This afternoon my Grandpa and I were out talking in the sunroom. He gave me the greatest compliment a mother could ever want.

Grandpa said, “Little Bug is the most well adjusted, happy baby I have EVER seen in my life! She eats when you want her to eat and sleeps when you want her to sleep. Does she ever cry? She is so happy all the time. I believe this wonderful foundation she is receiving as a young baby will greatly impact the person she will be 30 years from now. It is simply amazing! How did you get her to be like this?”

I said, “Babywise!”

As I am nearing the end of my first year as a mother and as I reflect back on this past year I am forever grateful I learned and applied the methods of Babywise.

Over the past 12 months I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Babywise. I’ve loved the predictability and routine Babywise brings but I’ve hated when things get off and I have to problem solve and figure out what is going on and how to fix it. But, recently, it dawned on me that this is also why I love Babywise!

Baby getting off is inevitable because of all the dramatic growing and developing baby does over the first year of his/her life. Babywise gives mothers the tools to be able to pin point what the problem is and what baby needs. Then it gives mothers the tools to solve the problem and move forward to the next milestone in the baby’s first year. And that is what I love!

I am an analyzer. When I taught 4th grade I was constantly collecting data about my students so I could better pin point what each individual student needed help with. Then, I would teach to the needs of the individual students. In managing a classroom of 20 or so 4th graders, I got much pleasure from figuring out a problem and then discovering a solution that would solve the problem.

Little did I know these skills would become very useful in parenting! Problems arose – Why is Little Bug waking up after 45 minutes on the dot of every nap? Why is Little Bug waking up at 5am every morning? How much sleep does Little Bug need? How much should she eat? – and Babywise gave me the tools to troubleshoot the problems and solve them!

I am in no way promoting Babywise as the way to parent. As every first time mom must soon learn, you will be bombarded by this parenting method and that parenting method and ALL will claim to be the best way to go, but ultimately, that is a decision that must be made by you and for your individual baby/family. Babywise fit my personality (because I like structure and routine, analyzing and problem-solving, as opposed to flying by the seat of my pants).

Babywise is just clever! There is so much information when you first start reading/learning about Babywise. It is overwhelming really. But as Little Bug nears one year of age, I finally feel like I have a real grasp of the methods and I’m afraid that by the time #2 comes along, I will have forgotten all I’ve learned and will have to relearn everything!

I want to make a record of everything I’ve learned here on the blog so I’ll have easy access to all the “tricks of the trade” when #2 is here.

I plan to write some posts in the future about specific “tricks of the trade” I’ve learned from Babywise.

As a first time mom you want to do things “right”, you know? My Grandpa’s compliment meant the world to me! I am by no means the perfect parent (is there a such thing?) but, like all parents do, I have strived to do my best and then some, when it comes to parenting my child.

I credit Babywise (and most certainly a lot of prayer along the way!!) to getting Little Bug to where she is today.

- Elaine