Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth
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Book Reviews of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
Book Review: helped with my stubborn sleeper
Summary: 5 Stars
This book helped me to get my 5 month old to sleep through the night. I recommend it to friends all the time. I got the book when my son was about 3.5 months old and at the time I was rocking him about 3-4 hours a day to get him to sleep and stay asleep. I was back at work and totally exhausted. I read the book and tried some of the ideas in it, for example putting him to bed at what seemed like an insanely early hour (6-6:30), but it did help although he still was not sleeping through the night. Most nights he slept 6 or more hours in a row. I was still rocking him to sleep at this point. A couple of weeks later, he was getting up every hour or so. After reading the book, I knew it was because I was rocking him and that he needed to learn to sleep on his own. I knew I had to let him cry it out for his own well-being. The first night of crying lasted 20 minutes. The second night there was no crying. Some nights he fusses for a few minutes, but sleeps well. Of course there were some bumps in the road with illness (croup and bronchiolitis) which set us back, but on the whole he (&I) are much happier! He is now happier when he is awake. I now know that keeping him to a schedule is imperative. Not being on his schedule is the number one reason for fussiness now (and he is really not fussy at all-I get comments all the time about how happy he is). He needs to be in bed for the night by 7:00. Period.
Everything that I've implemented from this book has helped. I was not willing to let him cry until he was 4 months old because I had read that babies cannot soothe themselves until then. Letting him cry was hard, but I truly believe that the small amount that he did cry at first has saved much, much more crying in the long run. This book was well written and unlike some of the other books, was not judgemental about how you put your child to bed (some of the other books I had read made me feel like a bad parent for rocking him to sleep, this book just presented facts, options and suggestions). It was presented in a factual manner with some very practical tips. This book was a sanity saver for me!
Book Review: Practical advice, based on research
Summary: 5 Stars
I appreciated the fact that much of what Weissbluth writes he backs up with research from sleep studies, unlike a lot of parenting books, which don't use actual studies to back up their claims.
I wish I had read his advice on developing a nap-time soothing routine and nighttime sleep routine and being consistent--I could have avoided a lot of crying. After the christmas holidays, my three-month-old was only able to sleep while being held. He couldn't even sleep in his car seat--he would just wail and wail. Even when I did hold him, sometimes he was so tired that he cried for a couple minutes in my sling as I desperately jiggled and patted him. I have to go back to work next week and I was worried about how he would ever get enough sleep at a daycare, where they would not be wearing slings to help him sleep!
So, I developed a quick naptime routine and started it on a Monday: swaddle, rock in rocking chair with shushing and patting until the baby is asleep or almost asleep, then put in his crib on a blanket with a special scent in a darkened room. There was a lot of crying on Monday, which sucked. But I reminded myself of all the crying he did in his car seat when he couldn't soothe himself to sleep. Then on Tuesday he went down for his first nap without any crying. There was still some crying during the later naps but not as much. Wednesday was a miracle--he only cried 3 minutes after I put him down for his 2nd nap, and slept well for all his other naps.
I have only two nitpicks with the book. First, the organization is poor. It is repetitive and occasionally hard to use as a reference book because the information is scattered all over the place, especially the information on months 1-4.
Second, he says that breastfeeding in the family bed does not create sleep problems, but doesn't go into great detail. As someone who has chosen to breastfeed in the family bed, I think he probably means that both mother and baby still get a fair amount of sleep because they never completely wake up. But still, he should really explain this better.
