Baby Plus

I'm posting this knowing good and well people are going to think I'm nutz. When I got pregnant with Savannah, Stephen was terrific. He did all the product research to find the safest infant car seat, best crib for the $$$, best stroller, best swing, best bouncy seat, best, best, best. As my mother always says, "Nothing but the best for Stephen." So in all his research, Stephen came across a prenatal educational product that claimed to make your baby smart...claimed that the baby would come out calm, alert, latch on and nurse easily. Stephen really wanted me to use this product which would require me to wear a belt-like aparatus for 1-2 hours each day. I thought he was crazy. However, being the accomodating wife that I am, I thought, "What the hay!?! What could it hurt?". So starting at around 20 weeks gestation, I wore the Baby Plus for 1 hour in the morning while I got ready for work and as I drove into work and then another hour at night while I watched TV or read in bed or even as I slept. It wasn't that bad. Little did I know at the time that the claims made by the Baby Plus people were absolutely true.

The day Savannah was born (I'll spare you all the details), but Stephen will attest that she did not cry. She just looked at the doctors and nurses like, "what are you doing, people? Why all the poking and prodding? Could you just stop? Okay, geez, if you really want me to cry, fine." and she let out a little noise, but that would be about it. Because she was a c-section baby, I didn't get to hold her right away. It was about an hour before I could try to nurse. I stressed about this. I wanted to nurse and I had heard that if you don't try within the first hour after birth, well then you might as well kiss every hope of nursing good-bye because your baby would be damned to a life of formula and every evil that goes along with it. (Hey, it was my first baby and I wanted everything to be perfect...who doesn't?). Well, when they finally brought her to me, I was pleasantly surprised that she latched right on. Savannah went on to be a very happy baby and toddler...hardly ever cried, slept throught the night by 2 months. She was darn near perfect (if I do say so myself) :) She has grown into a very beautiful, happy, smart 2 1/2 year old. She really is happy 99% of the time. While I'd really like to take credit for how wonderful I think she is, I truly believe that Baby Plus contributed to who she is today.

So, when I got pregnant with Gage, there was no doubt in my mind that I would use Baby Plus again. I did and I'm so glad I did! I had always heard that if your first child is "good" then you are doomed with your second and vice versa. I have to say in our case, this is not true. I attribute this to Baby Plus...I'm serious. Gage was born so alert and so calm. He rarely cries. Even when he wakes up he doesn't ever really cry. He self-soothes and does not need a paci to get to sleep (we definitely use the paci during the day and on outings...don't get me wrong, I do depend on a paci for sure!). Gage has been a great sleeper. If "sleeping through the night" is 6 consecutive hours, then he's been doing this since he was about 4 weeks old. Lately, he's been doing even better than that...typically about 8 hours. However, and maybe the last 2 nights have been a total fluke, he has slept 12 consecutive hours for the last 2 nights. I kid you not!

Again, I think Baby Plus is the reason for this. It's not anything that Stephen or I have done. I mean, I have tons of mommy friends who do nothing differently than me, yet I hear their horror stories of their 2 year olds who are still not sleeping through the night and their 6 month olds who are up every other hour in the middle of the night. They may not be my friends anymore after this post, but I'm fairly certain they don't read this anyway :-)

A dear friend of mine who shall remain nameless is pregnant now. I told her about Baby Plus over lunch. I have never told anyone except my mother, my sister and the pediatric nurses in the hospital about Baby Plus. My friends would think I was crazy. I'm not sure if she has decided to use it...I gave her mine. I can imagine all the jokes she and her husband are telling behind my back. I really hope she does use it though and her baby is a "good", easy baby too!