Grant would like to note that he would rather be typing up this post, but his computer is out of commission while we wait for a part that needed replacing. It's driving him mad that he can't upload all the cute pictures he's taken this week onto his computer so he can edit them until they're just right and post them in practical perfection. I love that I married a guy who will open up a tower and replace a part as neccessary and obsessively research photo editing sites until he perfects the art of adjusting white balance in pictures of our baby!
Starting our family at this point in our lives as been quite ideal for both Grant and me. We both came into our marriage debt free and money saved up, we had both had a number of years of significant life experience and had surmised that the single life was for the birds and just not where it's at. And in the realm of pregnancy and parenting, we've had it a lot easier than our parents did because of the wealth of knowledge and technology available. From epidurals to ultrasounds to the beautiful piece of wisdom that has been come to known as the 5 S's.
Meet Dr. Harvey Karp, a pediatrician who developed these 5 S's to soothe crying babies. The 5 S's are the recommendations Dr. Karp makes to ease a newborn's transition from a fetus and how recreating the environment of the womb can help with their shock of the environment of the world. We first heard about him from our brother-in-law, James. I'd never seen a man so enthusiastic about something related to babies, so I paid attention even though we weren't even out of the first trimester when he very enthusiastically preached his wisdom to us. The video version of his book, The Happiest Baby on the Block, was available at the library so we checked it out and were amazed when we watched it. Viola! Crying baby after crying baby totally pacified, calmed and quieted. We've used this from day one with Kendra and it's been a life-saver. Kendra doesn't cry very often, but when she does, it only lasts for about a minute. Literally.
Turns out, James was just the first source we heard about it.
As I flipped through one of the pregnancy magazines I was given at the doctor's office, there was a short article about Dr. Karp and how and why he developed the 5 S's. Before we were released from the hospital, we were given a whole folder of information and included was a hand-out briefly describing them for new mothers taking their babies home. I've read books both on breast-feeding and helping babies sleep and both of these published sources used him and his 5 S's as a resource. It's a phenomenon.
And just in case you needed more proof, we decided to show you for ourselves how well it works.
Bam! Yes, it's that simple. After we stopped recording, we put her down in her bassinet and she konked right out. Naaaice.
Grant even employed his mad skillz and mixed a 35-minute audio track of white noise/heartbeat/ocean sounds so that we can take a little break from the shushing. I might be known to play the disc on repeat while we nap during the day...
So for anyone out there who hasn't had the benefit yet, here's the proof of how to get your baby to be the happiest baby on the block too!
Saturday Morning News
7 years ago
9 comments:
OMG, I used HBOTB with Nora and it was awesome!! Kudos to you guys for finding it early!
That video was impressive! Good job! I think you send it in to author. Kendra could be a spokesbaby for the book. :) I read it when Justin was born and found it very helpful. Then my Grant came along and decided he wasn't going to have anything to do with being swaddled. But he's been a pretty happy-go-lucky kid, thankfully! :)
She is too cute. I hadn't heard about it before but we were blessed with non crying babies, at least the half hour crying kind. We did have the "I don't want to eat anything at all baby" oh wait we still do. We also have the "I want to eat it all baby"
I guess they balance each other out.
HA! isn't that wonderful!, this is all I have to do to Phoenix at night when he wakes up and he falls right back asleep.
You guys have such a cute and fun blog!
It's like a magic trick!
I love that method - your video was AWESOME! Unfortunately, Audrey was almost completely immune to it - or maybe I wasn't strong enough to keep 'shaking' her long enough. Lybi sent us the DVD, though, and it helped. She liked being swaddled till she was almost a year old! Audrey was just a tough cookie as far as crying and going to sleep. We're glad she's so cute now. We ... almost forget how difficult she was back then. ;o)
Awesome video.
That's a cute video. Simeon was also a pretty good baby but he wouldn't go to sleep unless he was walked for a LONG TIME. Then we discovered the Sleep Sense Book. So we weren't all cray mad in love with Happiest Baby on the Blog Video. But we were all over the Sleep Sense Book. Every parent has to find their own little obsession and then push it on all of their friends, right? haha. But there is one thing we are all obsessed with and that is our own children. It is great to see how obsessed you guys are with Kendra. You've earned it :P And now you understand why we are so crazy obsessed with Simeon :P
we did that book with Grace, and it really does help! My arms and lips would get tierd from shhhhhhing, and then bouncing. But I loved that it helped Grace
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