The Happiest Baby on the Block is a Must Read!
This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. See the disclosure policy for more information.
In the years 4 years of trying to get pregnant, prior to my first pregnancy, I went through many phases of engagement with understanding what it might be like to be pregnant or to have a newborn. Oftentimes I was too sad, broken down and discouraged to listen to podcasts or read blogs or engage much with new parents. But during times where I felt more hopeful, I loved learning some of the helpful tips and tricks I’d pickup. One thing that oddly stuck with me for years before I was pregnant was a Dax Shepherd podcast episode where he was speaking with someone (I no longer remember who) and they got to talking about that person’s newborn baby. During their conversation, Dax talked about a book called Happiest Baby on the Block written by Dr. Harvey Karp. He swore by it! He said it was a life saver for learning how to stop his crying baby and get them to sleep. I took mental note.
Fast-forward 2-3 years and I was finally pregnant! I’m not a huge reader and I’m also a very busy business owner, so the reality that I’d dive deep into some exhaustive list of baby books was unlikely. The ones I did read wound up being: Happiest Baby on the Block and What To Expect When You’re Expecting.
Reading Happiest Baby on the Block turned out to be the single smartest move I made during my pregnancy. Like most expecting mothers, I was consumed by the idea of having a newborn and what I was supposed to do when they were finally here in this world. How would I know what I was doing? What would my baby be like? Would they be a constant sleeper or constant crier? How was I going to handle all the feeding? (newborns feed constantly). What do you do with a baby all day? I knew it was “exhausting” but I didn’t truly understand why. What was the day actually like?
I won’t say Happiest Baby on the Block explains all of that but what it did explain is the needs of a newborn and how their bodies function. There were so many details I did not know about and I experienced a sense of relief that I had some sort of concept about my baby’s needs and how I could meet them in order to make her happy and comfortable.
The most important detail of Happiest Baby on the Block is the 5 S’s: Swaddle, Side-Stomach position, Shush, Swing, and Suck. It all made so much sense and I knew this was exactly the plan I wanted to follow when our baby came into the world. I told my husband about the book and attempted to explain what I had learned, but how do you truly summarize a book’s worth of information in a conversation with your husband? You don’t. My husband is also not a huge reader and I knew I couldn’t count on him simply picking up the book and reading it all the way through. I needed to make it simpler for him. I decided I would do a quick re-read of the book (more in a skimming fashion) and highlight and tag the most important pages, sections or paragraphs in the book. This would cut his reading time by 90% and ensure he read the details I knew were necessary in order to get him onboard with how we’d handle addressing our babies needs.
Once she arrived and our world was ROCKED we brought her home and went into parenting mode. She would cry and we’d look at each other and say, “OK, we need to swaddle.” That is always Step 1. Then we needed to start testing out the combination of the other 4 techniques that would be her secret-sauce to soothing. She turned out to love a combo of swaddle + shushing + sucking. Occasionally the side-stomach and swinging came into play as well. But it was like a miracle drug. She’d be screaming her little tiny lungs out and once she was swaddled, in position and shushing had commenced, she’d suddenly quiet and become so calm. It was incredible!
As a baby, I was a crier. I’ve been hearing it my whole life - how I almost killed my parents because I cried so much and never slept and everyone was just losing their minds. Here we were, 37 years later and my parents watched us during those first few weeks and how we were able to stop her from crying so successfully, so quickly, time and time again and they said they wish they had known what we knew when they had me. Maybe I wouldn’t have been such a crier!
To this day, everytime someone gets pregnant I put together a little congratulations gift and I throw in a copy of Happiest Baby on the Block along with a few other favorites. I honestly don’t know how we would have gotten through our first few months without it.
Read all about the items your truly NEED on your registry!
You have all you need for baby but what about YOU? Find out what products you’ll need postpartum.
