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ACTIVITY => E.A.S.Y. Forum => Topic started by: jkendall on March 27, 2006, 10:46:45 am

Title: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 27, 2006, 10:46:45 am
Hi

I am in the process of reading the baby whisperer as I am due in June with my first; and just had some questions about how to start the easy method when I come from the hospital.  Do you track the babies sleep and eat patterns the first few days and then start the easy routine after a few days?  Do you start it in the morning or evening with a feed/activity/sleep?  Any help would be great!!

jacqui
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 27, 2006, 12:31:47 pm
Congratulations and welcome to TBW forums  ;D

The first weeks are pretty tiring (still are) when you get home, so don't pressure yourself too much.yes, it is a good idea to track your LO naps and adjust if you can from there. My friend had a LO in January and for the first few weeks breastfeed every 1hr night and day.

You will want to arrange a time to wake him up each morning and what time he will want to go to bed.   The books follow a 7am wake up and 7pm bedtime and a dreamfeed at about 10.30pm.

1st goal is to get her/him down for naps in each EASY cycle,
2nd goal would be to get her/him to nap for longer than 1 sleep cycle as often as you can,
3rd goal is to stretch her/him to 3hrs between feeds and where she/he is capable

EASY runs from your wake time (7am in the book), so start tracking your EASY day then, it is expected that your Lo will have nightwakings, so feed when required.  Are you going to cluster & dream feed?

EASY not not easy, but with perseverance you will get their - and it works brilliantly.

Good luck and shout if you need more help.
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 27, 2006, 12:40:43 pm
thanks Calums mom.

It sounds pretty intense in the first three weeks. I take it if you are feeding every hour then its hard to implement EASY?

I am not sure what I am going to do..cluster or dream feed? I would like to try dream feeding but not too sure what how to do cluster feed.  Can you explain?

thx
jax
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 27, 2006, 12:50:31 pm
My friends DD took approx. 3 weeks to go from 1hr to 3hr breastfeeding).
I has to end up bottlefeeding, he went to 3hrs in a mater of a week.

When you get into the swing of things with your LO and they are feeding roughly 3hrs, the E's in your day may look something like the attached picture (from the 2nd book page 25), it shows a cluster and a dreamfed.

Jax, do you have the 2nd book, TBW solves all your problems, I find it better than the first, as the first one just gives a through overview of EASY, the 2nd book goes into more detail.

Tracey goes on to say, if you put your baby on EASY straightaway, she guarantees you'll learn her cues more quickly and be better able to determine why she's crying. Keeping a daily chart will help (you can download these on the EASY forum).

Hope this helps.

Lauren x
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 27, 2006, 12:52:15 pm
Dreamfeeding info is here:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54662.0
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: WIPsMom on March 27, 2006, 12:57:27 pm
Hi,
I'm expecting in June - my first baby as well - hope it's ok I ask a question here too - this is very helpful!  Thanks for starting this topic jax.

Calums_mum - what do you mean by "2nd goal would be to get her/him to nap for longer than 1 sleep cycle as often as you can" - that is, what is a  "sleep cycle" - do you mean to extend each "S" in the easy?

Thanks!
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 27, 2006, 13:09:41 pm
thanks for the info lauren. 

I have the second book TBW - solves all your problems I just found it a little confusing maybe because I don't have a baby to practice with!! I found all the info when they are older overwhelming but hopefully it will all make sense!

Your posts have been really helpful and informative as to whats to come!!  I guess after a month or so I will figure out what type of baby I have! angel - i hope!!

xox
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 27, 2006, 13:15:32 pm
Yes, if babies take short naps they are generally 40mins, you would try and extend S time.


More info on naps....
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=46.0

You may want to get some extra sleep info here - it is a Sleep interview with Tracey.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=451.0

This is a good post about surviving the first 3 months
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=1993.0



HTH
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 27, 2006, 13:16:55 pm
Jax until Ds was about 3.5months I didn't read past past P219 as I felt it was all for 4months and over.

Was there anything in particular that was confusing?
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 27, 2006, 13:33:13 pm
Not sure yet! But that makes me feel better that you only read that much in the beginning!  ;)

I thought - I am never going to finish this book by the time little one is born!! 

thanks again for your info - so helpful!!

xox
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: KellyC on March 27, 2006, 21:32:45 pm
Hi

My DS is now 6.5 months old and I also read the books (both of them!) before he was born so was really excited about my new 'project'!  I would say this, don't expect your new baby to conform to everything in the book even if you do everything Tracy suggests.  I never thought I'd had to read past page 219 as I thought I'd have it all figured by then - I now regularly refer to the later chapters!  I know you won't believe this but the first weeks and months of your baby's life will absolutely fly by so cherish every moment!

