Cherish the First Six Weeks: A Plan that Creates Calm, Confident Parents and a Happy, Secure Baby

This book was INCREDIBLY helpful when we welcomed our son in May 2015, and I recommend it to every mama-to-be that I know. I cannot over state how valuable I found Helen's advice and experience, though some of the criticism by other reviewers is warranted. Details below: Pros: - Spot on advice for new parents that accurately describes what your BABY will do the first few weeks and what YOU will do. I read a lot before giving birth, and no other book was as specific and useful for the first weeks of life. - Details SUGGESTED schedules. This is where some of the criticism comes in, but Helen Moon is careful to say that these are typical schedules babies tend to follow, so that you can figure out what you're doing in the shitstorm of new parenthood. This is NOT a "force your baby to do this" schedule, and should not be read as such! As with all parenting books, you have to use your judgement. If your kid is hungry after 1 hour, and the book says he/she shouldn't be hungry until 1.5 hours, FEED THE BABY. The book is not omniscient and cannot see your child, it is just a reference tool. - Helen's advice allowed us to teach our infant to sleep well from the day he came home, and my now 6.5 month old sleeps better than any other child I know. Partly, this is his personality. But 90% of the credit goes to Ms. Moon. The commenter who mentioned this is "sleep training" is incorrect - "sleep training" is a process that is typically started after 4 months, and is a parallel philosophy to Cry it Out. Helen saves you from ever getting to the point of CIO, because she teaches you how to let your baby develop his/her sleep skills long before that stage. From the day my son came home we followed her naptime/bedtime protocol and allowed him to fuss (NOT CRY/SCREAM) for up to 3 minutes on his own before going in, and I would anxiously watch on the monitor as he went from fussing for 1 minute to sound asleep. Amazing. --- Also, sleep is another area that requires parental judgement. Ms. Moon and other authors suggest that babies are capable of sleeping through the night fairly early on, but my son couldn't. And that's ok. He needed to eat twice a night, and so I fed him. But I followed her sleep routine, and by 5 months he slept through the night easily. No crying it out, no wailing, just easy sleep. You'll know when your baby is ready, because he/she will show you. Cons: - It's not brilliantly written. The author is a full time baby nanny, not a Pulitzer prize winner, and that's ok. - It is anecdote heavy. But that's because she's sharing her personal experience with you, and she does so via anecdotes. They get a little old and can sound pretentious, but oh well. The content is well worth it! I read this book before giving birth, my husband created an excel chart that showed the suggested schedules which saved my sanity the first few weeks, and we read the relevant chapter together each week to refresh ours memories and prepare for the week ahead. Again, I can't recommend it highly enough. Even if you don't think you'll need it, this is the book you'll want to pull off the shelf at 2am the first week when you have no idea what you're doing! - Clara L.

I love this book more than I can express. As first time parents who were drowning in the amount of information out there but lacking in basic "how-to" information, this was a life saver. She describes in detail how to handle the first 6 weeks with your baby, including variations that come up. The book is short and to the point. Don't get hung up on getting the schedules EXACTLY right (some friends I recommended this to did and therefore didn't like it) - but just use it as a guideline for the rhythms of your day. And where she says to be strict, we were strict (e.g. the 10pm dream feed) - and to our benefit. Our son started sleeping long stretches before most other babies I know! (Caveat that all babies are different and your mileage may vary 😂) When we had our second baby, I broke it out again to refresh on the details. And I loved it all over again Anyway, can't recommend this book enough to all parents of a newborn

As a first time parent, this book helped me gain the confidence and give me steps on the basics. The most amazing quality of the book is that it gets your baby on a schedule including for sleeping through the night. The book teaches how to have baby self sooth and not cry it out to get a peaceful night for baby and parent. From about 6 weeks my newborn has been sleeping about 8-9 hours straight. So thankful I learned about this book and hope this book helps many more parents.

I can't say if the principles in this book actually work or not, because I still have 1.5 months to go before little one arrives, but as a first-time-mom-to-be, this book has been extremely beneficial at least in giving me a sense of what to aim for, expect in the beginning of baby's life. The author has a down-to-earth style, and writes in a way that's easy to read, and packs the pages chock full of information about baby's development, cues and milestones to watch for, and ways parents can help raise and guide baby In a nutshell, it's probably as close to an "instruction manual" for new parents as you're going to find; so it's well worth a read! While it did make me feel more comforted and confident about parenting in the first weeks (which is exactly what I was looking for, so it more than fit the bill...) It does seem to come across as a little bit "one-size-fits-all" in its approach to getting your baby to get on a sleep/feed routine; I'm taking the author's advice with a grain of salt. I know not all babies will take so easily to the schedule/methods that the writer proposes. But you can bet that I'm still going to give it a try! Huge kudos to Helen Moon for having the heart to write down her years of wisdom and sage advice!

