of the time he knows what to expect, and I think that makes his life so much more understandable to him. I love how our life is! It's enabled me to work from home which makes my family life better too!
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We started yesterday.waiting to see how it goes.
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i started using the easy routine when ruby was 2 weeks old and i must say she is an ANGEL baby and i havent had one sleepless night since !!!! it has been absolutely FANTASTIC ! i love having her around and not once have i wanted to pull my hair out !!! I cannot reccomend the baby whisperer highly enough is someone is willing to listen to me i could talk about it for hours!!!
hello rubysmum!
saw your message an need to talk easy routine with you!! my baby Talulah is also 2 weeks old an im getting a bit stressed about her routine. Ive been trying to feed her every 3 hours and wake her for feeds cos she sleeps alot in the afternoon but she isnt feeding the same time every day or sleeping the same time and tends to fall asleep at the end of the feed during the day but is more awake in the night aaarrrgghh! dont know if im expecting a little bit much from her at 2 weeks and whether she will get better at the routine each day.
do you keep to a set time for feeds ? sometimes Talulah just wont wake up enough to eat a full bottle (esp.in the afternoon/early pm) but then will wake up before the 3 hours is up wanting food (usually am) so everyday feed time is at a different time
also (sorry to chew your ear off) the cluster feeds early pm?? how do I make her eat the 2 feeds? my feelings on this are that shes still a bit young and will get into it in a few weeks with practice.
any advice would be MOST appreciated....
thank you
Hollybush xxx
also (sorry to chew your ear off!!)
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We just started using EASY at almost 5 months. I didn't know about Tracy's book until recently. Let me say I wish I had started much earlier b/c this is close to impossible. I am on day 5 and I want to quit. I sure hope tonight goes better. Last night I went into his room 10 times from 7pm to 7am. I guess I'm not doing it right.
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hi owelly
no i havent seen her tv programme. dont think it is screened here in the uk. mind you if it was i think i would be glued to it.!!!!
lol cara xx
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I ordered the books last week and they should be here today...we will start tomorow in that case! :) My DD is 8 weeks old.
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I started within two months. I was convinced on reading The Baby Whisperer that I had a grumpy/spirited/touchy baby and was tearing my hair out as to why I had to get lumbered with that kind of personality:( . But then as if my magic, my baby within weeks could only be described as an angel!
Everyone always comments on how much dd laughs and plays and enjoys her own company and I firmly believe that was all achieved because of EASY. She knows exactly what's coming next. Thank God she falls asleep on her own when I put her down for the night or a nap - I used to literally tear my hair out because the first few weeks she was falling asleep in my arms and waking when she was put in the cot! Even the nanny is impressed because her job was done for her! ;D
I recommend this book to everyone and have actually bought copies for most of my friends who've given birth.
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Hi Everyone-
Whelp, I've been trying to implement EASY a couple of days ago ( my son is 6 1/2 wks). The biggest problem I am having (and let me know if there is a better place to post this..) is that It's always EAT then ACTIVITY--- what if he is simply not hungry at first and wants to chill out/be active and then eat? This happened today (up at 7:00 AM and active until 8:00 to EAST and then went down for a nap at 9:00). My husband had him and he could tell he just wasnt hungry since he just ate at 5:40 (so getting up at 7:00 he just wasn't hungry).
THEN, yesterday AND today (for his roughly 12:00 feedings/respectively), he just ZONKED after he ate...I mean, I couldn't wake him. Then I made the mistake of tryign to wake him to "hey, we're supposed to do ACTIVITY NOW Buddy..") and he was raging mad -- crying and crying and then he just had that sleep face and I had to try to put him down to sleep. ONLY to then ruin what could have been a perfectly good nap asI couldn't get him settled then (so, I HAD toput him in the swing..it was the only thing that was going to calm him -- like he was now overtired). SOOO, I am really "torn"...maybe alll babies just aren't ready to be "active" right after they eat? AND, what if they aren't hungry at first????
