secrets of the baby whisperer {book review}

Tracy Hogg is known as the Baby Whisperer, which basically means that she understands the difference between baby’s cries and tries to teach as to do the same. Secrets of the Baby Whisperer was the first ‘baby help’ book I read. We were having a difficult time knowing what in the world to do with Liam. As new parents, you have absolutely no idea what you’re supposed to do. In the beginning, you just go off of what you think the baby needs: eat, diaper change, rocking…and you think that he/she will go to sleep when they’re tired. That’s where we were wrong, and we learned from this book that there’s a difference and there’s a routine.

She starts by really connecting to the parents, especially the mothers. It really spoke to  me because I was still having the baby blues and her words really spoke to me. It’s like she knew exactly how I was feeling.

Having a baby is by far the most life-changing event you’ll ever experience-bigger than marriage or a new  job or even the death of a loved one. Just the thought of having to adapt to a very different kind of life is scary. It’s also very isolating. New parents think they’re the only ones who feel incompetent or have problems with breastfeeding. Women are sure that other mothers are instantly ‘in love’ with their babies, and they wonder why they don’t feel that way.

So, off the bat she gets me.

Tracy teaches you that babies are little humans with little personalities. She goes through the different types of babies, even with a little quiz so you can narrow in on what type of baby yours is, to better meet their needs. The types of babies are (and can be a combination of):

• Angel Baby
• Textbook Baby
• Touchy Baby
• Spirited Baby
• Grump Baby

We also learn what type of person we are:

• Wing It
• Plan It

She also sets you up to follow the E.A.S.Y. plan: Eat, Activity, Sleep, Your Time. This was the real kicker for me. I had no idea that the parents should be the one recognizing when baby was sleepy and had had enough activity. I’m very much a Plan It person and having a routine that Liam could follow and expect throughout the day has helped us a ton. I know (based on this EASY routine) what he needs next. However, for us it doesn’t work in the afternoon/evening hours because he skips the sleep part. But, we’re working on it.

The part that I’m sure we’ll find most helpful in a few months, is the Three-Day Magic technique. It’s to correct those parental sleeping mistakes (i.e. rocking baby to sleep, only letting baby fall asleep on you, etc) so that life will be easier for every one. I know that we are making some mistakes with Liam, but since he has such a hard time going to sleep at the moment, we just do anything and everything to get him to fall asleep, even if it wears us flat out.

Overall, I got a lot of helpful information from this book. She gives great real-world examples of how things should be done. I’m a visual person, so these examples were brilliant. Thank you Baby Whisperer!