eat, play, sleep

so when we brought mr. cope home, we didn't exactly know what to do with him. one book said never let him cry and hold him 24 hours a day and feed him whenever he looked funny, even if that means every 30 minutes. the other book said feed him every 3 hours on your schedule, put him to sleep when you want him to sleep, and if he fusses, walk in and check on him and if he is still in one piece, turn around and walk out so he can figure out how to self-soothe. well, i'm definitely a black and white kind of person, but neither of those things seemed right to me. the one bit of advice that seemed logical to me was this: eat, play, sleep. if you do it in that order, you really can't go wrong. feed him, play with him till he's sleepy, put him down for a nap, and when he wakes up he will do it because he is hungry and you start all over again. he didn't read either of those books, but eat, play, sleep has worked pretty well. except for when you take him on an airplane to georgia and get him mixed all up.. but those stories are for the next post...