New parents are often shocked at how tired they are. After all, newborns don’t DO much. They eat, sleep, pee and poop, and that is about it. But they do it around the clock and they aren’t very experienced with any of it. Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s can help all of you learn more and get some sleep.
Not because the 5 s’s give babies exactly what they had in the womb. They do, but what swaddling, swinging, sucking, etc provide is a roadmap for how baby nervous systems work. Once you know that babies need this, not that, you feel more in control of the situation and you can relax. And babies that have been calmed down faster and more effectively feel that you get them, you really get them. They sense that their parents can help them better than their aunties and neighbors. Feeing understood starts here.
When babies stop crying faster sleep an hour or so longer (yes, doing the 5 S’s can do that!) and eat/nurse more easily, life is less exhausting. Not completely a day at the beach, but not as tough as it was before. For more information, take a look at Help Your Newborn Adjust to Daycare By Using Happiest Baby on the Block Strategies and Why Some Newborns Look Like They Hate To Be Swaddled.
Wishing all you new parents a wonderful first year!!!
