Yesterday we visited with a friend who has a newborn. As she bounced her baby from side to side, I remembered the same period in my daughter’s life. My daughter needed to be in constant motion in order to sleep or even to be calm. I blame it on my excessive hiking when I was pregnant: up and down, up and down before she was born. My daughter expected the same thing after she was on the outside, too.
Harvey Karp’s book and DVD The Happiest Baby on the Block were so helpful to us in the newborn days. Karp talks about the fourth trimester: babies are born quite immature compared to most mammals, so they need an environment that is similar to the inside of mom. They need white noise, jiggling, and an environment where they are contained with a wrap, sling, or a swaddling blanket. This makes a new baby feel secure.
All of these ideas made so much sense to me, but I already had one area of soothing covered. I could nurse my baby. My husband thought that Karp’s ideas were even more useful, since he lacked those automatic soothing devices on his chest. For him, Harvey Karp saved the day. Suddenly, he could watch the DVD and learn how to bounce, shush, and swaddle our daughter while I took a shower.
Those were difficult times, and they were times when we learned so much about babies. Neither of us were great baby people before we had our daughter, but a DVD presentation of how to swaddle our daughter helped us learn how to get her to go to sleep and how to help her get less fussy at the end of the day. She was a baby who really needed parents who had good get-to-sleep and calm down techniques.
For new parents who are struggling with a fussy and out of sorts baby, I’d highly recommend Harvey Karp’s work – especially the DVD, which is easy to watch as you rocket around the room bouncing your baby.