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.

This book was my bible in the beginning. J read it before I gave birth and implemented her schedules already in the hospital. My son really took to the routines and was sleeping through the night at 7-8 weeks! I gift this book to all new parents!

This book was so helpful and I found myself referencing it constantly during those first weeks. The book provides easy to follow schedules - similar to the Babywise approach of eat-wake-sleep cycles, but I found this book much easier to follow because it gave actual times. We of course adjusted when we needed to based on our baby but this book gave us a great framework. I would have been lost without this book and recommend it to every new parent!

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!

I loved this book! Is perfect for the difficult first weeks of a newborn.

My husband and I absolutely love this book. We read it completely through before our little one was born. And then as the weeks got closer we read it again to keep it all fresh on our minds. Then we referred back to it many times in our first 6 weeks. This really helped to guide us during that time and let us know what to except both as a mom after birth and for our baby. This was an absolute life saver! I will be getting this for every baby shower I’m invited too!

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.

High praises to this author. It helped us a great deal and I highly recommend it to everyone that I know is expecting. It doesn’t have to be read in it’s entirety all at once.

Interesting read

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

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. @cherishyourbabyOur family cannot express how much this book helped us through the first six weeks (and six months!). Unbelievably grateful.

We bought this book with the idea that we would get our little one into a routine very early on. After one night with her, we quickly realised that this wasn’t going to happen! The routines in this book may be great for babies that our a little bit older and might be something we end up following. However, don’t buy this if you think it will be a magic routine to get your little one to sleep (yes, we were that naive). After speaking to lots of parents and our midwife, we have quickly discovered that newborns are not capable of a routine (some may sleep better than others but it doesn’t mean they have a routine). During the first few weeks your newborn will guide you and, if you listen to what this book is telling you to do, you’ll quickly end up wondering why your newborn isn’t doing what it says in the book and may lead to you thinking that you’re not doing a good enough job (you absolutely are!).On another note, I found it quite a hard read. During many chapters, the author simply brags about how many celebrity babies she has coached into a sleep routine without the mention of the fact they will also more than likely have a nanny/chef/housekeeper and will not be as sleep deprived and on edge as you will be! I got bored of her showing off pretty quickly.My advice - avoid this book and talk to your midwife before your little one arrives about what is normal. It will make you feel much better about the process and will help you enjoy every moment (or the majority at least) of being a new parent.

Of most of the baby books I read prior to the arrival of my son, this one was one of the easiest to read and felt the most useful. This book is full of practical guidelines (rather than strict rules that many other books employ) that will help to navigate and figure out a system that works for you while still adhering to the author's concepts.