Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth
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Book Reviews of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
Book Review: Not for the faint of heart but so worth it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE THIS BOOK. IT SAVED MY SLEEPLESS INSANITY AND MY FAMILY!
I originally read this book six years ago when my first daughter was nearing 9 months old. I couldn't bear the thought of her "crying it out". I read many books and we tried many different methods, including Dr. Ferber's, Dr. Sears and Elizabeth Pantley. I really never stuck to one method for any length of time because none seemed right. Dr. Ferber's method seemed to egg on the crying. Each time we went in to say "it's okay" and pat her back and tried to reassure her, the crying only intensified. Dr. Sear's "family bed" was making us crazy. None of us were sleeping. We battled sleep issues for four solid years after that. Needless to say, it was not easy.
With the onset of our second daughter, I vowed not to repeat the same mistakes. From the day she was born, I could tell that this one was a fiery one and she was going to give me a run for the money. In my sleepless delirium, I re-read Dr. Weissbluth's book, from cover to cover. This time, however, something clicked. It all made sense. I started trying to put her down awake at 3 months old. I played her lullaby CD and darkened the room, put her coziest blanket in the crib and her bear. She would cry and cry and cry. Over an hour each time without falling asleep. So, I waited two months. At five months I tried again, but this time it started to work. She would fall asleep sometime after 10 minutes, sometimes after one solid hour. This was only going on at naptime. I still did not have the courage to go cold turkey at night too. I was nursing her to sleep at night and then she would wake up every 2-3 hours. Finally around 9 months, I started at night. It took about 3 weeks before she finally started getting it. It was agonizing listening to her cry, I had to turn off the monitor and walk away. But the sound of silence, once asleep and the happy little face, after good sleep made it all worth it. She is now 16 months and a really great sleeper. She loves her bed and typically goes to sleep without complaint. If she wakes up at all during the night, she goes right back to sleep within minutes. We are all a much happier family when she gets her naps and good nigthtime sleep. It is not easy sometimes adhering to a very strict sleep schedule, but it is SOOOO worth it. This baby is so much happier when she is on her schedule. I know that if I had to do it over again I would do it in a hearbeat.
There is NO substitue for Healty Sleep for your entire family. If you don't start now, please start soon. It will save you from years of bad sleep habits. Read this book and really think about the benefits of good, healthy sleep. When your children sleep well, you all sleep well. I hope that YOU sleep well soon!
Book Review: It really works!
Summary: 5 Stars
We were at our wits end before this book. After consulting our pediatrician for help on why our child would not sleep through the night and would scream til he made himself sick when we'd lay him in his crib, we bought this book with our doctor's recommendation. As I read through this book I learned that all the habits my husband and I had created with our son had created the miserable child he had become. Working full-time during the day and my husband working nights, no one was getting any sleep at all. My husband would nap with him on his chest, I would run errands all day and let him nap in the car. I would rock him to sleep around 8-9pm so we could spend time with him after I was done with work and before my husband left. He would wake up several times a night, screaming and crying in his crib. We didn't know what to do - but we learned from this book that our child was seriously sleep deprived (as were we!) and that his naps were all off scheduled as far as timing them to help him ultimately sleep better at night. I really thought that this would be harder than it turned out to be. I had surrendered to the fact that I was going to have to let him cry awhile (up to an hour) I didn't think I would make but I vowed to try for all our sakes. Being that he had been staying up so late, Dr. Weisbluth recommended an extra early bedtime for at least 4 days to help him catch up on sleep and regulate his schedule -after which it could be moved up 20 mins at a time until we reached the goal time we wanted to set for bed. For us this was 6pm. At 4pm I fed him dinner, bathed him and then gave him his bottle as we rocked in his chair. We he was done I laid him down in his crib and he put his head down. I sat in his chair and waited a while with him. He never tried to get up, he fussed a bit and tossed and turned. When he was distracted and looking the other way I snuck out of the room. He cried for about a minute and a half and then fell asleep. He woke up at 1:30am had a bottle and when right back down to sleep - no fuss at all. He woke up babbling and smiling and so happy! We were amazed!! I'm not kinding when I say that my son screamed until he was sick before I tried this method - please try it, be patient and if need be get a glass of wine to calm your nerve and sit in your laundry room with the dryer on. If you give it a try, I guarantee you will be surprised. These reviews that mention kids being in the family bed, waking up several times a night, etc sounds to me like the parents are being regualted by their children, not the other way around. Good luck and think of your child. You will have a different, happier baby when you are done. We have been successful for a week now - 2 naps a day and only once a night he wakes up to drink. It really works!!!Book Review: Great Primer On Sleep Information
Summary: 5 Stars
Very informative! This is a book to teach about sleeping. Bought this book after a friend loaned it to me. Will be giving it to all my friends! This book helped build my confidence as a new mother. I didn't feel guilty about protecting my child's sleep patterns because I had a doctor backing me up! =) The knowledge I gleaned from these pages helped me to understand my own baby's signals and cues and combine it with general information on sleep! Dr. Weissbluth studied SLEEP habits specifically and has some great data on norms and ranges on either end of the norm, and what you can expect when it comes to forming sleep habits. I liked that he addressed different personalities and how this affects sleep habits. Fussier babies will take different techniques than calmer babies. He talks about these different situations. I liked that he had experience and studies behind his advice-- it was more than just opinion.
No book written will ever be a "manual" on how to care for your baby. Books and outside advice cannot take the place of mothering. But every once in a while you find a book that sheds new light on a subject or expands your knowledge in a way that you can improve/help find/learn to use your own motherly instincts... or at least help rub out that little smidgen of doubt that might hover in the back of you mind. (Don't second-guess yourself!)