ANy help is greatl appreciated. I know EASY isn't a "schedule", but I do have htat in the back of my mind as well as having basic hours to understand when he should be awake/alsleep, etc. Thanks for the forum:):)
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Hi all newbie here, ive jus started EASY. My DD is 7 weeks and i just bought d book two days ago. Havent finished reading it yet but really enjoying it. So far so good fingers crossed :-* :-* :-*
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I started using EASY around 4 mths and now he's 6.5 mths old. I was wondering if there was a 4.5 hr EASY. He seems to be able to go longer now that he's on solids 3 times a day (longer than just 4 hrs between nursings). Any suggestions?
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Attempted from when Mum and Lucas James released from hospital on Day 3
LJ is 2weeks and 1 day, and the EASY thing is VERY up and down so far...
However yesterday we realised we weren't actually doing EASY we were just writing down when he ate... lol! That doesn't really count does it!
So we're gonna hit the schedule hard this week. Obviously we're much better at picking up cues now, especially the E as he's a hungry boy! (9lbs1oz at birth and back to birthweight yesterday, bang on 2 weeks). He also has a lot of discomfort. I certainly don't don't want to wave the colic or reflux flags just yet so we're gonna leave it a few weeks and see how his wind problem goes - pretty classic symptoms at the minute, legs up clawing at face, heartbreaking to watch...
QUESTIONS:
1. LJ doesn't like being his arms swaddled - at all. When sleeping peacefully at least one arm is up by his ear. Do we listen to the cue and leave the arms out or persist with the crying even though they always come out eventually! Maybe use a belt or something!! ;-)
2. He often falls asleep on the breast therfore A after E didn't come naturally for us - guessing this is fairly normal...?? How do we fix it?
3. It's regularly very hard to settle him. e.g this morning after a decent S, E (BF 30mins), A (30 min, nappy and gym mat) at the second yawn I swaddled and gave a quick cuddle to settle him before putting him down. Gentle shush noises and patting went okay but not really working for 15 mins, then the yawns came and eyes started to shut. However at 20 mins he got upset and cried in pain, so pinky went in the mouth. He was then on 5 min cyles that involved soothing on finger, eyes closing & relaxing on finger, abrupt pain again. Repeat for next hour, when the cries turned to cough cries.... back to E!
This is fairly common and perhaps issue is breaking the accidental parenting of letting him fall asleep on Dad's lap at night to get him to sleep (SORRY!)
Any tips on settling him?
All advice, ideas and suggestions MOST welcome!
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hi
when we first started EASY with DS it was like a rollercoaster but it takes a while and eventually we got it ....
1. Our DS hated being swaddled and eventually we gave up and left his arms free but in the first week or so he used to wake up crying as he hit himself with his arms which scared the wits out of him. When putting him down, i would just hold his arms down lightly and about 20 mins later go back in to hold it down again when he starts a new "sleep cycle"
2. What I did was try to wake him while feeding like holding his hand, rubbing his cheek. If he was wrapped in a blanket I would loosen it a little.
3. It took a while for DS to get used to the shh/pat method but we persisted (even had to endure shhhing while having a sore throat) but finally paid off..
Hope the above helps a little
good luck :)
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Charlotte is 4 months old and we just started EASY proper yesterday, our routine was pretty much identical to 3 hour EASY previous, but night wakings were becoming more frequent. (We did have a short golden spell about a month or 2 ago where Charlotte was sleeping 6-8 hours a night! What happened?!)
So I bought Tracy's book a week ago. Spent 4 days wondering when/if to take the plunge! We're on day 2. Still VERY early days but willing to stick with it. Day 1 was pretty good-PU/PD took less time with each successive nap and after 11pm DF, Charlotte stirred once at 2am but managed to settle herself without any intervention and went on to sleep until 5:45am (pretty good compared to 2 hourly wakings!)then PU/PD for 20 mins until 7am. Also started to stretch times between first 2 feeds to aim for 4hour EASY, which seems to be going OK.
However, today has been different nap-wise. Spent the last 45mins-1 hour of S time during 2nd and 3rd nap doing PU/PD and have now nursing shredded ear drums! Think I missed her sleepy cues for nap no. 3 tho'!!
Charlotte went down for the night at 7:45pm, so am now off to bed with Ben&Jerry as sustenance for the possibly nightmarish night ahead!
Wish me luck...
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I started using EASY only a few weeks ago. DS was just over 7 months at the time. The first day on the new routine was fantastic. DS slept for 2 hrs straight something he hasn't done since he was a newborn.
