Rating: 
Summary: My sanity saver
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend, after my two-week old infant girl was spending most of her daytime hours awake, and getting very-overtired (her eyes looked like match sticks were holding them open), and nothing would settle her to sleep except rocking or singing. Then she would always wake up crying again after a short nap. A few days of this (one day she barely slept in 12 hours!), and I was pulling my hair out. This book may not have all the answers, but it completely changed our house in a few days. I learned how to read her cues BEFORE she was too tired, and to calm her so was ready and able to accept sleep, in her own crib, so I could actually put her down and take a shower while she slept. This was a lifesaver for me. Now, at four weeks, we're still learning, and I will be reading more books, as she still occasionally needs up to half an hour of help before falling asleep for a nap, but at least she always naps for 2-3 good long naps a day (a few hours each), and she even wakes up smiling instead of cranky all the time. Sometimes now I can even just put her in her crib and walk out, and when I check back in, she's asleep. No crying at all! It's so much easier to appreciate your beautiful baby when you see a smile and some nice nap time. This book gave us some immediate specific strategies, and taught us how to keep a little log of her feed and eat times, so we could figure out what she was doing. It was extremely helpful in our case, and I would recommend it to any other mothers who have "fussy" babies (our doctor called it colic, but she's so easily soothed now that I think she just gets overstimulated and overtired easily). Perhaps once you already know how to recognize the different cries and states of your infant, then this book isn't as necessary. It was perfect for me, and we're now ready to read some of the other books and keep learning, as I do get a bit tired of the strategy of going it to settle her every time she cries now. Anyway, it worked wonders for us this month. Thank you Tracy!
Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: Being a new mom this book was very helpful to me. I felt it was less legalistic than some of the other books I had read (example - Becoming Babywise). However, it offered some great tips on understanding my newborn. She has a chart in there that describes the connection between certain physical signs and what the baby is saying. For example when baby arches her back, it means she is tired. I refered to this chart more than once a day. It was amazing how true it was. It helped me catch what my daughter needed before she became frustrated. She also had a wonderful tool that helped me teach my baby how to fall asleep on her own. I had seen other tools that do this, but hers added extra steps to calm my daughter - so she wouldn't go to bed screaming. It worked great! And my daughter and I learned so much that she started falling asleep on her own within 5 minutes of putting her down and she was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. I recommend this to any new mom -in fact I am purchasing it for a baby shower gift!
Rating: 
Summary: Some good, some just plain odd, advice
Review: This book came highly recommended to me, but I must admit I found it odd and inconsitent. The author is against nursing your baby to sleep (not an uncommon piece of advice) but advises *holding the baby's mouth shut* to discourage him. If that isn't the most bizarre thing I've read in a baby book, I don't know what is. On the positive side, she gives some interesting tips about reading your babies moods and trying to figure out what s/he really needs. Before buying this one, I'd check it out from the library to see if there's something worthwhile in it for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Money
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. Much of the breastfeeding information is false and can easily lead mothers down the road of insufficient supply due to scheduling. It's Ezzo wrapped in a slightly more palatable package. My advice? Skip it.
Rating:
Summary: A several page essay could express the same
Review: This book was less than "average". However, this is a book that I believe to be written for the parents who are in need of immediate assistance in parenting their newborns. The book was a waste of my precious time. As all new parents can relate- they don't have time as they bring their newborns home, experience sleep deprivation, heal from the labor and feed every 2-3 hours. The content in the book was basic common sense or information I had already learned from birth classes offered at my hospital during pregnancy. It was a waste of my time and money to read 276 pages that could have been summarized in a few page essay.
Rating: 
Summary: A several page essay could express the same
Review: This book was "average". However, this is a book that I believe to be written for the parents who are in need with assistance in parenting their newborns. The book was a waste of my precious time. As all new parents can relate- they don't have time as they bring their newborns home, experience sleep deprivation, heal from the labor and feed every 2-3 hours. The content in the book was basic common sense or information I had already learned from birth classes offered at my hospital during pregnancy. It was a waste of my time and money to read 276 pages that could have been summarized in a few page essay.
Rating:
Summary: Please don't follow the sleeping/ feeding schedule
Review: New borns should NOT be put on a sleeping/feeding schedule, as this book suggests. Many babies are being admitted to the emergency room for dehydration, because parents are following this advice and let their babies oversleep and postpone feeding. New borns cannot wake themselves all the time, thus miss important meals. I understand the publisher will not print this book again.
Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs down
Review: This book is positively awful. The whole book has a very condescending tone and the author thinks she is an expert but she is just a nanny with no professional training. She's not a doctor or a sleep or breastfeeding expert. To top it off, she writes in this book with an attitude that parents are stupid and they can't figure out what their baby needs without her help. I regret ever reading this book and trying to implement her ideas with my poor high needs baby. What he really needed was instinctive parenting with AP emphasis to thrive. I'm glad I read the other baby book I recieved as a gift-The Baby Book by Dr. Sears. It was a lifesaver.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth every penny- saved my sanity and helped many friends
Review: I have reccommended this book to all my new mom friends. This book saved me and my baby from insanity. I have a "Touchy" baby who was not easy the first 3 months, but after following Tracy's techniques my son has been and continues to be an excellent sleeper. All advice in this book was uselful from breastfeeding to taking care of the caregiver, or MOM. This was my bible and I have heard nothing but praise about it from each person who I have been able to pass it on to. Use it as a guide. I had this and many books, but this one helped me the most. Everyone is different and every baby is different. Trust in your instinct and this book will give you the knowledge to go along with that.
Rating:
Summary: Completely useless advice if you have a post-colicky baby
Review: I received this book as a gift and I eagerly read it, out of desperation. We had a three-and-a-half-month old baby who was clearly exhausted and was fussing and crying all day and night (waking up every other hour). This book's advice did not work at all, and actually upset our baby more, so he was even more worked up than he would have been if we had simply left him alone to cry it out. What Tracy Hogg claimed to be a more humane method was actually much much worse. For example, Hogg advocates for night crying to pick the baby up, comfort him until he stops crying, then put him back down. If he cries again, repeat. Up to hundreds of times per night. This just kept our baby awake and made him more fussy, not just at night, but also the next day. We were helped much more by "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. Among other things, it points out that for "easy" babies, basically any parenting technique will work. Hence, it's easy for people like Hogg to believe they have a gift, or special technique, etc. It's the colicky kids that are tough.
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