I’ve always kind of bragged about my son being such a great sleeper. He’s two and a half and he’s been a great sleeper from the very beginning. Now that I have a newborn again, I was on a search for help with sleeping babies. And then it hit me! When Luke was a newborn I read The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg, at the suggestion of a neighbor. That book was what saved me, and what allowed me to return to work after seven weeks and be lucid enough to be effective. I can’t believe I had forgotten all about it! I found some excerpts from the book via a google search and as I read them it all came back to me. So last night I vowed to start working the E.A.S.Y. method right away. And you know what? It’s given me renewed hope. I’ve been so unbelievably exhausted and Mike and I have had to work out some crazy shifts to ensure that we both get enough sleep, but with this new plan I’m extremely hopeful.

Here it is in a nutshell: baby Eats, baby has Activity time, baby Sleeps, then it’s Your time. E.A.S.Y. It involves two feedings in the evening that are two hours apart instead of three, called cluster feedings. After that second cluster feed you skip the Activity time and go straight to Sleep. Also it stresses that when you put the baby down for a nap, you just swaddle her up tight and lay her down awake in the crib. If you were correct in interpreting her cues and she’s really tired, she’ll manage to go asleep on her own. I’ve been following this method all day and it’s been so wonderful already. It’s just nice to have a plan, you know? I know we’ll have a little trouble in the evening as she’s getting used to this (she’s usually wide awake in the late evening, hence our problem) but I know it can work if we stick with it. Hey, it worked for Luke!