We should mention that this review isn’t like other reviews on this site. We’re writing this because we had a hard time finding a detailed log of how others have faired with sleep training with their children (using any method, not just the Sleep Lady Shuffle – which is the method proposed in this book). Though every baby is different, we hope that by giving you an accurate night-by-night summation of what we went through will help other parents make better-informed decisions and have more realistic expectations.

The premise of the book

Children of all ages need sleep on a regular routine. This includes naps, and though the amount of sleep and number of naps children take is different depending on their age, naps and uninterrupted nighttime sleep is essential for proper development. Kids need help sticking to that routine, and though all babies are different, their sleep needs don’t vary by as much as one could think. By establishing a routine, separating children from sleep crutches (like bottles), and implementing the Sleep Lady Shuffle, babies learn to sleep on their own.

According to the book, it’s safe to implement the shuffle with babies at 6 months of age. Sleep needs are different for a 6 month old than for a 4 year old, and the book has age-specific sections to help parents provide a more age-appropriate system and nap schedule.

About the Shuffle

Kim West (aka The Sleep Lady) describes her ’shuffle’ as a gentler alternative to the much more popular and clinically tested Ferber method. I didn’t read Ferber’s book, but I know his night-time sleep training involves the parents leaving the room for several minutes at a time while the baby is left in the crib. Contrast this with the shuffle, in which West expects the parents to stay seating in the room verbally shushing the baby and reassuring her with occasional touches if needed. Nights 1 – 3, park a chair right next to the crib. Nights 4-6, the chair should be farther away. Nights 7-9, the chair can be next to the door. After that, put a chair outside the room but still in view of the baby. And finally, feel free to disappear for 5 minute intervals. All the chair shifting is where the term shuffle comes from.

I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical about this ‘gentler’ approach. It seems like sitting in front of the baby those initial days would actually draw out the crying and seem more cruel to the baby (since the parent is not supposed to pick up the baby, although West says to use your judgment). It turns out those first few nights are pretty torturous, but since we are unable to compare this to other sleep training methods, there’s no way for us to compare their effectiveness or the baby’s severity of the protest.

Before we started the shuffle

Up to this point, we mostly rocked our son to sleep. During the night it was not uncommon for him to wake up multiple times and for us to turn to co-sleeping in order for us to finally get some steady rest. Nap times were also a grab bag. We wanted him to have two naps, but often there would just be one, maybe an hour long.

We spent two weeks focused on creating a better bedtime and naptime routine. This meant not giving a bottle right before bed (as bottles should be associated with mealtime, not bedtime, according to the book – nice advice). Instead, we decided our new night routine would be as follows:

• 5:00 pm – Dinner
• 5:45 pm – Bottle
• 7:00 pm – Clean-up time (putting away toys)
• 7:05 pm – Bath time
• 7:25 pm – Put on pajamas
• 7:30 pm – Read 3 short books, say good night to various things in the room, turn off the lamp, say prayers, and sing a lullaby until the baby is drowsy
• 7:45 pm – Usually drowsy by now, so he goes in the crib. Shuffle time

The times may have changed a little night by night based on a few factors, but for the most part we stuck to this. The order of events always stayed the same, making a predictable routine for the baby and parents.

For naps, we did an abbreviated routine above. It started with a little clean-up, maybe just one book instead of three. The lamp goes off. Etc. Over time, our son picked up on the pattern and would often yawn as he sensed sleep time approaching. Naps were to be at 9:30am and 2pm, but those have been much harder to stick to (more on that later).

Once we were mentally prepared to try out the shuffle, we logged how it went. We kept in mind how long it took from the moment he was put in the crib to the moment he fell asleep, and to what degree he protested during this time. Below are our results.