Okay, we followed this book with our first child and it worked amazing! Both of us parents had to be on the same page to remain consistent and follow through. But our 1st kid was sleeping 8 hours at night by 8 weeks. We wondered if it was the child or the book. Well, we are 2 months in on our 2nd child, and while he's not hit 8 hours, he does hit 7 hours at 8 weeks! But more than that, the kids learn to sleep on their own in the crib. Little fuss, little fighting. Many friends with kids marvel at how we can set our infant down, shush for a bit and walk out in 1 minute. Life changing We have given or recommended this book to nearly a dozen people. None followed it but later signed up for $600 - $1000 courses to sleep train their kids, which in the end were exactly the same process of this book. Save yourself money and follow it on the onset. It is HARD to do, but your sanity will thank you

As a FTM, I read several books that have guided me through my first weeks at home with my little one. While Helen Moon's book doesn't introduce any new concepts or principles, I found her chapters break down each week into a usable, approachable framework. Does the book have schedules? Yes. But it is so much more than scheduling. It is helping you understand what is normal, what can be normal, an how to troubleshoot if something isn't normal. I've had both my husband and my mom keep up with the chapters for our newborn and both commented how helpful it was for them to see things through the eyes of the same framework I was looking at. I felt like it has enabled my family to be most supportive of me, breastfeeding and the baby. When my baby wasn't meeting some of the feeding schedules, it prompted me to ask questions to my pediatrician and lactation consultant and make subsequent, positive changes. I wish Helen had a book for weeks 7+!

Our daughter is 6 weeks old and we have followed this book from day one. My husband and I realized that there are just so many books/websites/blogs that we should just pick one and stick to it and see how it goes. This is s great middle ground of stressing the importance of attaching and bonding but also encouraging parents to take the lead in helping baby get in a good eating and feeding schedule. My big thing is - is there anyone out there, especially those of you who used the book and rated it highly, that would be open to emailing and talking about the book? I have a bunch of troubleshooting questions and since we can't afford to have Helen Moon come I'm wondering could we start a simple message q&a message board?

Cherish the first six weeks is a well intentioned baby schedule that can sometimes be read in a Donald Trump voice (I am the greatest baby maid). The book itself has some hearty content but the message when applied to real life average baby raising suggests a more appropriate title might be “Tips For the First 3 Months”. Some things I liked: - not creating unhelpful patterns such as holding your baby to sleep or using pacifier to sleep. - not adopting your schedule to meet the baby but teach the baby to meet your schedule. - easy to read - tips on all types of feeding. What I didn’t like: - very disorganized. A point that should have been in week one isn’t found until week 6, and so on. - the schedule rarely works after week 3 and she doesn’t give enough “what if” pointers. - if you read this book and treat it as law, it can hurt your first six weeks. You will get frustrated, angry, and want to scream because you thought you were adopting a magic schedule. When it doesn’t work you feel like a failure. There is more but these are my key takeaways. A last point I’d like to make is: don’t rock you baby to sleep ALL the time, but definitely do it. Make your baby wait for food a little longer most of the time but not at 2 am. And don’t use a pacifier all the time but definitely use it too buy time. Good luck raising your little ones. This book is worth getting if you treat it as Tips and read other books too.

Highly recommend. Let me start by saying I thought people who followed baby books were crack pots. Baby whisperer. Happiest baby on the block. I know how to take care of a baby. But there were things I wanted to know as a new mom- What should a typical day look like?? How often should I feed my baby (especially my baby who eats whatever whenever)? How can I sleep? Is swaddling ok and for how long? How can I teach my baby to sleep without letting her cry it out? (That was huge for me.) I love the schedules. Our baby warmed to them instantly. Slept through the night by week six as promised! I knew when we could schedule visitors and run errands. Best of all- it was full of advice that our nurses and doctors gave us right from the beginning. There was nothing far fetched or "out there." Plain and easy to read and follow. Best of all, follow Helen Moon on twitter. She actually replies. @cherishyourbaby Our family cannot express how much this book helped us through the first six weeks (and six months!). Unbelievably grateful.

What an incredible book. Exactly what I was looking for. My baby is so much better on this schedule. Thank you so much x

Great book, helped my wife and I a lot with our newborn

An absolutely must read for every first time parents. Definitely helped me keep my sanity by answering all the doubts about caring for a new born. The schedules are very helpful and gives you a basic guidline of how many times your baby should eat, poop or sleep. Nothing is more joyful for a new parent than to get few hours of sleep with their baby at night. And this book is the answer to all the prayers of new parents suffering from sleep deprivation.

Interesting read