Xander Week 5 - Are Parenting Books Useful?
October 26, 2006
In typical Sara fashion, I have been doing as much research as possible on parenting. Now I’m not sure if the information was helpful or just stressed me out. You see, when I read through the books I find that I’m not doing half of what they suggest. Then I worry that I’m not stimulating my baby’s development enough, or that I’m fostering bad habits in my kid.
This week I attempted to follow a suggestion in my Baby Whisperer book. The author, Tracy Hogg suggested that at about 6 weeks you can “cluster feed” your baby to encourage the baby to sleep through the night. To cluster feed, you feed your baby every two hours at night - for example, at 6 pm then 8 pm the 10:30 or 11 pm. This last feeding is referred to as the dreamy feeding, as the baby should be sleeping by the end of it. Then, without burping or anything you can put your baby to sleep and in theory he or she should sleep through the night.
So, this week I tried to cluster feed Xander. Instead of being sleeping at the 10:30 pm feeding, he was wide awake and stayed that way until 2:30 am. At 3 am I gave in and fed him again. He slept from 3 am to 6 am, and that was the only sleep we got that night. Granted, Xander is only 5 weeks old, but since I have seen him sleep 6 hours at a stretch, I didn’t think this would be too much for him. Maybe cluster feeding works for some kids, and maybe it will work for Xander eventually, but at the moment, it was the longest night we’ve had so far, and I was definitely questioning the wisdom of this particular baby book by 3 am. The theory seems logical, but in practice it was quite miserable.
So, if anyone has any suggestions for great parenting books (I already have What to Expect In the First Year of course) and/or any suggestions on how to encourage babies to sleep through the night, I’d love to hear about them!
Ps. I think I should get a special pat on the back for writing this post while nursing Xander 
In addition to books, do you recieve the AmericanBaby & BabyCenter magazines? I did infact buy the teachers wrap around eidtion to “The Developing Child“, has tons of information! Good Nights: The Happy Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed (and a Peaceful Night’s Sleep) might interest you for as well.
My daughter started sleeping through-out the nights around five months of age.. but of course, it wasn’t a forever-sort-of-thing.It can be tricky when it comes to babys & schedules, especially night-schedules. Make sure when it’s bed time that you have the lights off, otherwise they learn that night time is boring. Sing little Xander a bed time lullaby everynight too! Good luck with that and you have me impressed with making a post while nursing, lol! Amazing, amazing. You are already an amazing mother… You know how I can tell? This website right here. It never ceases me from being amazed.
xoxo, Crae.
I didn’t notice all of my typos until *after* I read posted it.
edition*
babies*
Hi Crae - thanks for the book suggestions, and the schedule suggestions - I’ll definitely have to check out the books, and maybe I’ll try singing to Xander (if my horrible voice doesn’t scare him awake)
Hey Sara,
I was cracking up as I was reading this post. Joseph does the exact same thing! You really have to have a good sense of humor to get through this difficult phase. He does have some nights where he will sleep for 5 or 6 hours at a time, and my guess is that those will become more frequent as time goes on. As I am sure you have read in your research, we can expect some respite around three months when most babies sleep through the night. Gosh, I feel such a kinship to you. I have been reading your blog since your 39th week (my 38th) our babies are only about six hours apart and we seem to be going through the same things at the same time! Inspired by you my husband and I have started our own Joseph blog.
Hi Melissa - it is very important to have a good sense of humor! I’m definitely hoping for a more cooperative baby by 3 months! I enjoy knowing there is someone out there with a baby so close in age, experiencing so many similar things! I’m also so excited that you and your husband started your own blog - I’d love to read it! Could you post the link to it so we can check it out?
I would love to give you the link but call me paranoid, I don’t feel comfortable posting it publicly (it contains some very personal information). Do you get access to my email when I leave a comment? Perhaps I could email it to you.