The past week has been rough.
I have tried to follow Tizzie Hall’s routine to the letter. When Luca has woken up at 6am I have fed him, burped him, rewrapped him and put him back to bed. Then twenty minutes later, as the book demands, I have woken him up, fed him again, burped him again and attempted to keep him awake until his next scheduled sleep.
Tizzie claims that by doing this my baby will stop waking at 6am and learn that 7am is when he is supposed to wake up, and so on throughout the day. Well, it hasn’t worked and it is starting to remind me of sleep torture, where prisoners are repeatedly left to fall asleep before being instantly woken up again. I wonder if this makes them highly punctual inmates?
I guess if I persisted with the routine for long enough Luca would eventually figure it out. Either that or he’d tell me all his innermost secrets. But the real killer with this book is the fundamental assumption that you are able to tell what type of cry your baby is crying. I can only speak for myself, but this being my first baby I have no freaking idea which cry is what.
What I do know is that for as long as I can leave him, Luca can cry. One day he cried for an hour straight before I gave in and picked him up. It sounded like a protesting cry, which Tizzie says should be ignored, but surely leaving him for that long had to be unhealthy.
It seems that opinions on Save Our Sleep (and other similar books) are totally divided. Online forums are littered with comments from the Tizzie lovers and haters. Those in favour of Tizzie claim she has given them back their sanity, those against brand her as a torturer. Some in the later camp even go as far as saying that her methods can cause brain damage, depression and serious psychological damage.
While I’m confident Luca will make a full recovery from his week at baby boot camp, I have no intention of continuing with Tizzie’s methods. I’ve never been a fan of routine myself.
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September 21, 2009 at 2:17 am
Jen Jewel Brown
Hi Jen,
This is a fantastic blog! Finding your way through motherhood has lots of Alice Through the Lookinglass about it. Don’t know about Tizzie and never liked my babies crying. Always picked them up and spent as much time actually touching them and holding them as possible with the thought that they would be fairly laid back people if they felt very secure. It has worked OK I think. I did try some “controlled crying” though, where you kiss, say goodnight and go. If they cry you come in in a minute or so and pat them to sleep without saying anything (unless you reckon they have a bad nappy or stomach pain or whatever). My babies cried more sharply and more upset if they really wanted you and might just grizzle and grumble a bit en route to falling asleep sometimes which I didn’t attend to. And leave them for slightly longer (30 secs) even, bit by bit. Overall this worked well and gave both me and baby more sleep in the end. But I was pretty hands on and had them sleep near me a lot too.
Best of luck!
xJen
September 21, 2009 at 11:56 am
Jen Smith
Thanks for the encouragement Jen!
It’s amazing the debate that rages over the different methods. The more I read the more ‘controlled crying’ seems to be looked down upon. It’s amazing how opinions shift.
Check my next post for a more hands on approach.
September 30, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Lisa
I did controlled crying for a bit too but spent most of it trying to control my own crying. I remember thinking at the time that I (and they) would never recover – now I can’t wake them up…
March 27, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Some not so unbiased advice « Sleep Envy
[...] What if I was co-sleeping with Luca? God forbid if I was bed sharing. Probably the fact that I occasionally practice a little baby wearing would’ve been enough to have her send me home with the latest copy of Save Our Sleep. [...]