The Baby Book Quotes

“The parents who are most frustrated by high-need babies have difficulty unloading the baggage of a control mind-set. “High-need baby” says it all. It’s”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“A newborn who is used to this cue-response network learns to trust her caregiving environment.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“More changes occur in the first month after birth than at any other time in a woman’s life. It’s no wonder that 50–75 percent of all mothers feel some degree of baby blues (the incidence would be 100 percent if males gave birth and fed babies).”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“YOU ARE YOUR BABY’S BEST EXPERT Whenever we are asked advice on any topic, a favorite question of ours is “What do you think?” For example, if parents ask us if they should co-sleep with their baby, instead of simply saying yes (because that’s what felt best for ourselves and our babies), we like to first hear what the parents’ intuition is telling them to do. We may then share our personal thoughts on the matter, which may or may not be in line with how the parents feel. We would rather help parents build on their own intuition than try to shape their ideas to fit ours. And the same goes for you, our readers.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“Parenting is a learn-as-you-go profession.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“The second month is baby’s social debut—the coming out of herself. She opens up her hands to greet people. She opens her vision to widen her world and her mouth to smile and make more noise. The feeling of rightness and trust developed during the first month opens the door for baby’s real personality to step out.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“In the second month you are, in the words of surviving parents, “over the hump.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“After years of watching newborns smile, we wish to deflate the gas bubble. Newborns do smile, and not because of gas (unless after passing it). As veteran smile watchers we divide smiles into two types: inside smiles and outside smiles. Inside smiles, occurring in the first few weeks, are a beautiful reflection of an inner feeling of rightness. Some are sleep grins; some are only a happy twitch in the corner of the mouth. Relief smiles occur after being rescued from a colicky period, after a satisfying feeding, or after being picked up and rocked. During face-to-face games is another time to catch a smile. Baby’s early smiles convey an “I feel good inside” message and leave you feeling good inside. Be prepared to wait until next month for the true outside (or social) smiles, which you can initiate and which will absolutely captivate all adoring smile watchers. Whatever their cause, enjoy these fleeting grins as glimpses of the whole happy-face smiles that are soon to come.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“As a practical guide, music you can carry on a conversation over is safe. If you have to shout over the noise, it’s too loud.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“arrangements for many families and may be more “normal” than baby’s sleeping separately in a crib. You cannot force sleep upon a baby. Creating a secure environment that allows sleep to overtake baby is the best way to create long-term healthy sleep attitudes. The frequent-waking stage will not last forever.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“Sleep cycles are shorter for babies than for adults, with more light than deep sleep. Babies have more vulnerable periods for night waking than adults; they have difficulty getting back to sleep. The medical definition of “sleeping through the night” is a five-hour stretch. Babies usually awaken two or three times a night from birth to six months, once or twice from six months to one year, and may awaken once a night from one to two years.* Some will wake more. Babies usually sleep fourteen to eighteen hours a day from birth to six months, fourteen to sixteen hours from three to six months, and twelve to fourteen hours from six months to two years. Babies’ sleep habits are more determined by individual temperaments than parents’ nighttime abilities. It’s not your fault baby wakes up. Stuffing babies with solids at bedtime rarely helps them sleep longer. It’s all right to sleep with baby in your bed. In fact, sharing sleep works better than other”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“TIRING FACTS OF INFANT SLEEP Babies enter sleep through REM sleep; they need help to go to sleep.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“the early months, baby’s sleep cycles are shorter, periods of light sleep occur more frequently, and the vulnerable period for night waking occurs twice as often as for an adult, approximately every hour. Most restless nights are due to difficulty getting back to sleep after waking up during this vulnerable period. Some babies have trouble reentering another stage of deep sleep.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

“in the early months enter sleep through an initial period of light sleep lasting around twenty minutes. Then they gradually enter deep sleep, from which they are difficult to arouse. If you try to rush by putting baby down during this initial light sleep period, he will usually awaken. This fact of infant sleep accounts for the difficult-to-settle baby who “has to be fully asleep before I can put him down.” In later months many babies can enter deep sleep more quickly without first going through light sleep. Learn to recognize your baby’s sleep stages. During deep sleep you can move a sleeping baby from car seat to bed without baby awakening.”
― William Sears, The Baby Book : Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two