Baby Whisperer

This week our little man had his kidney stent taken out. They take it out ‘the long way round’ if you know what I mean – so no incision. With a wink, the specialists gave a lifetime guarantee so they’re pretty proud of their handiwork. Hear hear, I say.

With the medical interventions taken care of we decided it was time to teach this little one about sleep. For philosophical reasons we were not in favour of certain (popular) approaches but we think we’ve hit a winner with the Baby Whisperer that came last night.

So it was all about sleep coaching in the Barr house and this morning we are a sparklier family. Even though we might have had minimal sleep, his/our awake times were interactive, educational and successful. We really liked the approach of this sleep expert who coached us all through our roles in teaching Angus to sleep.

Why we like her advice;
 You make eye contact and verbally engage with the baby whenever they are unsettled at night. Just like any other subject we want to teach him about, we will look at him in his eyes and acknowledge his opinions. Same here.
 The coaching relies on a ‘no guilt, no anger, no frustration, no doubt’ premise. Everything is taught by the parent from a loving place of certainty.
 We interact with his communication. We listen to the crying conversation and language he uses to put himself to sleep and mimic it. Our mimicking of these noises suggests to him an idea he could try.
 Once the baby has settled himself to sleep go into his room and reward him with a kiss and praise. This completes the whole learning experience for him.

So, even 12 hours later we’ve noticed positive changes in him and we’re really satisfied with the process of making those changes. Yippee.