Customer Reviews

The Baby Book: How to Enjoy Year One

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to be helpful with some tweaking. She mentions that the child should take their long nap in the morning and the short one in the afternoon; I did just the opposite and my 7 month old twins are AWESOME sleepers. They take a 45-55 minute nap in the morning, 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon and sleep from 7:30/8pm till 9/9:30am every night! Also, they are exclusively breastfed so I never gave them boiled water since they were hydrated enough from the nursing. Very helpful pointers though overall. If I can schedule and get twin boys to sleep this well, then anyone can!!!

I would reccomend this book to any Mom needing help with setting a routine. I would say though if you are nursing it is much harder to keep up with her every four hour feeding schedule.

This book is amazing! Rachel covers everything a new parent would need, from schedules, to breast feeding to even checklists for a new baby. I love that she gives a wide array of opinions on parenting tips and things that we all struggle with. She even goes through how to swaddle a baby-pictures!, and even bathing! I absolutley love her kind demeanor when she writes her book! I would reccomend this book to any new mom =)

I was given this book by a girlfriend who highly recommended it, and I have to say that I am very pleased. As a first-time (and let's be honest, clueless) parent, I found the author's practical and straight-forward advice helpful in managing my expectations of life with a newborn. She is a big proponent of a flexible routine which is somewhere in between the regimented schedule approach and the responsive or "on-demand" approach to infant care. This philosophy seems to blend a little of both, and with our active, busy schedules, it resonated with us.

While I may not agree with everything in the book, (for example, she is not a big fan of pacifiers and we gave in so as not to make a gassy baby more so by crying and gulping air), I understand and appreciate the consistent logic in her approach. Another example is her view on monitors. I understand why she says she is not a fan, and I am sure there are a few new parents out there who could probably benefit from that advice. In our case, however, with a low birth weight baby, our Angelcare monitor has given us the piece of mind so we CAN sleep. (Now if only our son would allow that on a more regular basis...ha!)

I had never even thought to consider some of her recommendations before, like napping in places other than the crib or bassinet and not having black-out curtains to encourage flexibility in the child, and they make perfect sense. I also like her writing style which comes across like having a long sit-down with a grandmother or aunt in-the-know. She is supportive, and the whole point of being flexbile is that tomorrow is a new day and a chance to try again. To be frank, the last thing I need is to feel guilty or bad when something does not go according to plan.

The best things about this book to me are the chapter on establishing flexible routines and that the book is less than two hundred pages. The first is great because she breaks down her philosophy into neatly outlined, daily plans based on the age of the infant. While she does encourage on-demand nursing for the first week plus to encourage milk supply, her suggested routines can start as early as day one (an every four hours plan) and continue through the first year, so any time a parent is ready to give it a go, they have a clear place to start. She also has an amended routine for babies under seven pounds, so in our case, that was especially helpful. Simply put, we started a three-hourly routine when we were ready, and the extra feeds have allowed our son to start catching up in weight. My second favorite thing about this book is the size. While the author offers some basic information and recommendations on infant care and health, even touching on the spiritual needs of the infant for those who are interested, the book is a quick read and when sleep-deprived, easy to cart around, so no one has to memorize the details. We have happily gone from every two plus hour feeds at birth to every three to four hours during the day and every five to six at night starting at around six weeks. Some days are better, some are worse, but we are confident we are heading in the right direction.

If you are looking for a comprehensive desk reference on everything baby-related you can think of, this is not that book. But, if you are looking for help with the basics and a solid approach, based on years of actual, practical application this could be the book for you.

This book improved my life dramatically. After making a billion mistakes with our first child, who didn't sleep through the night until he was three, I found this book and changed the way I did everything. I didn't need the baby basics chapters but the rest of it is worth it. Yes, you might want to tweak some things. But her ideas for getting the baby on a schedule (maybe obvious to some but not to me!), getting him/her to settle and sleep all night, were priceless. My six month old is a champion sleeper and I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I found this book by accident. It is by far the best baby book I have seen. It has just the right amount of information for a new mother - lots of practical advice and is presented in a friendly, flexible tone. I finally was able to pick up on how to burb and establish a routine. These things seem simple, but as a new mother I finally "got it" after reading the very practical, straight-forward information in this book. My baby is 6 weeks and is much happier. She sleeps more on this schedule, but is much less fussy when she is awake. As a result, I am much less stressed and have more time for other things. This book also established the right priority level and family roles in my mind. I don't think this was the intent of the book, but all of the info has worked for us so far and has improved my confidence and coping skills as a mother. This book and author deserves more publicity in the states. I hope she writes a toddler book.

I liked this book. I'm on my second child, and so thought I'd read them all, but then this one came along and I really just wanted to see what it was all about. Probably mostly out of curiosity because the author was nanny to Apple Martin (Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter). I have a 2-year old and an 8-week old and was pretty set on "sleep training" my youngest as early as possible. With my older daughter, we waited until she was about one year, and we just couldn't face that kind of exhaustion in our household. This book was a big help in that it clearly laid out 24-hour schedules from birth through the 1st birthday, something which I've actually not seen in any other book (in my recollection). I appreciated this and started on the schedule when my baby was 5 weeks old and within days (no exxageration) she was sleeping at a 5-hour stretch at night. Now, at 8 weeks, she is sleeping for 7 hours at a stretch, is strictly breastfed (which she will be until she turns one) and is a happy, calm and content little girl. I didn't think it was possible to have a breast-fed infant sleep this long at night, but this book with it's highly detailed schedules showed me otherwise. So if you are interested in sleeping well at night with a newborn, this is a wonderful book. But if you are looking for any other pearls of wisdom, there are a number of other books you can read that have more comprehensive information (I enjoyed the "What to Expect" series and "The Baby Book" from Dr. Sears.) One note: if you are a follower of Dr. Sears and attachment parenting, this is not the book for you.

THIS BOOK IS FULL OF EXCELLENT ADVICE. I LOVED IT. EASY TO READ.

I was completely disappointed with this book. It is truly for first time moms and concentrates on what to have on hand before the baby is even born. Being a second-time mom, I flipped through the first 2/3 of the book before I found anything on AFTER the baby comes. Then, it only really went into proposed sleeping schedules which was redundant and unhelpful. Aside from sleeping, there is no discussion on the "first year". It is all about schedules. The irony is that she is advocating a flexible schedule, but basically gives us her own schedules to follow.

Furthermore, I had a hard time understanding some of the British phrases. For example, wind the baby. Does this mean burp? Is cot a bassinette?