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We started on day 5 - I assume this is considered from birth? It made life sane all of a sudden. BUt then she developed reflux a little while later, and of course just trying to juggle other things in life made it quite a challenge to ALWAYS stick to the routine. I have found that if we leave the house on errands, or have visitors it just throws the routine out of wack so easily. Its kinda hard to do "life" and make it "EASY" at the same time. EASY seems to work best when I am home, with NO distractions (or at least anything that will throw the routine off), no errands and of course tons of patience.
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I started EASY right from the hospital and my baby has been so happy people can't believe it. He knows what will come next in his day and generally has been doing extremely well. My DS is 14weeks and has been struggling with 45minute naps but has been sleeping 12hours at night and once the naps are straigtened out all will be perfect. I love EASY because I can plan my day better and am so thankful my babe is happy.
So how did it work with a newborn... I have a 3 wk old?
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As of today my son is 4months, 2 weeks and 4 days old. Just found the book at the library yesterday. Had just heard about it this week and went to see if local bookstore or Wal Mart had it, which of course they didn't. Thankfully library did.
Wish I would have heard about it sooner.
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Well i had a rough time the first month and a half with my lo.We had a seriously OT baby and no idea why he wouldn't sleep or what to do.Then one day i was lying down with lo on my chest asleep watching Oprah and somehow in my exhausted state remembered a show i watched a long time ago about someone called the baby whisperer.I didn't remember who it was or anything about it or even if i was remember ing correctly but i figured if she was on Oprah there had to be some credibility to it.The next morning i went right to my book store and found the bw book and read it in a day and started easy that exact day.Took a few days of hell but it was well worth it!!
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With my daughter, I started it around six weeks. With our son, I started from the beginning but little dude slept so much it was hard to keep him awake after eating. We found it really began to work with him when he was about four weeks old.
I LOVE EASY!
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I started using EASY around 2 months. I had read several books. I was going crazy with sleep deprivation and a colicky dd. I read BABYWISE and it was just too strict. I read a book on Attatchment Parenting (which I tried for a while) it was too demanding on me. A friend of mine had seen Tracy on the Oprah show a while back and thought she was interesting so I went and got the book and it changed my life! I have had challenges along the way but with BW and this message board supporting me I finally felt like I sort of knew what I was doing!
I read Babywise, too, and it was working (I was a little less strict than the book- feeding every 2 hours at the beginning) but then when my daughter changed and the "schedule" didn't work as well, I didn't know what to do and I tried to make her conform to what I pre-set. It didn't make sense. I also was not entirely comfortable with all the crying I made her do (although I didn't let her CIO all the time or for really long periods of time)... I wish I would have known about the BW first, since I feel like it helps teach you how to respond in a more organic way than Babywise. Babywise paints such a "rosy picture" (as my husband says...) that you expect it to work for your baby ALL OF THE TIME, EVERYTIME and humans are just not like that. I really appreciated Tracy's idea that babies are people and deserve respect, etc. It teaches you how to listen- I love the descriptions of the different cries- I just hope my daughter didn't adopt a "pay attention" cry like Tracy says happens sometimes when there's no response. The BW also helps you see that it's not always going to be perfect. I think that will help me shed less tears (I am a "plan it" person) since I don't have ridiculous expectations...
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Aimee was 12 weeks when I started on the EASY plan.
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I kind of started straight away - I read the book while pregnant. But our boy was induced 3 weeks early and only 4 lbs 12 at birth, so he slept alot. So for about 4 or 5 weeks we just did EaSY - tiny a of nappy change and cuddle only. We didn't have to do any sleep training as he would just pass out as soon as we put him back down. We were waking him for feeds as he was so sleepy, so it was simple to get onto 3 hour EASY from the beginning. We started sleep training as soon as he was able to stay awake for an hour or so, and luckily he's angel/textook so he got the hang of that as well. Sadly we aree now into 45 minute naps! But happily, last night he did his first 12 hour night with only a DF, so something is working!
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I implemented it yesterday! I'm also trying to convert from 2 hourly to 3 hourly feeds as my 9 week old should be capable of doing this! The change meant that she effectively lost a feed yesterday so woke at 1:30am for a feed for the first time in 3 weeks last night- I'm hoping that she'll get used to eating more and will resume the 8 hour unbroken sleep stretch that she had been managing. EASY is already giving me more time for me during the day and it is only day 2!
