Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Many Faces of Scott

I mentioned that Scott slept for 6 hours a few nights ago. Most nights (excluding tonight) he sleeps for about 5 hours or so the first stretch, and then 3 hours at a time until morning. So, Brooke asked how we were pulling this off. Well, here's the answer:

We really don't know.

For the last few months we've had several books around the house with all kinds of information and ideas about how to calm babies and get them into routines. We've tried to adopt as much of the advice as we could without getting ridiculous. One of the more significant points we learned was that it is better in the long term to put the child down awake, so that he learns to put himself to sleep. If anyone wants to read the books, here they are, ranked by perceived usefulness:
1. Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (Hogg)
2. Baby Wise (Ezzo & Bucknam)
3. Sleeping Through the Night (Mindell)
11. Baby Talk / Parent Talk (Sanger)

You might wonder what happened to #4-10. Let's just say that there are probably other books out there that are more immediately useful for sound sleeping than #11. The author examines the many expressions and gestures a baby makes, which can be interpreted once you learn what to look for. According to R, it was kind of like the Dunstan Baby Language -- very interesting, but difficult to put into practice.

I have only glanced through #11, but I have learned a few lessons of my own in my 6 short weeks of parenthood. Here are some of Scott's expressions and gestures with my interpretations:

Curious

Amused


Livid



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an emotional range he has. Cute pictures!

Kage said...

Oh musha musha...what a cutie

Anonymous said...

Yeah! I'm so glad that you found the Baby Whisperer book useful! It really helped us out...I'm just happy to pass along good information. Scott sure is a cutie!

Anonymous said...

Well, they are all calling him a "cutie" in spite of my warning! Perhaps the book I read to the first graders was wrong, right? But I am surely getting anxious to see him besides on my computer screen. Too bad you won't be there this month when we are in Calgary!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you ranked The Baby Whisperer at #1. It's such a good book! If you're interested, there is also a Baby Whisperer for Toddlers book by the same author which is great for when they get a little older.