Phoebe has been having really bad nightmares to the point that she's afraid to go to sleep. And they are really freaky ones too, like they would freak me out. For example about 3 am this morning P woke up in tears and told me that the pictures in her eyes were scary and I asked her what the pictures were and she said that mommy kept driving over and off the mountain and we fell. Then the other night she said that the big train was going to eat her. (don't know where that one came from) She doesn't watch much TV and the tv she does watch are things like Blue's Clues, Baby Einstein, Signing time and that's about it. I've tried to tell her to dream about candy and the pretty rainbows  and we talk about nice flowers right before bed, things like that but they haven't stopped. She sleeps with the light on because the night light makes monsters on her wall if I try and put her in bed with me she wants the light on and then she just wants to play. I really am at a loss, and any suggestions would be appreciated greatly. 

(My other journal is gracevlikevrain  but I'm trying to phase my mom-stuff over to this journal. I would love to have you ladies as friends! :)

A few weeks ago wrote up a quick review of Babywise on Amazon.com, and just thought I'd share it here:

Well, I know the book has a bad rap, but I'm raising two girls on the principles and both are healthy, happy, thriving, and sleeping through the night. I'm still breastfeeding my seven month old and plan on shooting for a year. When I told my baby's doctor I was doing Babywise, she said, "Good for you!" My oldest's doctor also knew I was doing it, and never had a word of warning or a concern.

The only negative feedback I've seen is on the internet. I have literally a dozen friends who use it, and in "real life" I've never seen any of the problems theorized. So I take the feedback and advice teachers, doctors, nurses, and moms I trust who have thriving kids. Practically, this book is great.

However, I do know a couple moms who applied the principles, but still didn't have their babies sleep all night as the book predicted. Both moms still appreciated the routine suggested and the daytime naps. The book has other great principles besides encouraging nighttime sleep.

Don't forget to read Babywise 2!

So I loaned my book out and now I need it. Does anyone have time to quickly look up when I should drop the morning nap? My baby is 13 months and takes a wonderful morning nap but then barely sleeps for the rest of the day. I'm thinking maybe it's time to drop the morning nap and move to one midday nap.

Thanks to those who submitted some ideas for questions. Here's a new one for you!

How long after you started following Babywise did your baby sleep through the night?

Okay, maybe I'm not creative enough but I'm having a hard time coming up with poll questions! So this week's poll is for everyone to submit one! Ready, set, go!

Have you had an embarrasing or horrific public experience with your child? What happened?


I've had plenty (my journal is riddled with the stories) but my most horrific moment was when I flew home to Seattle with my 2 year old son, my 1 year old daughter and my big pregnant belly. I dosed everyone up with Tylenol before the flight to help them sleep but it turned out to be a horrible mistake. My son conked right out but my daughter (who'd never had medication before so I didn't know) went into hyper-overdrive and screamed frantically for three hours straight. At one point I left my son asleep in his carseat and took my daughter to the bathroom in order to give the other passengers a break. I held her tight to me while she wiggled and strained and fought me. I had hoped to tire her out so that exhaustion would finally take over but she kept going strong. I was so traumatized by the event that I made my mom fly back home with me so that I didn't have to do it myself.

(I posted something similar to this in a parenting forum, however, I didn't want to mention this tidbit in there...)

I am going to be returning to work, sooner than later (full time) and I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on continuing with the BabyWise method, even though your child is in daycare ALL day.  Obviously, I can't watch the caretakers all day and make sure that they are adhering to his "routine" so does this mean that I will have to sort of give up on BabyWise all together?  I mean, the couple of facilities that I called ALL commented that they do feedings and then naps directly afterward as part of the way they run things.  It seems that this is "the norm"  in daycare... What do I do?  I mean, I can't force them to do BabyWise with my child...  but how do I handle this?  EJ is going to be 6 months soon, and even though he's STILL not sleeping through the night yet, I don't want to work against myself by screwing up his EAT WAKE SLEEP routine.  Ugh. 

Please help.

Okay, this week's question is...

How did you find out about Babywise and what convinced you to implement it?

There was a new chick at church who had a baby girl that LOVED to go to bed at night. I knew that when I decided to have kids, I was going to learn her secret. She told me all about Babywise and even gave me the book at my baby shower. I was already sold on it because I had seen a first hand success story of the sweetest little toddler on the planet. Between the two of us, we have successfully babywised six babies and have spread the wealth to over a dozen other moms we know who all have had wonderful success. We are Babywise crazy up here in Alaska!

Thanks for everyone's helpful comments yesterday, but it looks like I got worried over nothing...Kate is totally fine today.  Still has the diaper rash, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her.  She ate lunch with no ill effects, and I checked for teeth but I didn't feel any bumps. (Her sister didn't teeth until she was about 8 months old, so that didn't even cross my mind yesterday!) 

So thanks again for all your help, but everything is back to normal around here!

I started Kate on solids yesterday, just rice cereal at lunch time she ate less than a tablespoon...but she's been really cranky the past couple days, and it seems like she's uncomfortable.  She's 5 1/2 months old so I don't think I started her to early and she isn't eating much, and I'm wondering if it's related. 

My other idea about the sudden crankiness is the fact that I've been eating a lot of cucumber lately, and I know those can be gassy, and I'm still breastfeeding.  I can't get her to burp or toot, so I don't know what to do for her...but I guess I'll lay off the cukes and see if that helps. 

She also had a bit of a diaper rash come up, but it's not terrible and I don't think it would upset her that much.

Has anyone else noticed weird crying after starting solids?

EDIT: I just did a diaper change, and her rash got worse so now I think it's safe to say it's the rash that's upsetting her.   So now my question is...could she have gotten a rash just from a little rice cereal?  In the past she's only had a rash from sitting in a dirty diaper, but I think I caught her poop this morning pretty quick.