Rating: 
Summary: Saved my sanity!!!
Review: My 5 month old son was waking anywhere from 4 to 8 times a night. I am absolutely against letting him cry-it-out, but was at my wits end. The sleep deprivation was affecting every aspect of my life, I was getting sick and cranky. This book literally saved my sanity. Beginning the first night with the Gentle Removals, he woke only 4 times. We fine-tuned our bedtime routine and began working. The process takes time and patience, but it has been 20 nights now, and we are down to one waking a night for only 15 minutes or so. His long sleep stretch is about 5 hours. This is a three steps forward, two steps back approach, but it works. I absolutely recommend this book to those of you out there whose bodies literally crave sleep, but who are not yet desperate enough to make your baby cry to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: A Dream Come True
Review: This book is really a dream come true for the sleep deprived family! Elizabeth presents a clear plan with plenty of choices that are sensitive to the needs of babies and parents. The information given is practical and validates any parenting choices you have made, rather than judging them. Her own stories about her son, as well as those of her test mommies encourage you to stick with the program by showing you light at the end of the tunnel, while also showing you that you are not alone. Regardless of if your child sleeps in a crib, co-sleeps with you, or is a current co-sleeper that you are trying to get into a crib, there are plenty of individualized tips for each scenario, as well as age specific tips.
This book reaffirmed to me that crying it out is cruel for everyone, and presents a clear and feasible plan to help baby (and mommy) get 10-12 hours sleep nightly without caving to the pressures of the cry-it-out camp. It is a wonderful and caring aid for the family.
Rating:
Summary: Sleep Deprived No More!!
Review: 10 days ago, I was pulling my hair out trying to get my son to sleep. I thought I was going crazy. At six months, he was sleeping only 8 hours per day...almost all of them were at night - no naps. I was at the end of my rope when I bought Elizabeth's book. In 10 short days, I went from being sleep deprived to well rested by using several steps from her wonderful, practical book. My son is now sleeping 14-15 hours per day including 3-4 hours of naps during the day. Because of the great advice and the practical plans set forth in this book, I am able to put my son to bed with confidence that both of us are going to get a great night's rest. WITH NO CRYING IT OUT. I couldn't be happier and when mama's happy, everyone's happy!
Rating: 
Summary: Yet another "expert" who's never met *my* kid!
Review: Pantley has a number of good ideas for parents to try to help their baby sleep.But Pantley has obviously never met my kid, a 12 mo old baby girl. These didn't work for her. I don't believe they're bad ideas, they're just not suited for my child. I gave this book 3 stars, because I do believe that it's best to try everything else before resorting to a cry-it-out approach. This book contains a good collection of ideas that fit into that category: everything but crying it out. I only gave the book 3 stars, because Pantley states repeatedly that her ideas *will* (she often adds italics) work for the readers' baby, given enough time. That's ridiculous. Nothing works for every baby, as evidenced by my kid's reaction to her ideas. For example, my daughter had a very strong breastfeeding to sleep association. Pantley promotes her "gentle removal plan" to help with this problem. The gentle removal plan involves Mom removing the breast from Baby's mouth before Baby falls asleep. If Baby fusses or cries, Mom puts Baby back on the breast and tries again in a few seconds (or minutes, up to Mom's discretion.) Mom and Baby do this over and over again until Baby falls asleep, but not on the breast. Over a few nights, Mom is supposed to notice the removals are easier. Not in our case! We went from a minute or so of calm before the fussing started to instant, red-faced screaming as soon as the breast was removed. In hindsight, it makes sense. I'm not dealing with a little 4 month old. I'm dealing with a one year old. She knows what's up. She's beginning to learn that screaming is a way she can get what she wants. This is a battle moms fight with toddlers, or budding toddlers like mine, every day. So, why use a sleep plan which involves giving in to the crying?! Retrospectively, I can see why this didn't work for us; in fact it may have been counter-productive. Here is the bottom line: If you are desperate for ideas to help your child sleep through the night, without letting him/her "cry it out," then you may find this book helpful. There are many ideas here. However, keep in mind that nothing, no parenting philosophy, no sleep plan, works for every child.
