Do you remember what it was like after your first born? The feeling of fear, trying to survive and not sure if you could make it through the day. When you put them down at night wondering if or how you could do it again? Crying in fetal position locked in the laundry room? Sound like you? Then the second, and third month roll around and things start to transition into, “Hey, I think I can do this!” I am still not sure if you really feel all the love that you see all the new moms posting about on Facebook. You start hearing about other babies sleeping all night and think, “how is that even possible? What am I doing wrong?” I didn’t have ANYTHING figured out until about 8 weeks in with my first. I found a system that works and I stuck with it. It takes diligence and discipline on your part. The kids thrive on schedules so it’s good for everyone and hey, if you can get on this routine. You can enjoy it up until they are older toddlers! (That’s motivation enough). What if you had the night to yourself EVERYDAY from 7:30 until the next morning at 7:30? You would probably enjoy taking care of them a little more. (I know I do) Because if Mamas happy, everyone’s happy. Here are some things I go by and how to use them.
This is not something I just made up. This is a GUARANTEED tried and true plan that WORKS. To start:
Get this to swaddle hard! It looks harsh but trust me they love it though when they are babies
Halo miracle swaddle (looks like straight jacket) online and babies’ r us.
And also cover double swaddle in – tight like a little burrito. Mine would be crying and stop right as I started wrapping him.
Aden by Aden + Anais Muslin Swaddle Plus
White Noise Sound Machine– this is a must have. Use the white noise option and make it loud enough that you can hear from outside the door.
What to do for a no fuss bedtime!
No lights, or night lights. Make sure the Crib is BORING. No mobile, cool sheets or any toys. Their room is and needs to be boring. Make sure it is a sleep room. Don’t play with them in their beds etc. They can play in playroom or in living room. NOTHING in the crib. I repeat, no mobile, no talking or lights to stimulate before bed after swaddle.
The directions, step by step is in this or the other Moms on Call book
Getting the baby to go to bed.
So this is what I would do to get them to go to bed. I do a bath 6:30, bottle 7:00 and bed at 7:30. It was a little hard sometimes but you just have to be strict and disciplined with them. When he hit the 6 month mark, and he started teething, we digressed a bit. I had to almost retrain him. Hang in there! Feel free to reach out if you need help (my email) or hire a MOC person.
I didn’t have to do a lot of cry it out method thought which was a good thing. I would go in if was 3 min or longer, give the pacifier, leave, and don’t talk. I just look at the stomachs if they are looking at you. Don’t make eye contact though. And by chance if it continued, I would feed him (happened maybe once).
Like I said, the only time that sleep was an issue for was when he was sick with teething at 6 months and that felt like I had to sleep train him again for 3-5 days. Other than that, he follows the 730-730 schedule. Even if we are out or at friends we have pack and play and app on phone for white noise. We bathe, don’t stimulate, put down in sleep sack now and all lights off and boom. Another transition was weaning off formula at 1 year. His night feeding was half and half (milk and formula) he wasn’t finishing bottle at night so he would wake at 6am vs 730am, so I had to ease into that slowly.
After swaddle (when he could roll)
He moved to the sleep sack. I noticed he would wake without sleep sack. Go figure. I also bottle fed after 4 weeks so that may have a huge effect too however, MOC says it should work for breast feeding moms too 🙂 Also, I realized quickly that he did better on organic non GMO soy (baby’s only organic formula) from amazon or natural food stores. He stayed full and happy. NO spit up. I have watched my friends’ babies and the ones who need to be off dairy are the ones who spit up and have bad reflux. The parents never seem to make the dairy connection. Anyway, Just a coincidence.
Our Bath time
I have always bathed him in the real bath tub. I use pillow for knees and started with this as new born. As he got older, used a foam suction cup bath mat.
I place him in bouncy while I get water ready, put in bath, place towel in bouncy while I bathe, that way, I can put him straight into the towel via Bouncy Seat, wrap and transfer.
I don’t use the fancy diaper dispensers. Just a regular trash can.
Some meds I have on hand (because you know I am kind of crunchy and natural when it comes to western medicine.
Virex drops from micro west and Total Bac-T drops from nutriwest. I would give 1 drop every 1-2 hours if I saw a cold or sickness coming on.
I administered most things that said (DO NOT GIVE TO INFANTS) in very small amounts.
When they get snotty, children’s except herbal expectorant. It’s like the adult mucinex. Make sure you are giving a little more liquid (water) at this time. I would put water with ice and stevia flavored drops in bottle and sippy when he got older. 6 months I gave maybe less than .25 of tsp. and would see if that dried him up. 4 years old says to give 1 TSP so I figured 1.4 or .25 would be ok if I was giving extra water.
