It’s no surprise to anyone around us that Riley has been a handful. From the first day he came out screaming and hasn’t stopped since. 7 days ago that all changed.
During one of our baby classes an instructor mentioned the book The Happiest Baby on the Block as a good resource for parents. It’s chock full of tips and techniques for soothing a angry baby. At our wits end, we picked it up last week.
The main technique the book outlines is a 5 step process for calming your baby down. Court gave it a whirl last week and had the kid quiet within minutes.
We were absolutely astonished how well the techniques worked. For the last week we have been practicing them religiously and Riley seems to be responding to them. We had started feeling like we were failing as parents. When your kid will only give you the stinkface for 3 weeks straight it’s hard not to take it personally.
One week ago, today, Riley was waking up 3 times a night. He never went longer than 2 1/2 hours without fussing. We had a hard time putting him in is bassinet because he cried every time he was out of our arms.
Last night Riley slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, in his crib. I was flabbergasted this morning when I woke up at 3:30am. I did a double-take to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was so excited that I couldn’t fall back asleep.