Rating:
Summary: A true gem
Review: I was able to wean my child at 2.5 years of age, but continue to co-sleep. It was an excellent option to cry it out, and I had to do this to try to get pregnant again. Well I'm writing this one year later 7.5 mos. pregnant and have to say without this book I don't know if I would be so blessed. E. Pantley is a mothering goddess.
Rating:
Summary: Miraculous
Review: I was a completely sleep deprived new mom. My son was waking up every single hour and crying out for his pacifier. After reading The No Cry Sleep Solution I was able to identify what the problem was and I was given a practical, yet loving solution. For the past 2 weeks my son has slept anywhere from 6-8 hours straight! I wish I had bought this book before a problem arose. I would have known what things to look out for and how to prevent certain issues from starting. It can get better!
Rating:
Summary: Sleep Deprived No More!!
Review: After 8 weeks of not sleeping and being up every two hours with my six month old, I thought I was going to lose my mind. It became abdundantly clear to me why the military uses sleep deprivation as a form of torture! Then I got Elizabeth's book. Using five simple steps, including blacking out my son's room, running a fan for white noise in his room while he slept, paying close attention to his "I'm sleepy" cues, using a key phrase when he did wake in the night ("shh shh nighty night" in my case) starting our bedtime routine an hour and a half earlier and putting his crib mattress on the floor so that I could easily slip and slip out to breastfeed him in the night, I went from sleep deprived to WELL RESTED in 10 days. My son was getting approximately 8.5 hours of sleep per day before I read The No Cry Sleep Solution (it's recommended that babies his age get 14-15 hours - another thing I learned from Elizabeth's book!) and now he is napping for 3-4 hours per day and sleeping with only one waking (to feed) from 8 at night until 7 in the morning. I feel like a new woman. And the best part of all...he didn't have to cry it out once. This is a wonderful book. It presents a loving, caring, practical approach to help sleep deprived moms like me get back to being well rested...which makes me a better parent.
Rating:
Summary: It's work, but it works
Review: I have a four-month-old, extremely active baby boy who three weeks ago was waking up every one to three hours and would frequently not go back to sleep without being cuddled on someone's chest for at least ten minutes. We chose a few suggestions from this book (earlier bedtime, bedtime routine, white noise, and, most importantly, put down repeatedly not quite asleep even though it means you'll have to pick him up a few times before he really falls asleep), and now he sleeps 7-8 hours, wakes to nurse, and goes right back to sleep for another 4. And, most encouraging, we've observed him to start to wake up and be able to fall back to sleep on his own. I agree with a previous reviewer that most of the advice in this book is stuff that you've probably read in the one or two paragraphs dedicated to sleep in your general baby book (or, if you have more sense than me, find to be common sense). The benefit of this book to me was as a tool to help me get serious about solving the problem and an encouragement to help us through the first nights of the program, since it can really get a lot worse before it gets better. The first few nights, our baby woke up as often as he had been, but it took us 45 minutes or more to get him back to sleep instead of the usual 10, since we were putting him down before letting him drop off completely. If it hadn't been for all the testimonials that this stuff works eventually (here and in the book itself), I might have given up. I also liked that Elizabeth Pantley is sympathetic to things parents might go through in helping their babies learn to fall asleep on their own, like missing the daytime cuddling and starting to worry when the baby starts sleeping for long periods without waking up. There are a couple of places where she gets a little preachy about attachment parenting, but it's easy to ignore if it bothers you.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST book about baby sleep!
Review: My baby went from waking up 10-12 times every night to waking up only once. He never used to nap more than 20 minutes and now he naps 2 hours at a time. What is most amazing is that it happened without any crying. It took a month to happen but when I look back on my baby's life I'll be glad I went this patient and gentle route with him. If you don't want to make your baby cry to sleep then this is absolutely the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Sleep at Last!
Review: It really works! We were desperate and exhausted when we purchased this book as our son was waking every hour and within a week our son was sleeping 12 hours. It has completely transformed our lives. We've gone from dreading bedtime to looking forward to it. There is hope in this book for parents whose babies are waking nightly so please don't suffer when there is a book like this to turn to!
|
