Book Nook: The Happiest Baby On The Block

The Happiest Baby On The Block by: Harvey Karp, M.D.

After Everly was born I was given several baby sleep books and told that you can't help your baby sleep before three months so I should wait until then to read them. Unfortunately, you can begin to help your baby sleep (and be happier overall) from birth so I felt already three months behind. I don't know if it would have helped Everly if I knew these things but I decided for our next baby I was going to read all the sleep books before the baby was born and make quick note guides that I could easily glance at whenever I needed to.

I've recently finished reading this book. It's all about the fourth trimester and using the five S's to keep your newborn happy. What I like about this book is that it is geared specifically towards helping your newborn baby (up to four months) being comfortable and happy. The argument is babies aren't ready to come out in to the world after 40 weeks and they need an extra trimester in the womb. Obviously this isn't realistic so we need to make the baby feel at home by making them feel like they are still in the womb as much as possible. This is done by the 5 S's which are:

• Swaddling
• Side or stomach
• Shh
• Swinging 
• Sucking

 The author argues that each S much be done in a particular way to work. He goes in detail on each S to instruct parents how to properly perform. They must all be done together to work as well. He talks about colic and the true signs of colic and many misconceptions we have of colic today and how the five S's can help babies calm down (even those who have colic). I'm excited to try these out. We tried them with Everly but we didn't do all of them at once and we weren't doing them the specific way that Karp explains so I'm hoping with the second this book will help me. I've already bought some special swaddle blankets to keep the little guy all swaddled up!