As prepared and determined as I was to do the shuffle, it’s still tough on a parent to not respond to a crying baby as quickly as we’ve done up to this point. Our son would typically stand up, hold the rail, teeth against the rail, throw his teddy bear out of his crib, and cry loudly. Every 10 minutes or so, I would wipe his nose and face, give him some water, and guide him back to a laying position. The first couple of nights I held him briefly once or twice just to calm him down, but he went right back to the crib. I would say, “It’s time for bed. Lay down and go to sleep. Daddy is right here.” He didn’t understand exactly what I was saying, but I think he got the gist of what I wanted. Of course he’d want to pop right back up and cry even louder, but I was persistent, which paid off eventually. On night three, I labeled the severity of his protest as medium in contrast with the previous 2 nights – honestly I don’t know if that is really what happened or if it just seemed less severe. After he finally went to sleep, he slept throughout the night. When he woke up the next morning (between 530am and 7am), he was pretty cheerful and didn’t hold anything against me (yes, I was concerned about that).

I had moved my chair further from the door. I’d still help him every 10 minutes or so with wiping his nose after crying, and holding if needed (but never had to more than twice per night). Nights 4 and 5 were much like the first 3 nights. But on night 6 something marvelous happened. When I layed him down, he didn’t stand up, and he didn’t cry. Instead he laid still (for the most part), eyes open, calm, quiet, until he fell asleep peacefully on his own. Yes! It worked! At least once! That was big confidence booster for us as parents. Our son had learned what to do.

Though I’m supposed to shift my chair every three days, I wasn’t prepared on night 10 to do so. As seen in the chart, our son was becoming much more accepting of what bedtime means. During the two nights that are marked as yellow above, he spent the first 10 minutes protesting a little, but after ten minutes I would guide him back to laying down, and he would stay there quiet and calm until he fell asleep.

Though West’s shuffle continues until the chair is outside the door and eventually no chair at all, we didn’t do this. Our baby’s door faces our living room directly, so logistically leaving the door open wasn’t something we ever planned on doing. We were satisfied to be able to just put him down while he was still drowsy and let him fall asleep on his own while one of us was still in the room. That’s worked out well for us and for now, that’s as far as we see us taking the ’shuffle’.

One thing we wished the book covered, and we may be figuring this out on our own eventually, is getting out son to embrace going into his crib without having to be at a certain level of drowsiness. The ’shuffle’ only covers the parent’s distance from the child when the child is put in the crib, but the child is always expected to be put in the crib at the same level of drowsiness. For now, this isn’t too much of a problem, but if one day our son decides to be a wiggle worm or is wired with sugar for some reason, then we are left with a pretty long night. Ideally, we’d like to get to the part where our child learns to lay still in his crib by himself until he gets drowsy on his own.

About naps

At bedtime, if our son protests being put in the crib, we know he’s tired and we know we literally have all night for him to embrace sleep. With naps, that’s not the case. We are sometimes unsure whether he is really sleepy, and we sometimes feel uncertain we’re gauging his sleep window correctly. Also, unlike night time, there are more interruptions and conflicting schedules (preparing for church on Sunday, for example). We’re still working on this.

Bottom line

The principles mentioned in this book worked for us and our son, and he now sleeps much better throughout the night on his own with minimal-to-no wake-ups throughout the night. Though our success with naps varies from day to day, it’s better than before, and we have a structured daily routine which helps all of us as well.

Our family likes a good night’s sleep, thanks to the principles and advice from the Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight.

View Good Night, Sleep Tight at amazon.com

Our son is at the age where he’s been teething for a few weeks now. We recieved a few different teething toys in our baby showers (teething rings, pacifiers), and we’ve tried some home remedies as well (wet washclothes, frozen ones, our fingers), but they don’t seem to pacify our son as much as we (and he) would like. After seeing him trying to cram his entire pacifier into his mouth, we decided to find what other teething toys were out there.

Sophie immediately stood out because of the sheer number of reviews written about it.

The volume of positive reviews pushed us to give it a try. It was more expensive than the other teethers, but it seemed to be unique in material, design, and appeal.

