Rating: 
Summary: Great for all sleep deprived parents!
Review: I bought this book because I was a very sleep deprived parent who was willing to try just about anything. I did not believe in crying it out, but not 100% against crying. My baby was 4 months old when I bought this book and was waking every 1-2 hours at night. I have a job that robs me of sleep so I was a zombie. I sarted using the techniques and slowly began to see improvement. the techniques are easy and not times consuming. It was not an over night solutions but within 2 months i saw some great sleep changes and after 4 months my baby was sleeping through the night every night. 12 fantastic hours of sleep without waking.
I recommend this book to any parent who need some ideas for sleep solutions that are built around love and support of your baby.
This is a WONDERFUL book!
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Summary: Mommies Know Best!
Review: Words cannot alone express how much the gentle advice of this warm, informative book has enriched my life and benefited my two young daughters. New mommies often feel intimidated by "theories" and "expert advice"...this book encourages moms to listen to their hearts and provide for their babies in a gentle, safe and loving way.
Elizabeth provides the reader with a variety of useful techniques from a mother's point of view. I NEVER thought I would ever call my first-born, co-sleeping, full-time nurser a "good" sleeper...but, because of Elizabeth, we now have truly peaceful nights.
This book will speak to your heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Parenting Does Take Patience!
Review: I have to add my 2 cents... let me say first, that on one particularly tiring night I tossed this book across the room in frustration (no, not at my child!). It all seemed so abstract. And, it sort of is. However, while I absolutely do not judge anyone who has used the "cry it out" method", (hey, my own mom did it, and she's the best mom I know!) and I can see that it can produce quick and effective results, and it is doubtful there is any long-term emotional effect... I just could not do it. I've heard the advice over & over & over & over from everyone from nosy acquaintances to my pediatrician. I made it about 5 minutes a few times, and that's all I could stand- so I decided I was too wishy-washy to even consider it. And, my little girl has chronic nasal congestion, so it really did seem quite inhumane to allow her to cry at length.
SO, what to do with a 9 month old, who slept like a dream her first few months of life, and slept for 12 straight hours as recently as 7 months old...but over the past 2 months cannot seem to stay asleep more than 2 hours, and CANNOT go down into the crib awake. The latter is probably partly because I did nurse her to sleep on a regular basis- and probably still would be if she would still fall asleep nursing! But I can see where this has created a problem. And her bedtime "routine" (of me getting her to sleep, that is) had become insanely long and frustrating, and she would sometimes cry for over an hour, even in my arms.
Well, I have begun applying the principles Ms. Pantley puts forth. They are simple enough, really (and you don't need to read every page and word... you can skim the book and get the ideas you need). And last night I had the best night of sleep I have had in weeks and weeks. And today, my mom is taking care of her for me, and just called to say my baby had gone down for her morning nap AWAKE in the crib, with just 15 minutes of babbling before drifting off, and NO CRYING. This is HUGE!!! And I know some of you know what I mean.
I credit this book with encouraging me to persist, if nothing else. While a friend has told me about how she let each of her daughters learn to sleep through crying (one for FIVE HOURS!), and promised me that would work if I could just stick w/ it for 3 nights, I must say I am highly in favor of the long-term plan. Instead, I have to do just one step for a few nights, and then move to another step. It is tedious, and it takes patience. But doesn't parenting take patience?? My friend told me I was taking the easy way out, and that I wasn't stepping up to the plate as a parent... is she KIDDING?! This is NOT easy. It is work. It takes a plan, it takes persistence, and it takes patience. But it is so worth it! Hang in there sleepless parents, and look to Elizabeth Pantley for wonderful, balanced advice that you can tailor to your own child's needs.
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Summary: Prove the Cry-It-Out method people wrong!!!