Having said that the EASY routine is a fab way of getting your baby into good eating and sleeping habits and also for figuring out what the different cries mean, though this can take a few weeks to understand.  I always followed Tracy's suggestion of SLOW - Stop, Listen, Observe, What's wrong?  It stopped me from rushing in and really helped me to understand.  If he'd just eaten he probably had wind, if he'd been awake for a while he was probably tired, if he'd woken up he was probably hungry etc.

I'm still breastfeeding and was lucky enough not to have to feed every hour day and night and he was a very efficient feeder, only taking 10-15 minutes for a full feed - I feel awful for your friend Lauren!  If you're breastfeeding I think the main thing to concentrate on is not letting baby fall asleep whilst feeding.  There are some good tips in the books for this, including rubbing baby's hand whilst you're feeding and creeping your fingers up baby's spine.  Also follow EASY but don't watch the clock, watch your baby.  My DS was 3 months old before he was able to stay awake as long as the 3 hour EASY routine suggests in the book.  In the early days he would literally wake up, eat, have his nappy change, maybe sit and look at me for a while and then yawn for sleep so we would go straight to the 4S routine.  I seem to remember the EASY routine really taking shape at about 5 weeks.  Before then I would feed when he was hungry (he was quite a low birth weight and to begin with he could only go 2 - 2.5 hours) and work the EASY routine from there.  I would also suggest two other things during the first 3 months - a swaddle and a dummy - I couldn't have survived without either and we also got rid of the dummy at 3 months without too much hassle.  Also treat night-time feeds differently from day-time feeds, dim nights with no (or hushed) talking and put baby straight back down to sleep once they're done.

Good luck with the birth and your new baby.

Kelly x
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 28, 2006, 10:27:21 am
Thanks for the advice zandersmum.  I will have to remember that when the time comes!!

I know this must be a silly question but I already having people asking me when they can come over -  they are so excited to see the baby. I don't want to be overwhelmed with people coming over as I have told me husband but did you find you could fit visits in with friends and family when your baby was born without disrupting the easy routine.

I really want to have my time with the littleone but don't want to deprive people of seeing him!

jax
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 28, 2006, 10:36:58 am
Jax,

You need to do what you feel confortable with. I personally perfered them coming to hospital, as I know to get decent for certain visiting hours ( I was in 5 days for c-section). When I got home with DS & DH, we got people to phone and see if it was ok to visit us. We also stopped people coming to visit after 5pm as Calum was quite demanding at this time, due to feeds and crying, although I later discivered he was overtired and needed swaddled to calm in down.  My friend I mentioned on this post also 'banned' visitors after 5pm and made sure that people said in advance if they intended to come. I saw her LO the day after she was born in hospital, becasue I knew she wanted time to bond wither her LO and DH, I saw her again 3 weeks later.

It is time when you want to bond with your LO, it is a very tiring time and in months to come you may struggle to remember it clearly (take loads of pictures). Having visitors is nice to show off your LO, but make sure you are not running around after them, let them make coffee and do your ironing, etc if needed. You will be far too busy with your LO.

I foudn that if someone came to visit, I would stop everything I was doing. He slept most of the time then anyway so no-one was waking him and I planned it around feeding. it was the nights that were the worst for people dropping in.
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: jkendall on March 28, 2006, 11:59:24 am
thanks Calum's mom - some good advice.  I am due to have an c-section so will keep that in mind when I have hospital visiting times and evening visitors!

jax
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on March 28, 2006, 13:01:48 pm
Good luck, I only knew at 37 weeks (after a late scan) that DS was a breach baby and I needed a C-Setion, it was a shock. But the way I at it, it was better to get it booked in, than not know and go through hours of labour to get an emerg. section, where they can't take their time. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, the worst bit was getting the injection in the hand, the epidural was nothing. DH watched the whole thing  :o and went away with the midwife to get him weighed and cleaned up, got a picture of that too because I missed it.

I had visitors 3 hrs after the operation, by that time all feeling had nearly returned in my legs and the visitors got to see my wee bag!! By that time you are too tired and high in morphine to care.

Keep in touch!
Lauren
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: webfoot on June 29, 2006, 09:12:36 am
Here is my advice.... the BW is IMHO the BEST child centered infant advice you will ever get. So if you need something to cling to as you approach motherhood Tracy's words and advice are the ones to follow. Having been there, done that I will so tell you she is the one to listen to! But having been there done that 3x.... there is always room to make it fit to your lifestyle! 
Title: Re: New member - not had baby yet but just read book and want to prepare myself!
Post by: LŠuren on July 02, 2006, 21:08:59 pm
Jax, I hope you don't mind me posting.......



....... Baby Liam was born on 23rd June, 2006  a week early.  :)