Didn't work for my screaming newbornDecember 3, 2008 This book was highly recommended to us when I was pregnant with my first baby last year. The first day, we brought our precious newborn home and she wouldn't stop screaming we immediately turned to the book for answers. We desperately read the entire thing and tried all of the suggestions, but nothing made a difference; she still screamed unconsolably. It left us feeling even more helpless and frustrated. She was eventually diagnosed with reflux, but even after we got her on Prevacid she was a fussy, screaming baby.
There were a few things in the book that gave us hope that our baby wouldn't be this way forever, but that didn't make up for the fact that there was nothing we could do in the meantime to make the nightmare end. She finally started acting more like a "normal" baby (sleeping more, less screaming) around 4 months. I'm not sure what we could have done differently, but this book definitely didn't have the answers for us.
This book was a Godsend!December 3, 2008 I seriously don't know what we would've done without this book. My son just would not stop crying as soon as we got him home from the hospital. Being first-time parents we seriously had no idea what we were doing wrong. We followed the advice of this book and it actually worked. We were amazed! I now recommend this book to any soon-to-be or first-time parents. I would've loved to have read this before my little boy was born. Would've made things a lot easier.
I loved this book and it was a quick read.November 26, 2008 I enjoyed this book a lot. Now I just have to buy the dvd for my other half! You know he's not reading the book...
JUST GET THE DVD.November 26, 2008 The book didn't really add much to the DVD. The DVD is worth every cent.
Must read for every expecting parent!November 16, 2008 This book should be compulsory for every expecting parent. It gives a completely fresh perspective on the early months of having a newborn, and Dr. Karp provides a nice counterbalance to many of the books on the market that tell you not to spoil your child and how to train them to sleep.
Reading this (unfortunately, only when my baby was already about 5 weeks) really changed my life and my perspective as a mother. My life, because it provided me the means to calm my fussy baby and help her sleep. My perspective, because it reinforced that some of the things that seemed natural to me -- holding her close a lot, wearing her, etc. -- were in fact good things, not bad habits that would need to be broken.
I stopped swaddling after about 3 months (she was too big and kicked it all off), and stopped some of the other S's around the same time or a bit later...and at 8 months (and for the past several months!), my baby sleeps calmly through the night, goes down peacefully at night, and is a very happy baby! People ask me all the time, "Is she always this happy?" and I can confirm, I have the happiest baby on the block!
