Monday, April 09, 2007

The Happiest Baby on the Block

WEEK
36
By this time next week, we will be at the "full term" stage, where the baby has developed enough to brave the outside world. According to Week 36 of the BabyCenter Calendar, the baby is nearly 6 pounds and almost 19 inches long. It's just a waiting game from now on.

BabyCenter also points out that the baby will start dropping lower into the pelvis, which will cause pressure in the lower abdomen, and feel like "carrying a bowling ball between the legs." I suppose that was partially why we ended up going to the hospital last Sunday night.

At the recommendation of J&L in Calgary (knowlegeable parents of two children), we got a video from the library called "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and watched it this evening. It was great to have an instructional video on how to effectively calm a fussing newborn. Since I have nearly ZERO experience with babies, I generally panic if I'm holding a baby and it starts to cry. It's nice to know a few techniques that you can try. The maker of the DVD, Dr. Harvey Karp, gives "5 S's" for people to try:
1. Swaddling
2. Sideways/Stomach
3. Shushing
4. Swinging
5. Sucking

Look at that. I only saw the video once, but I was able to come up with the list in the right order. I think I'm almost ready to give this business a try. The people on the video made it work, so it is guaranteed to work for me. Not only that, the people who reviewed it on Amazon.com said they got it to work, too.

There is no way I can fail.

9 comments:

Eric said...

OK, so I admit it... before it was like blah blah blah baby blah. Now I've officially started a todo list and added this movie. I feel more prepared already... thanks D. :)

Anonymous said...

That's very funny, Eric!

I haven't seen the DVD, but if the stomach position is the same that I've used before, then it will work wonders.

Aaron said...

I was watching Oprah (Don't tune out yet.. this is good information) and a woman by the name of: Priscilla Dunstan was on there. (I'll just copy and paste it from Oprah's site)

"For millions of sleep-deprived mothers around the world, this woman's findings could be a miracle! Priscilla Dunstan, a mom from Australia with a special gift, says she's unlocked the secret language of babies.

When Priscilla was a toddler, her parents discovered she had a photographic memory for sound. At age 4, she could hear a Mozart concert on the piano and play it back note for note.

Priscilla says her gift has helped her hear a special "second language" beyond English, allowing her to detect moods and even diagnose illnesses! "Other people might hear a note but I sort of get the whole symphony," Priscilla says. "So when someone's speaking, I get all this information that other people might not pick up."

That mysterious second language took on an astounding new meaning when Priscilla became a mother to her baby, Tom. "Because of my gift for sound, I was able to pick out certain patterns in his cries and then remember what those patterns were later on when he cried again," Priscilla says. "I realized that other babies were saying the same words.""

She says she has narrowed it down to 5 cries.. I wrote it down (before Eman was born) so I could test it out after he was born.. TOTALLY WORKS!! LL fully backs it and can tell the difference between the cries too. Here they are:

1. Hunger - sounds like "neh"
2. Sleepy/Tired - sounds like "owh"
3. Discomfort - sounds like "heh"
4. Lower Gas - sounds like"Eair"
5. Burp - "eh"

www.dunstanbaby.com

The DVD from her site is $60.. I never bought it because of the price.. just used the advice from the show and wrote down the sounds.

Grandma Walters said...

Derek, I think someone mentioned this before, either on your blog or somewhere else I heard it. So now I hope you are tuned into more languages than English, French, and Russian. Who knows, you may be able to be a great dad after all. P. S. Does Jenny and Luke know this secret to get their baby to sleep more???

D said...

I mentioned this in a previous post, which you can read here. I included a link to section on Oprah.com where you can watch that segment of the show and hear the sounds again.

Most of the comments I got were from parents who couldn't hear the sounds that Dunstan was talking about.

Anonymous said...

D & R
If you get the chance before your baby joins us all in the big ol' world...check out the book "The Baby Whisperer", if you haven't already. I was sure glad that I came across that before we had baby #1. It really helped us both out alot! I swear by it...We 4 are so excited for you two. Take care and we look forward to hearing the big news!

D said...

Hey, R just got that book from the library this week. It's sitting over there [points]. We'll definitely have to check that out.

Anonymous said...

We couldn't tell the difference between the cries, for us we watch the clock and have a pretty good idea why the kid is crying. The happiest baby book we also read and loved untill we had A. The we realised that the 5 s's were a bit more useful. As for Grandma Walters comment, if we knew how to get H to sleep more he would already be sleeping more!!! Oh and P.S. no suggestions from any of the "experienced" mothers has helped either.

Anonymous said...

you can get that video online at the colic shop as well as swaddling blankets which are mentioned in the video. This is a really good vid. There is also one by the same guy for toddlers (happiest toddler on the block).