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As soon as I found the book. Which was quite by accident at the library - was searching desperately for something to make my life easier!
This was two weeks ago. Struggling to get things on plan as she was 3 months when we started and had quite a lot of eating and napping problems. Quite good night sleeper though.
All in all very glad for EASY and will keep at it. Wish has been told about it sooner.
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I started EASY 3 nights ago and already I am noticing a small change. My DS is 9 months old next week and until now has had no routine. He used to sleep through the night but not so good in the day. He then stopped sleeping through the night and both my DH and I were feeling exhausted. In a desperate attempt to try something new we started EASY. It is early days but we are hoping it will work!! :)
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I just started few days ago, my ds is almost 4 months and would sleep 9 hours through the night from 8:30 to 5:30 which to me was good but i had to make myself go to sleep at 9 to have the energy to wake up with him that early... Also he was a fussy eater and after reading the book i realized i was feeding him the same way when he was born, every 2 hours but i would give him 4 oz when he wakes up and then he got a habit of falling asleep only with a bottle to go back to sleep so i would offer another 2 oz before sleep.. it became a cycle of eat play eat sleep ( was all wrong)!! now i started the easy and first time getting him to sleep without bottle took like 45 min of crying with pu/pd... now 3 days later it takes 20 minutes or so with no crying to gently shush pat him to sleep. and now last night he slept 11 hours!! very happy about it, and its so nice to not have to wash and prepare 9 bottles a day !
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I'm starting my 4 week old on it TODAY!!! Wish me luck, she's going to be on a 4 hour schedule, I think... Any suggestions for a beginner???
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I have been doing it for a week and four days...my LO is 7 weeks and 6 days. It was the best thing I ever did. Her disposition has greatly improved (although she doesn't smile anymore but that is because she is always sleeping). and I know now that I am giving her what she needs and wants. I had no idea that she really wanted to sleep a lot. I thought she could be awake for over an hour at a time and she just can't. She rarely cries now and she has learned the ability to fall asleep on her own. I used to spend 30-50 minutes wrapping, shhhing and bouncing her at night...all to start over again when she woke up as I put her down. This was killing me mentally and physically. I almost lost it until one Friday I plowed through the book and implemented BW steps that afternoon. Now for sleep time- I sing a song, turn on some white noise and close the shades. Within 10-20 minutes, after a few mantra calls here and there...she is asleep. She sleeps for a 12 hour stretch with one 3am feeding. EASY really works...no day is perfect...but I really feel like my baby is much happier...she used to be so fussy and cry a lot. Now - she eats, sleeps, and makes funny faces. Good luck to everyone! :D
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Hello,
I started using EASY around 2 months old and it has worked fabulously! Hang in there ladies, it worked so well that not even jetlag through off my LO. She was an extremely touchy baby and now she wakes up with a smile, and will even sleep through the night 11-12 hours. She is now 10 months old. I hope this website and the people on it help you as much as they help me all the time.
Be prepared for some peaks and valleys but it is all worth it! Perseverance is key and look out for your LO's sleep cues.
Best,
kosmofitness
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Well I finally got around to reading the Baby Whisperer's book and, oh my goodness, it's amazing! We started E.A.S.Y. a couple of days ago and my DS has slept both nights from 8pm to 7am with just one feed in the early hours to carry her through. I tried to dream feed her on the first night but she just couldn't wake up, bless her, so I popped her back in her cot and she didn't wake again until 4am! I, however, didn't sleep so well - it was so quiet that I kept bringing the monitor to my ear so I could hear her snuffling and breathing away. I was expecting it to be such an uphill struggle with lots of waking up for the first few nights but it's like she's been waiting all this time for me to sort myself out (she's 14 weeks)- she's happier and chattier and more gorgeous than ever during the day because she's getting enough sleep. I feel guilty for not doing it sooner as the evenings spent crying for hours were clearly her way of telling me she was exhausted from lack of daytime naps and a bedtime routine. I've started her on 3 hourly feeds during the day but she's fighting it hard and still seems to want feeding every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. I'll let her dictate as she seems to know far better than I do and it's a small price to pay if I get 11 hours "off" every night plus 3 or 4 hours worth of me time every day. What a result!