WONDER WEEKS:HOW TO STIMULATE YOUR (The Wonder Weeks) Paperback – November 19, 2013

I can't even explain how much this helped day one when we received it. Here's what was going on:I had heard about this book from a friend when I was pregnant but didn't order it and forgot about it. Then I heard about it again when I overhead two new mom's I knew saying "well he's been so fussy but maybe he's just approaching a Leap" I thought: what's a leap.. they said that like a specific term.. then I remembered this book.Well I was significantly sleep deprived and baby would not let me out of his site for even a minute. He had been so clingy for the past couple weeks. Also he was sleeping through the night before, but had started getting up every 2-3 hours again like he was a newborn, but this was at nearly 4 months. I told my husband about this book and he encouraged me to order it, if nothing else just so I would know what my friends were all talking about. The day it came in the mail I skipped to the week we were on. 19 weeks. WOW I couldn't believe it. Everything I read was exactly what my baby had been doing~ and I mean seriously exactly. I just kept saying "YES" as I read each paragraph, because that is what we had been going through. I had no idea this was all normal and something all babies went through at this age.I told my husband and asked him to read the chapter on week 19. He said the same thing that it was everything I'd been telling him our baby had been doing. Such as; I want to wash the dishes, but baby is upset if I break eye contact for even a minute. Well we were fascinated and hooked on this book. If they knew exactly what he was doing, what was going to come out of it and what was going to be his next big leap.Well we read on, and to our satisfaction he did make that big leap very soon afterward and we have been having a very happy week now with no more fussy baby, now he's all sunshine.Even if I never read the rest of the book, it felt so good in that moment to have this book clearly explain the things I'd been feeling and seeing was going on. I needed to hear that my baby was not going to be that clingy and demanding forever, and this book explained that he would not, when he would not, and what he would learn from and get out of that week.

So I went on the website and even bought the app, but the book has (IMO) a few valuable things not published anywhere else.1. My Diary section has a SUPER detailed checklist of some of the skills that help define your baby's interests and personality during each specific wonder week and how they express their new cognitive development.For example, i bought the book when my son was approaching the 37th week. At this point he didn't clap his hands or mimic people at all! I got concerned when I went through the checklist and realized it was very polar. Anything physical or involving movement he was way advanced, but this meant he didn't have time to develop other skills. I naturally pushed for more things involving movement and he was a happier baby. Now and again I go back to the skills I didn't check off and eventually a couple months later, they're all checked off.i.e. : Not checked "Switching Roles"- Asks you to build blocks by handing you his blocks, Asks mother to sing a song , then claps his handsChecked "Switching Roles" - Feeds crackers/bottle to mother, Can initiate a game by himself2. Top Games for specific wonder week has very relevant games that I normally wouldn't have thought of to play. For example, for the babies going through separation anxiety, they said to play hide and seek. I am astounded at how long my baby can be by himself calmly trying to look for me and going through every room until he finds me! Now he ventures out further by himself instead of clinging onto my leg in the living room. Honestly, I wouldn't not think to play hide and seek with a 8.5/9month old...but I guess they respond well to it! He even tries to slide closets doors since we've up-ed the bar and now I hide in closets and bathrooms where he has to open a door to get to me. As a new mom my zombie brain was running out of ideas to entertain him, but this section was a great source for new fun ways to stimulate his growing brain.3. Detailed description of the "magical leap forward." They describe it more in depth with examples. This was the first book that mentioned your baby will have a correlating fear of "being strapped in" during the week of Categories. My baby hated being strapped in his stroller, car seat etc.... This was the first book that warned me about it and made me more empathetic when it happened. My son cried so hard in the car seat he "exorcist-style" threw up everywhere in the backseat from getting worked up. After the stormy period he still protests but he now lasts longer in the seat.4. What you can do to help section. This section goes in depth of what you can do to help stimulate your child during each week.For example, they said to give an active baby room to investigate and explore, especially if the baby is already physically active and advanced. As the book suggested, I made obstacle courses for my baby and he loves it! He goes under and over couch sectionals/parts and crude forts. I introduced him to a gymboree room with a 5 foot high plastic indoor slide. Without any help or provoking on my end, he shocked me and everyone in the room when he climbed up the slide, turned around, and slid down superman style...and did it again 5x. He was 9.5 months at the time.Overall, if you really don't want to pay the money, then you can spend hours trying to look for the info elsewhere. But it's all in one convenient book and organized well and easy to navigate. Someone mentioned that there were fillers in the book such as quotes from other parents, but I liked how I can relate to other moms and dads who have the exact problem. The book also deals with how a "high-need" baby would act during the wonder weeks. Even though they don't blatantly use that term or attachment parenting, they do mention how a "very difficult" baby would act, which also helped me cope with my high-need baby.All in all, I would recommend this book because the few specific things that I have learned from it were invaluable and there is no price to making the life of 1st -time parents easier, especially when trying to understand their "fussy" and "very difficult" baby.

Oh, if only I had this at the beginning......my baby girl is just now 5 months, and I dove right into this book, and it has already been extremely enlightening. We had a painful failed induction which turned into an emergency c section, and I went home with a 5 lb baby who could not nurse and had jaundice. Needless to say, the first few months were rough. It was very hard to feed her, and I came down with some wicked post partum depression. Through it all, my baby was a very sweet girl, but I could not understand what was going on with her or why. She wasn't colicky, or even difficult, I was just so out of it in terms of her stages of development. And I was too out of it myself, that aside from feeding, changing and sleeping, there was very little I was able to do. I WISH WISH WISH I'd had this book from the start, it would have explained so much, and been encouraging, and even made it easier for me to be a smarter, more loving mommy, during my difficult moments. If only I had known then what I know now......luckily I got great treatment, my baby nurses like a champ, she sleeps like a wonder, and she is the sweetest, most resilient, best natured baby we know. Having this book will just make our lives better, and her stages easier, and I can see how she fits right into these descriptions. Even if you can not stop the little difficulties along the way as they grow, please do yourself a favor, and get it early! Nothing has explained my baby to me like this book. Oh ~ and I read about 30 baby books, brain, developmental, emotional, parenting styles, psychological, etc etc etc ~ this one has been more help to me than ANY other book. Just saying!