Rating: Summary: I've read them all... Review: I've read many of the "sleep solution" books from the never let them cry to let them cry all night long, and this one seems to be the best compromise between the two extremes. My 12 month old was still getting up 8 times a night, but I couldn't bear to let him cry it out, and I wasn't ready to wean him. I was ready to get him from our bed to his crib. This book is by no means an immediate solution, but after two months, he is going down awake into his crib for naps and night without nursing, and is only waking up once, sometimes twice, and he's still improving. The only thing I did differently from what was recommended is that I did tolerate 5 minutes or so of crying in order to get the book recommendations to work, but that was it. MUCH better!
Rating: Summary: Wonderful book! Review: A must read! This book helps you to get into a routine with your baby in a gentle and caring way, and has vast information on sleep. It is the best book I have read yet!
Rating: Summary: The gentle path to sleep Review: If you are a sleep-deprived parent who desperately wants your baby to sleep better but can't face leaving them to "cry it out", then this book is for you. Our son at four months would fight sleep all evening, crash at 10pm, wake hourly during the night to feed, wouldn't nap in the day and was fussy and grizzly. We were at our wits' end. Then we found this book. This was two short months ago. He now has two naps a day in his cot and goes to bed at 7pm. He still sleeps with us in the night, but accepts his cot in the day and in the evenings. No tears have been shed by him or us! The author never claims to have "THE answer", just a list of ideas to help different parenting styles - co-sleepers, cot sleepers, breast-fed, bottle-fed. I could never leave him to cry, but couldn't face the thought of the situation going on endlessly - and here at last is a middle way, gentle ways to help your baby learn for himself how go to sleep on his own and stay asleep all night. And written in simple language for the sleep-starved who have no time to pore over weighty theories! A must-have for sleepless parents.
Rating: Summary: Highly recommended Review: This book deserves to be a huge bestseller, much moreso than some of those other 'baby manuals' written by 'experts'.Elizabeth Pantley writes with compassion and authority without ever seeming overbearing or autocratic.As the mother of four children, two of whom slept well, and two of whom didn't, she is infinitely qualified, in my view, to advise and support other parents. If, like me, you are reaching the end of your tether with a baby or toddler who just doesn't seem to understand that daytime is for feeding and nighttime is for sleeping I strongly urge you to read this book. The most important aspect of this book is that it is written with the utmost respect for parents who desperately need some sleep,but who cannot bear the idea of making their baby 'cry it out'.If you feel there has to be another way, a gentler way to ease your baby and yourself to a more restful night, you have found it. Equally, the author, as far as I can judge, has succeeded in speaking to each parent individually by carefully considering as many different styles of parenting as there are parents. So whether you breastfeed or bottlefeed, co-sleep, cot sleep or nursery sleep, Elizabeth Pantley has useful, workable, supportive solutions to severe sleep-deprivation. There is even a really encouraging section for parents like me, whose baby doesn't immediately start to sleep through. I found this really helpful, because it gave me the necessary encouragement to carry on trying the different suggestions and find one that suited us. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Rating: Summary: Compassionate and friendly ideas that work! Review: I bought this book and read it while pregnant. My mother had let us children cry ourselves to sleep; my sister did the same with her children. I knew I would not do that for my baby. Being a first time mom and not knowing much of anything, this book gave me the confidence that I would be able to love and care for my baby and help her have a good night's sleep. It wasn't until she was 2 months old that we implemented the bedtime routine. At that point, she was waking every two hours to breastfeed. We estabished a bedtime of 7 p.m. and she worked up to just waking at midnight, 2, 4, and 6 and from there just 2, 4, and 6, then 4 and 6, and now she goes down around 7 p.m. and I actually have to wake her some mornings at 6:30 a.m. to breastfeed. Babies really do need a lot of sleep -- I had friends scoff at a 7:00 bedtime, but it has worked wonders. Other than that, the book is just wonderful and is written with compassionate and friendliness. You can take what you need from this book and build your confidence in yourself.
Rating: Summary: Helpful, Even for Sleeping Babies Review: We picked up this book to try and find ways to move our baby, Isabella, from our bed to her crib in her room. We had tried unsuccesfully in the past and it was a nightmare. But if we kept her in our bed, she was fine. So the choice was let her scream for hours in her crib - recommended by some, or letting her sleep with us and we all get rest. No hard decision there. But after we had all recovered from our sleep deprivation, we realized we still would like her in her own crib. We all sleep better with more space. However, we were back to the same problem as before with no real solutions. Until we found this book. We began Isabella on a better and more concrete nighttime routine which meant she slept more. Then we began with the same, but shorter routine for her naps. I can't believe I am going to say this, but she now ENJOYS going to sleep and taking naps. Guess where? In her crib! Well, for her naps anyway. She is still with us for the nighttime, but we are moving her there at night soon as she is in too much danger on our bed. I highly recommend this book. It is down to earth with realistic goals and expectations for yourself (important, though we didn't know it), and is helpful even for babies who are sleeping.
Rating: Summary: Sleep at last!!!! Review: This was the best book on babys sleep I have ever read and I have read about 10 diffrent books. I just wish it was the first book I read instead of the last. This is the only book that actually fixed our problems and with NO mommy quilt!! The author speaks with compassion, support and experience. Very easy to read and follow. I will be buying all her books!!
Rating: Summary: Relief at last Review: My son Jacob was for much of his life a non-sleeper. At his worst it took 2 hours to get him down for the night and I more than once logged 12 wakeups in the course of a single night. Most advice books out there offer little more than variations on "cry it out". Being given E. Pantley's book was like being thrown a life line. She both "got" the seriousness of the problem and respected the values of an attachment approach to parenting. She offered a philosophical framework for thinking about sleep issues and practical methods of moving a child towards healthy sleep. Where many gentle sleep books are long on theory and good intentions, Ms Pantley gives concrete ways to improve a child's sleep whether you co-sleep or use a crib, breastfeed or bottle feed. With time our bedtime routine is now a short and happy one and Jacob sleeps.
Rating: Summary: Finally - Good help at last! Review: My "high-needs" son, at 10-months, was still waking up 3 times a night. I found the "crying out" method recommended by so many doctors, books and other moms cruel and traumatizing for both him and me. No one I knew had any other solutions. It was either "cry it out" or do nothing and accept it. I was ready to accept the fact that we would never get a complete nights rest when I happened upon this wonderful book. I highly recommend this very gentle book! It doesn't happen overnight but compared to the other method its magic. My son has been sleeping from 8:30 pm to 8:00 am every night for almost two months. He has regular naps and is so much happier AND I feel like a better mother because I'm rested too!
Rating: Summary: Babies Grow and Parents Sleep Review: This is an excellent book and much not like the mainstream of crying it out or setting the rules in stone never to be broken scenerio. It's an in-between that is fair to both baby and parent. Of course, as all parents know, as baby grows so can the sleeping time for parents. The first part of the book is not really necessary on the sleeping positions of babies and the reasoning behind the "on the back" theory - at least not to be repeated over and over. Anyway you look at it, it is a remarkable sleep guide for most families. Also recommended: Mommy-CEO (Constantly Evaluating Others) 5 Golden Rules, by family columnist and mom, Jodie Lynn. Elizabeth will tell you how to get your baby to learn how to sleep so you can too and Jodie will tell you what to do from colic to potty training straight through to preschool and elementary homework. Both authors are well educated in day to day real life routines and both have made our lives much better. We actually now have energy for the other nine-thousand challenges involved in having kids.
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