KIDS immune Fortifier drops
Raw powder probiotics in bottle once a day. (He never ever had blowouts) dairy babies can cause more blowouts and stink. Also too if you feed them table shit food, it cause more nasty poop vs clean bottle food or just clean food.
Zarbees childrens cough nighttime or when he was teething, snotty – I gave just a tad!
Child Life Vitamin C liquid. I would give in water sometimes or just a dropper of Vit C.
Omega 3 for kids/infants
Teething
These were worth their weight in gold! OraJel teething homeopathic tablets! Not the Hyland. I would give often and they helped. He never chewed a frozen rag or any of that messy stuff. I would give that and on occasions, administer Tylenol or Motrin. I remember someone saying. If you were hurting that bad, wouldn’t you want pain meds? So I gave them that even though I didn’t like to. I also used a Amber Teething Necklace. see pic. I took it off during night and I could tell a difference. (It’s a teething necklace made of Baltic amber; in theory when baby wears it, his body heat triggers the release of a minute amount of oil that contains succinic acid, a naturally-occurring substance in the body. When the oil is absorbed, advocates say, it has an analgesic effect on swollen, sore gums.) they do not chew on it.. just wear it.
For Colds, once again! These were magic! HYLANDS Tiny Cold Tablets! I would give that, the immune boosters, vitamins c and herbal expectorant. He has yet to see the doctor for sickness. 
BUTT RASH- when he was teething, he had the worse chemical raw butt . Some girls I knew took their babies into the doc. I got some breastmilk out of the fridge (frozen) from where I had pumped and not used, put a little in a squirt bottle, sprayed on his butt, blew dry then lathered RAW organic coconut oil all over! Within hours it was healed! Both things (breast milk and coconut oil) have anti-bacterial properties. Save time and money by doing this vs running to the doctor every time something comes up. (Unless you would just like to post on Facebook for pity about how much you are in the Doctor’s office)
I never gave him “cereal”. I started at 4 months, offering baby food like sweet potato and stuff. He is a no dairy baby. He has tried yogurt and cheese, gets snotty soon after though so I just keep out (dairy clogs lymphatic system) look it up. I tried to keep grain down too, no rice or anything like that early on. I didn’t rush solid foods. When he was close to a year he started doing very well with solids like ground turkey, real food vs mashed things. I give Rice Milk in night time bottle with formula to hold him over all night right now.
He is almost 13 months (1 year) and I still feed him. Seems like the only finger foods are ones that are sugar or grain loaded. I can make him protein pancakes. I am just lazy lol. He use to eat the nature puffs with no added sugar in ingredients.
This is what a typical day looks like!
7:30 am bottle. Right now still weaning. (I’m late) – Half unsweetened organic soy and half formula
8:30ish. egg whites, turkey bacon and sometimes spinach sautéed in olive oil or butter. Either Ezekiel toast with butter or no sugar added jelly or oat bran/oat meal with stevia and berries.
11am bottle half and half or all soy OR yesterday he barely touched the bottle and we all had subway. (I am pregnant and wanted it)
Got him wheat turkey with mustard and mayo. He nibbled on the apples and juice box (I made sure it had no added sugar)
Between 11 and 3, I offer snack. Blueberries and kiwi was yesterday. I need to order more protein shake because he likes smoothies and protein bars.
3 pm bottle offer. Half and half and or food. Yesterday we finished the subway kid’s meal.
4:30 -5.Snack.Blueberries (he eats by himself) which is nice. Sometimes peanut butter sandwich or little bit size peanut butter crackers from trader Joes. (I also gave a little bit of almond and peanut butter as a small babe) I believe in applied kinesiology (weird I know) so I would muscle test him and introduce peanuts early to see if he had an allergy.
7 pm -bottle and MAYBE dinner — whatever I have. Sometimes he’s hungry. Sometimes he isn’t.
it’s either ground turkey- taco meat, plain meat with a carb source on the side. Last night he had some of my salmon and sweet potato.
He eats well… Alot! LOL.As long as we have dip like mustard, natural ketchup etc. He will eat ground turkey.. Beef takes too long to chew so I just avoid. He eats veggies (for now) that probably won’t last lol.
Going back to the sleeping. NAPS
The only negative I see about the sleep training is that naps are tough in terms of where he naps. He goes out like a light and naps for 3 hours if he’s in his room, air on, noise machine blasting etc, if we are out… he will MAYBE go down! If we are visiting someone, we better have pack and play with noise machine if we want him to sleep. So, that’s the only downfall.
I prefer to run his life for now vs him running my schedule. Some think it’s cruel. I don’t. I do know children Thrive on schedules and patterns right now. SO as long as you and baby are happy, that’s all that matters
