On Becoming Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep

My first-born will be turning six in about a week, a fact most people in our corner of the state have become privy to. I think back to her newborn days, to her beautiful long lashes and her ferocious cry.

The first weeks after her birth couldn’t have been more different than what I was expecting. Everything was infinitely more difficult, emotions impossibly high, than I had previously thought possible for human existence. My daughter slept at all the wrong times, nursed erratically, and cried every evening well into the night.

Six weeks after she had been born, with no improvement among anyone in the house, my sister-in-law gave me a book that truly saved my sanity. It ordered our days and gave us goals to shoot for. Within days our daughter was in a lovely routine, and my husband and I were overjoyed and so very relieved. With the basics down, we were able to take better care of her and ourselves, and we’ve followed the same structured day with the rest of our children. God blessed us with three more little ones, and I know that I would not have been able to open myself up to them so quickly if we hadn’t found this manual on how to create a peaceful day at home.

So, I wanted to introduce to you On Becoming Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nightime Sleep. Written by Gary Ezzo and Dr. Robert Buckman, it offers solid advice and guidelines to parents on how to structure their baby’s days to help facilitate nighttime sleeping, promising that the little one will be able to sleep through the night by eight weeks. As the infant grows, the schedule changes to adapt to his needs until the child naturally transitions into a typical day with three meals, normal naps, and continuous sleep at night.

As a new mom with approximately zero experience with babies, this book was a God-send. It helped me anticipate my daughter’s needs, care for her with confidence, and help me incorporate her little life peacefully into my husband’s and mine. And, of course, it brought blissful sleep to us all. If you’re struggling with an infant, I recommend this with my whole heart.