Today has been a good day! It’s probably because Dave has been off work today because of the 4th and my mom came over today to help me clean my house!

If you don’t already know, I am a clean freak. I actually like to clean my house. I know … that is odd and no, you can’t pay me to come clean your house! :) I just like the way my house looks after it is clean and I just like clean I guess you could say.

I’ve been like this since I was a kid. I always had the super clean and organized room and my little brother was the one who lived in the pig sty. Which is why I was super happy when he moved out of the room we shared into his own room. It used to drive me crazy having to clean up after him all the time when we were kids!

I know now that I am a mommy my house will no longer look like a model home at all times! :) And, I’m obviously okay with that!

It won’t be too long though and Little Bug will be right there “helping” me clean. Her birth mom was a clean freak too so I fully expect Little Bug will be too! (It’s okay if she’s not but I don’t think she stands much of a chance.)

*****

The methods of Dr. Karp continue to do wonders in our household. We ordered the soothing sounds CD and it really has given us an extra hour or two of sleep every night! She has done at least one 4-hour stretch each night since we started using the white noise at night. That is really nice. When she is sleepy during the day I use the CD and it helps her to sleep longer and more peacefully.

Dr. Karp really is a smart man. Everything he does is based on the fact that an infant who is less than 3 months old is essentially still a fetus and feels most at home when swaddled, in motion and listening to synthetic womb noise (or some kind of white noise).

It all makes complete sense to me because before birth a baby is constantly hearing the mother’s heartbeat and the swoosh of her blood flow and the amniotic fluid. According to Dr. Karp this noise is louder than a vacuum cleaner to baby in the womb! Baby is constantly in motion (or jiggled) as mom goes about the day. That is why when mom lays down at night to sleep and is still baby wakes up and keeps mom up! And baby is in very tight quarters in the womb so swaddling is just the thing a baby needs to feel secure and at home.

Dr. Karp says you cannot spoil a baby under 3 months of age because they are already used to being swaddled, hearing white noise and being in constant motion. That is how they lived 24/7 before birth. So, if we are mimicking these things for them outside the womb for only 12 hours or so a day (when baby sleeps) we have already cut baby back tremendously from what baby is used to before birth.

Little Bug does seem to sleep for longer periods and more peacefully when she is swaddled and the CD is playing.

Whatever works and keeps baby and mommy happy is good enough for me!

Here is Little Bug as I type … snoozing away to the sound of the womb right here by the computer desk!

- Elaine