This book helped me set and keep a schedule that left my baby, now toddler, well rested and happy. Schedules have evolved and are based on my child's natural sleep rythm's- they are not rigid and set by me-- I just assist my little one in maintaining this schedule (just as she is not able to feed or bath herself!) There are definite patterns though and sleeping "whenever" just doesn't cut it. It is AMAZING to see the difference between a well-rested child and an overtired, easily upset one!
Finally: I found this book to be a great tool in figuring out the amount of sleep needed from birth through childhood (still refer to it every few months with my toddler) It seemed to focus more on the importance of sleep and outlined the overall amount of time needed, wake and sleep times, and nap times and lengths. Dr. Weissbluth talks about different ways to implement the sleep habits and which ones tend to work better in different cases. (He prefers cry it out method, but actually explains many other methods and how they may or may not work and why) I did not need to use the cry it out method and found his other tips and advice quite helpful for helping my little one sleep. His emphasis seems to be on the destination (proper amount of sleep) and not the journey (use the sleep methods that work best for you and your child) and gives different routes on how to get to that destination!
Book Review: A must-read for every parent
Summary: 5 Stars
Buy this book if your expecting a baby or if you have a newborn. If you have an older baby, buy this book as well. It's better to start early, but starting late is better than not at all.Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child instructs parents how to help their childen learn to sleep. As important, it explains why healthy sleep habits, from the very beginning, are so crucial to a child's wellbeing. Babies and children who never learn to fall asleep unassisted (i.e., requiring rocking, holding, or co-sleeping) can develop sleep problems that will last their entire lives. Chronic sleep deprivation can take many forms and parents usually don't recognize the behavior as deprivation. A crying newborn may be tired, a child thought to have ADHD may be chronicly sleep deprived, etc. This book also instructs parents on how to develop healthy nap schedules and daily rountines. It's overall message is that parents need to respect their child's need for sleep.
Granted, you must first decide whether you will follow a "cry it out" method or not. This approach is entirely opposite that of Dr. Sears' belief of attachment parenting, so I don't understand why Amazon offers both together. For instance, Dr. Sears believes that parents should co-sleep with their children until the children ask for a bed of their own! Certainly this doesn't create independence.
I began following Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child very closely when my son was six weeks old. We started working slowly on his naps and lengthening his nighttime sleeping. I followed all of the suggestions -- an infant up to four months old can't handle being awake for more than two hours, focus on motion-less sleep, put down to sleep sleepy but awake after minutes of soothing, etc.
When he was just under four months old, my son began sleeping from 8 pm until 6:30 or 7 am, with three defined daytime naps. This is entirely thanks to this book. We let him "cry it out", knowing that it is in his best interest to develop the ability to sooth himself and fall asleep unassisted. Of course it's difficult to hear your baby cry, but this book will thoroughly explain why it's so important. And it works! My son cried for four hours, on and off, the first night, and about 15 minutes the second night.
I recommend following this book as early as possible, even before your baby is born, to learn the importance of healthy sleep habits. The later you being, the longer it will take. A friend of ours used this method at 8 months, when her baby was still having 12, 4, and 8 am feedings. Another friend didn't let her baby cry it out until 14 months. I can't even imagine doing the nighttime feedings and rocking to sleep for over a year!
So start early, pass the book on to friends, and best of luck!
Book Review: This Is My Baby Bible
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, this is my first book review ever. I feel compelled to do it. This book was simply amazing and has done more for my baby and our family than I can tell you. No we didn't have a colicky baby. We had a normal baby who had ok sleeping habits but this book made her the best sleeper ever. I started reading this book at someone else's suggestion who swore by it for her 4 kids years ago. At first I was skeptical. The name of the book sounded so silly and old-fashioned compared to some of the newer and hipper sounding book titles, and the cover just reinforced that. However, after reading the first chapter I could tell what a great book this was. I loved that everything just made so much common sense - how crucial sleep is not only for babies but for longer term development of them as children. That food is as important to their well being as sleep and vice versa. That it's up to the parents to make sure the babies nap just like we wouldn't let them skip meals because they were too into playing or distracted.
I started reading it when my baby was about 8 weeks, and wish I had day one. I referred to the book over and over, reading and re-reading chapters and stories of parents. Basically, my baby was sleeping through the night fairly consistently (and I mean really through the night, not the 5 hour b.s. they tell you is sleeping through...like 11-12 hours!) from about 5 months on. She's almost a year now, and still goes to bed between 6:30-7ish and sleeps till 6-6:30. She naps twice a day for between an hour to two hours. She doesn't cry, at most will fuss for a minute or so. She loves her crib, she has no problem getting herself to sleep, although sometimes she sings or babbles to herself for up to an hour before going silent. I honestly attribute much of this to the book. While I do think we lucked out and got a good sleeper and easy baby, I can't tell you what things would have been like had I not gone through this book and 1) did some basic sleep training for naps and at night time, 2) really clocked her sleeping schedule to see patterns, 3) watched the clock for <2hrs awake and tired signs when she was really young before naps were based on clocks, 4) realized that bedtime before 7 makes for a magically well-rested, happy baby AND mommy and daddy! All too often people use the excuse that "ph, you just lucked out with a good sleeper", and to that I say back that there's no way to know, because I did follow this book and now have a good sleeper. Who knows if I hadn't if she'd be waking a few times each night, or I'd be running into her room 3 times before she finally fell asleep. All I know is it worked. I have given this to 2 friends already as gifts and recommend it to every new friend who becomes pregnant!