Sophie arrives

Once Sophie arrived, we removed the packaging and examined it. The rubber it is made out of is really soft to the touch, but the horns, ears, and feet are harder and more sturdy – great for chewing on. Sophie is hollow and squeezable, which causes a squeaky sound. (I read some reviews that compared this to a dog toy, and after making it squeak, I can see why.)

The giraffe shape allows babies to have a variety of ways to chew on Sophie, as well as giving plenty of places for hands and fingers to grab it. We gave it the test: handing it to our son.

We helped him find the different ways he could chew on it – the body, the horns, and the legs/feet. By far our son’s favorite way to play with Sophie is biting her face, which makes a funny squeaky sound as his gums rub against it.

After a couple of weeks, our son, Henry, has continued to play with Sophie and fit her various parts into his mouth to chew on. It’s also very easy for him to make it squeak (unlike other baby toys). It is far from a teething panacea, and it doesn’t make pain go away and end all crying, but it has become one of the more valuable teether toys we own. When we get in the car, we bring Sophie, and Henry’s eyes literally light up as he reaches for her, unlike the response towards other toys (like plastic keys and those freezable rings).

Sophie’s quality

Though my son really could care less about this aspect of Sophie, I think it’s worth bringing up. Sophie comes packaged in a nice box, and features a little fold-out booklet of ‘Sophie’s story’ in several languages. It also has a picture card where you are encouraged to fill out information (like “Sophie the Giraffe was a gift to me from _____”) and a place to put a photo of your baby playing with Sophie.

At first I thought that was a little presumptuous, but on second thought I had to admit that Sophie the Giraffe is quite an endearing little toy, and much more classy (even with the dog-toy like squeaky sound) than other baby toys found in drug store baby aisles and such. The history is kind of an interesting read, with its roots in France (Sophie is largely sold in Europe by the French-based brand Vulli), and it has remained handcrafted since its creation decades ago. We think that Sophie would make a great gift for some of our friends expecting babies – it’s classy, cute, and for babies, useful and fun.

Bottom line

Vulli’s Sophie the Giraffe Teether is a soft and safe toy for infants entering the teething stage. Its squeaking sound can quickly get a crying child’s attention, and it’s food-grade paint makes a worry-free chew item for children who put any and everything in their mouths. It has a good variety of extremeties that babies find easy to hold and chew on. It’s one of the more quality and charming toys for babies to own. If you’re looking for a quality toy that can help with teething woes, consider Sophie the Giraffe Teether.

Our family likes Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether.

Update (Aug 15, 2009) : We just noticed Sophie was featured on page 26 in the Sept 2009 edition of Parent’s magazine. Not much was said about her – just under a heading that said ‘Trend Alert’, and mentioned that Sophie was available at Amazon for $20.

View Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether at amazon.com

Before we had this pitcher, we would mix and store formula in 8 oz bottles.  We’d fill up a bottle to about the 6 oz mark, add the appropriate number of powder scoops, screw on a cap and shake it like crazy to get out the clumps.  Needless to say, it wasn’t ideal.  We continued to have clumps, the formula would turn ‘frothy’ because it had so many bubbles (and it’s this air in the formula that can agitate babies during and after feedings), and the 8 oz bottles didn’t make for convenient storage containers.

So when we learned there was such a thing as a ‘formula mixing pitcher’, we decided to give it a try.  We’re very glad we have done so.

When the pitcher first arrived, it was surprising to learn that it is smaller than typical pitchers.  When you see images of this project on the web, it’s usually by itself, so there’s no sense of scale.  For that reason, I took the following photograph.

The size of the pitcher hasn’t been much of a hindrance, though.  We’re generally just putting about 4 oz of formula per bottle, so I can mix almost a day’s worth of feeding in one pitcher.  Also, because it’s a little shorter than other pitchers I can store it on my favorite shelf in the fridge.  Still, I think one of these days I’ll be wishing that the pitcher is bigger.

What’s so special about this pitcher?

