After 9 months of pregnancy I've found myself a completely different person, with entirely different priorities. This blog is dedicated to that experience of being a new mom and exposing the down and dirty truth of it all.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Theory #4 - tank him up

So as you guys may or may not know, I've become kind of a dork on sleep theories as I've been reading everything I can get my hands on. A couple gems I've come across lately are courtesy of The Baby Whisperer. Tracy Hogg, the so called whisperer, advocates for a more closely monitored, more rigid daily schedule. She teaches you how to read your child and see the cues for fatigue. I have to say, once I knew what to look for naptime became SO MUCH easier. Remarkable really.

What leads me to my latest "Theory in Parenting" is that she talks about "tanking your child up" if he's waking frequently in the night. The idea is that you really fill him full of calories during the day to sustain him overnight - makes sense right?

So yesterday I really focused on getting all good feedings which is easier said than done. Henry is starting to be more aware of his environment and thus, much more distractable. But we stayed the course and the result was positive. He was only up twice! I'll take that!

So here's to pudging out my little boy in exchange for a good night sleep :)
I guess I'll be a food pusher mom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once again, I say, you are doing everything right. Some theories will work, and some won't, but trying out everything you can to do what's best for your kiddo is what makes you a great mom.

Meg said...

Oh, the distractible baby! I think it was around 3.5-4 months when I started having to nurse up in his room with the lights off. Otherwise, he'd hardly get anything since he was so busy looking around at everything!

And I'm so glad you've had some luck with the Tracey Hogg book - she's got some great advice. Just a word of caution to new nursing moms, though: if you start scheduling everything at too young an age, it can throw off your milk supply since you may not be feeding the baby when he needs it (the law of supply and demand is so key!) Other than that, I've been really pleased with her advice. Our little guy is FINALLY sleeping through the night with relative consistency (perfect timing - just a week shy of his first birthday!) :)