Review: My husband and I both work full time. Our son is overall a well rounded baby (personality not body shape). Yes he's fussy, demanding, extremely active (and I do mean extremely), but he's also happy; laughing and smiling all the time. Right now, he wants to be held all the time and some days he's clingy and some days he's not. Bedtime was such a battle. He was fussy, squirmy and pretty much fought his sleep each time I put him down. It would take about an hour to get him to sleep just to wake up again 2 hours later.1-2 weeks after reading the book, my 8 mos old, who sleep-shared with my husband and I since he was born, started to learn to fall asleep on his own without needing a bottle or to be nursed. The bedtime routine we established (that didn't work before) is now working through the help of the No Cry Sleep Solution book. It was wonderful to put him down still awake and watch him fall asleep without a fight. 3-4 weeks after reading the book, I was able to wean the night feedings. 5-6 weeks after reading the book, I worked on getting him to sleep in his crib. Doing what the book recommended, I set up his environment to what he was used to in our bed. I put him in....and to my surprise, HE DID NOT FIGHT ME. I watched him fall asleep (which was all of 2 minutes) and he stayed asleep all through the night. On weekends, he would wake up in the morning and just sit in his crib and play with his toys. I know because I can hear him playing and the toy jingling through the monitor. Sure he wakes up sometime during the night, but with only a short whimper and he's back asleep even before I walk out of my bedroom (and I am a snap to it mommy...I don't spare a second to go to my baby when he cries). So many people around us thought for sure we were going to have a hard time getting him to sleep in his crib. We have been finger-wagged so many times from friends and family and kept telling us how we should let him cry it out. When my mother-in-law babysat for us a few nights after my son started sleeping in his crib, she couldn't believe how he went to sleep without a fuss and without a peep. She said she put him in and he was so wide awake and just kept looking around she just kissed him goodnight and walked away. She checked up on him 3 minutes later because she didn't hear a peep from him, and she found that he was already asleep. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Mostly because it made sense from the first page to the last, and also because it gave me assurance that me not letting my baby cry himself to sleep is better than the cold cry it out method. Also, sleep-sharing had more rewards short and long term than putting a baby in his own cold crib at 3 months. I am so proud of my son, husband and myself for PROVING EVERYONE WRONG!
Rating:
Summary: A must read if you need sleep!
Review: I just can't say Thank You enough to Elizabeth Pantley! She has brought sleep and rest into our home! I was firmly against letting my boy CIO and was just at my wits end. I read the book and the first night I began to institute her plan it worked! Yes, really! The best part is she offers multiple solutions for you to tailor to your own child. Believe me, one of them will work for you and you too will be on your way to enjoying sleep again.
Rating: 
Summary: not good for seriously exhausted parents.
Review: At 3 months, my son was sleeping 7pm-4am, waking up to feed, then back down until 7-8am. Then the holidays hit, and everything fell apart. Suddenly he was waking up no less than 12-15 times between 10pm-6am. After 10 days of getting less than 4 hours of (interrupted) sleep each night, my husband and I determined we needed to take action to help the poor kid get back on track. We bought three books - Ferber, "Healthy Sleep Habits" and this one.
Of course we wanted to follow the no-cry solution. Who wants to put their child (and themselves) through the misery of cry it out? I truly believed that cry it out was the wrong thing to do and was positive this plan would work. My husband and I committed to the program and agreed we'd follow it "as long as it takes."
It took all of our energy to read the book cover-to-cover, put together a sleep log and then lay out our sleep plan. The author instructs you to have "patience" and to celebrate even the smallest improvements. What she doesn't really acknowledge is that, when serious sleep deprivation has you at each others' throats, weeping hysterically at the drop of a hat and feeling resentful towards your poor innocent baby, "patience" is something nearly impossible to come by.
After 4 weeks of working with our sleep plan - following the guidelines 'round-the-clock - our son was still waking up 6-8 times a night and napping poorly during the day. This was an improvement over waking a dozen times a night, but still he had huge dark circles under his eyes, startled easily, cried at nothing. He was miserable. We all were.
Despite the 300 other reviews here that say basically "if you really love your baby, you won't let him cry it out" ... I LOVE MY BABY. And we finally decided to let him cry it out. And now? Now I have a happy, well-rested baby. And we have our sanity back.
This book has some good ideas. I'm sure that if my son were waking up only 2-4 times a night, I would have been able to stick with the plan as long as necessary to make it work. But when my child was waking up every 45-60 minutes all night long, night after night, I finally decided that - for our entire family's sake - we required a more radical, doctor-approved intervention.
My point in writing this review is not to defend my actions. It's to offer a different viewpoint amongst the crowd and to bear witness for other exhausted parents ... if this doesn't work for you, YOU ARE NOT A BAD OR SELFISH PARENT. Choose the method that fits your situation and follow it to the letter. And congratulations for wanting to help your baby get the restorative sleep he or she desperately needs.
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