Happiest Baby on the Block

At midnight last night, as I was just on the brink of insanity from listening to Weston cry for a few hours straight without being able to help him in any way, I remembered a gem of a book someone had given me when I was pregnant with Ruth: The Happiest Baby on the Block. It is required reading for anyone even thinking of being in the same room with a newborn. Dr. Harvey Karp has a very interesting therory about so-called colic and about how to help your infant in the midst of this traumatic period of the baby's (and caregiver's) life. His solution is wrapped up in the 5 S's: Swaddling, Side/Stomach positioning, Shhhhing, Swinging and Sucking. After reviewing his advice, I swaddled Weston up and immediately saw him go from out-of-control to calm and quiet. When I added the pacifier, he drifted off and slept until almost 5:00 this morning. Tonight I decided to see if we could bypass the crying altogether, so right after the pre-bedtime feeding, I wrapped him up tight in the blanket, gave him his passy and gave the cradle a little rock. Without so much as a peep, he drifted off, and the result is the picture I posted here in the blog. I say we vote Dr. Karp in for president. He's definitely got world peace figured out!