Book Review: IT WORKS PERIOD!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has been a god send for me! I have been a single mom most of my baby's first year with my husband away. At first I used to let my baby stay up until she was tired which was usually later than me. Then I would put her down and she would sleep for 7 hours which was fabulous until she started solids at 6 months. My baby started waking up in the middle of the night to breast feed. She would wake up 2-3 times which was confusing because she was getting more than just breast milk. Only to find out she wasn't hungry she just wanted comfort and had programmed herself to get up every night at the same time! I finally picked up this book and wish I had done so sooner! It explains in detail the reasoning behind the importance of sleep and if you catch your baby at the right time (due to their natural cycle) you can have a baby sleep through the night without having them overtired, hence the crying themselves to sleep - I used all the techniques and observed my baby so that I could keep the crying to a minimum. She started sleeping through the night within 3 days of implementing the technique and she takes 2 two hour naps a day - she has just turned one and the routine hasn't changed, 9pm-7am every night and 9:30-11:30 nap in the morning and another in the evening at 3:30-5:50 give or take. I cannot tell you how much more effective it is to invest the time initially by reading this book when they are babies! People tell me I'm lucky to have such a good baby, and she is wonderful, but I can see how her habits could have gotten out of hand had I not taken the time to try this method. It saves a lot of time, stress and headache moving forward, not to mention creates wonderful sleep habits and sleep association for your child!
I recommend this book to everyone who has children it's worth the read and the time to execute the training technique. From a parental sanity perspective, there is no substitute for the "me" time gained while she takes her naps and goes to bed at a reasonable hour.
Book Review: AMAZING
Summary: 5 Stars
I felt compelled to write a review about this book...It literally changed the way that I think about sleep. My son was always a good sleeper, and we were very blessed that he started sleeping through the night (9 hours or more!) at just over 2 months of age. That lasted until about 3 months, when he started waking up again. Around that time, he also started fighting taking naps. I would nurse him until he fell asleep, sneak him into his crib, and tiptoe out of the room. If he woke up, all hell broke loose and we started the process over again...It was exhausting, and my poor baby was hardly getting any sleep during the day, unless he slept in my arms. We bought this book when he was 3.5 months old. After ONE night of following the plan exactly as he describes, the bebe is back to sleeping through the night, but now its between 11-12 hours STRAIGHT. He also takes three solid naps a day. I put him in his crib awake, he smiles, finds his thumb, and goes to sleep on his own. It is truly amazing and adorable. He wakes up from naps and bedtime happy and alert, and he actually tells me when he's ready to nap. I've learned how to read his cues, and we can plan the day around his nap needs. Whenever someone tells me that they are shocked at how much he sleeps, I just think to myself that that is how much babies NEED to sleep, it's just that most babies/kids are overly tired.
I highly recommend this book. It gives a lot of detail about why sleep is so important, and it gives information for how to handle the older child who starts waking up again. The first night was hard, we both cried, but after that, things changed for the better. IMMEDIATELY. My 5 month old can even sleep away from home, so it's not like we're attached to his crib. Sorry for the long review, but I hope it is helpful for someone else. And good luck!
Book Review: This is an essential book when having a baby!
Summary: 5 Stars
Someone my husband works with gave us this book at our baby shower. The woman who gave it to us pointed out that she followed the general principles of the book and NEVER had sleep issues with any of her kids. I finally started to read the book when our son was about 5 weeks old. This book has helped us nurture a 14-month-old who sleeps 12 hours at night and takes two 2-hour naps.....and has been doing so since he was about 2-3 months old (napping more frequently when he was a little younger). This book discusses how much sleep infants/children require at their respective age from a biological/neurological/physical/developmental standpoint. The author approaches the topic in a very non-judgemental way and provides several examples of how his suggestions have helped specific families as well as ways he has had to problem solve with families when his suggestions didn't work the first time. This is nice b/c many other books I've read don't troubleshoot if the authors suggestions don't work. The book operates off the basic premise that we need to respect our children's sleep needs and really fight to provide them the opportunity to sleep as much as they need (e.g., no evening trips to the supermarket with the kids in their pjs, and no more taking the baby to lunch with your gal pals to nap in the infant carrier instead of napping peacefully at home).
BOTTOM LINE: All of my co-workers, family member and friends are jealous of how well our kids sleep. Their great sleeping habits started when I implemented the strategies discussed in this book. I regularly use strategies in this book to make recommendations to my friends when they ask for help getting their kids to sleep better. This book is a must buy! The last bit I would like to add is that you have to be very consistent or it probably won't work!