I’ll paraphrase the product description: The pitcher has a built-in mixing blade that quickly dissolves formula with no clumping, and an adjustable stopper that prohibits the mixing blade from lifting above the surface of the liquid as to keep air introduction to a minimum. (The stopper works well, but I no longer use it – more on this in later). The compact size, locking lid, soft grip handle and ribbed pitcher spout offer comfort and convenience when pouring. it disassembles without difficulty for easy cleaning, it’s dishwasher safe, and it’s BPA-free.

I thought it would be helpful to see the spinning blade in action. In the following video, you’ll see the blade lift above the formula level just to give an indication of how much it twirls while pumping.

The stopper

The idea behind the stopper is to limit the height of the mixing blade so that it doesn’t extend above the formula level. Otherwise, air might be introduced into the formula while mixing.

Though the stopper works well for keeping the mixing blade from rising above a designated height, I no longer use it. The reason is that as you pour formula from the pitcher throughout the day, the formula level changes, and in order to adjust the height of the stopper, you have to take the lid off and push the stopper (which is wet with formula) by hand. I’ve found it much easier to set the stopper at the maximum height, and I just keep an eye on how high I’m pulling the blade as I’m mixing the formula.

Whether you use Dr. Brown’s bottles or not, this pitcher is great for mixing formula. On occasion our family will use liquid formula instead of powder, which still needs to be stirred well, and the pitcher works great for that, too.

Bottom line

Dr. Brown’s Formula Mixing Pitcher mixes formula much better and faster than any other method I can think of, and is capable of doing so without introducing air into the formula. So clumping and bubbles are minimal if not non-existant. It’s also a convenient way to store formula in the fridge, and the formula pours from the spout in a nice clean stream. Whether you use Dr. Brown’s bottles or not, Dr. Brown’s Formula Mixing Pitcher is worth having if you have a formula-fed baby.

Our family likes Dr. Brown’s Formula Mixing Pitcher.

View Dr. Brown’s Formula Mixing Pitcher at amazon.com

These diapers are not to be confused with the regular Pampers Swaddlers. We’ve tried those and they are ok, too, but the ones we like are the Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive, and in this review, we’ll tell you what makes the difference.

What makes Sensitive better?

From the pampers.com site, Swaddlers Senstive “helps maintain the natural, healthy look of your new baby’s skin,” and includes the following features:

• Air Dry™ for ultra breathability
• Wetness indicator to show you when baby may need a change.
• Gentle and Hypoallergenic
• Umbilical cord notch (for size Newborns)

Let’s cut right to the chase as to why we like these diapers:

The wetness indicator rocks!

All those other things are well and good, especially for the baby, but what we really like is a yellow stripe that runs down the middle of the diaper on the outside. When the baby is wet, it turns blue. This means that before you finish thinking the phrase, “I wonder if my baby has a wet diaper,” you already know. It’s awesome! Let’s see it in action.

Here’s a clean diaper from the size newborn of a pack of these we already owned. Notice the yellow strip.

Now here’s a wet diaper that I took off our son. Note the strip down the middle is now blue.

We love this feature so much. What’s surprising is that the diaper package doesn’t feature it on the front. The only mention of it is the third of three features on one of the package’s sides:

The wetness indicator on Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive has been extremely helpful for us as first-time parents, as they remove any guess work; limiting useless trips to a changing table, just to realize that diapers are still clean. We think the following people would probably get the most out of Pampers Swaddlers Senstive diapers:

• First-time parents
• Family members helping out with the baby
• Babysitters
• Penny-wise parents who don’t want to waste a diaper

Sensitive are a little more expensive than regular swaddlers

The 180 count package of Sensitive diapers, size 1, is $40.99 on amazon, which is almost 23 cents per diaper. The regular swaddlers is the same price, but has a 216 count, making it about 19 cents per diaper. We feel the wetness indicator has been well worth the extra 4 cents per diaper, as there are no more “I wonder if it’s really wet – let’s change it just in case” moments.

Our family likes Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive diapers.

View Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive at amazon.com