Rating: 
Summary: The most helpful book on naps ever
Review: This book was recommended to me by a woman with three children who told me she finally got it right. I tried his methods when my son was 5 months old and they worked. We struggled through naps and crying but within a week, we both emerged alive and well! I still refer to it for reference when sleep becomes an issue. It also was the only book that did not punish the nursing mother and addressed the differences between bottle and breastfed babies. A must read
Rating:
Summary: For the sleep deprived parent and child
Review: I have three kids and used this book with all of them. I also used his first book, Crybabies. I found his ideas to work every time. In reading other reviews I see some found his methods to be too harsh, but I completely disagree. It's simply a way of teaching your baby to put him/herself to sleep. All babies are different; some can be more resistant than others. Now that my kids are older--17, 14 and 6--I realize the way they took to the sleep training was extremely indicative of their personality later on. It can be difficult to let your baby cry, but it can save your sanity and your baby will be much happier.
Rating:
Summary: Your baby needs sleep--and so do you!
Review: Sleep, precious sleep. I am truly amazed at how quickly our 6-month old daughter learned to sleep on her own. Last week, she was in our bed with me. My husband was in the guest room and I wasn't getting very much sleep at all. She would wake up several times a night searching for my breast in order to fall back asleep. I would have to quickly wriggle my boob out from under my Tshirt and scoot over to her with my shoulder tweaked out from lying on one side too long. Sometimes the boob wouldn't work either. She'd be nudged out of her sleep as I struggled to get comfortable and my husband would come in and rock her to sleep. He'd get her to sleep and just as he was putting her into bed with me, she'd wake up again and we'd have to start the whole process over.All that has changed now. We read the book and began to follow the process of "training" our baby to sleep in her crib, by herself. My husband had to leave on a business trip/bachelor weekend in New Orleans and I was left to "train" our daughter by myself. The first night was the most traumatic. She cried for an hour and so did I. I called my Mom and cried asking her if my baby was going to be scared for the rest of her life to sleep by herself. She reassured me that my baby just wanted her way-to be back in bed with me. Slowly, her crying became less intense. When I didn't hear anything after that horrible hour I thought, "My God, she's died!" But in fact, she was sound asleep and looking as peaceful as an angel. That was six nights ago. Now we have our routine down: eat, bath, read, nurse, and to the crib. Sometimes she whimpers but most of the time she just rolls over and sleeps. It's truly amazing! I used to not believe that you could ever put a baby down in a crib awake and she would go to sleep on her own, but she does now. This book is great and it really works. You just need to realize that your baby needs sleep--and so do you!
Rating:
Summary: On Baby #2 now and still pleased
Review: I'll try to keep this short and sweet. I realize a lot of people out there see this book as cruel. Let me share what I have learned from it in addition to using MY God given maternal instict: 1)Sleep is extremely important for babies and some need help acheiving it. They DO need to learn to put themselves to sleep in order to prevent future sleep problems and UNPREVENTABLE crying at night. (I have a friend who would never have dreamt of using this book and she now HAS to listen to her 2 year old scream before falling alsleep at night because she has a new baby and can no longer rock and sing the older one to sleep - she knows he's tired but he doesn't know how to lie down and fall asleep! HOW IRONIC :-))I would rather a baby cry a little for a few days early on than every night for 2 years or more. 2)Don't skip naps. A tired child has a hard time going to sleep at night - and none of us want our child to "cry it out" because we had errands to do all day. 3) I love the advice of a nap 1 hour after waking in the morning. My babies fall asleep peacefully and happily and get a good nap. They are "Happy" and cheerful babies. 4)I like the bedtime ritual. After dinner, bath, books and prayers my babies know its bedtime and expect to fall alseep. 5)I have many more positives but I will just end with:
My children are happy, loved, outgoing, and very secure. I am there instantly in the case of nightmares or other disturbing cries but I don't run to their room for every moan or sigh. I am a better mother by day because I get to sleep at night I have never and would never do anything cruel or inhumane to my children. I highly recommend this book. I have 2 kids that are living proof that it works.
Rating: 
Summary: BEWARE- Baby Training at it's worst!!!
Review: This book is NOT for all the compassionate parents out there who believe an infant deserves RESPECT. What this guy recommends is child abuse - no time limit on crying at night! The sleep research in this book is worth reading. He is right on target with the science behind sleep, but the techniques he recommends to get a child to sleep are disgusting.
Rating: 
Summary: This book made the difference
Review: This book was integral in helping us get our daughter to get to sleep at night and have normal naptimes during the day. Because of this book we have a doaughter who sleeps through the night and naps well since 9 weeks. His comments about newborns and babies to the age of 3-4 months not needing to be awake more than 2 hours at any stretch was the most important thnig I got from the book and once I built her schedule around this part, things fell into place. We are very aware of her sleepiness isgnals and know how much she needs her naps and we maek sure she gets them. The hardest part about this book is he does not really give step by step guidance- like it takes a lot of reading and searching to get particular points answered that you want to review- I needed to figure out what constitutd a good nap- it took me too long to find out in here. Sometimes his "how to" advise is not located in the logical place. But I recommend this book to all new parents!!!!
Sleep is your friend and more sleep = more sleep if you can do it correctly!!
Rating:
Summary: This was the best sleep book I read!
Review: I am updating this review now that my daughter is 7 months. Our daughter is now sleeping 11-12 hours a night. She goes to bed between 6 and 7 and sleeps until 6 and 7. Again, this isn't convenient for families where both parents work, but the KEY is reading your child's signals, earlier bedtimes and naps. I recommend it to any new parent! I was recommended this book by a friend who started to sleep train their daughter at 5 months. My daughter is 4 and 1/2 months and although is a pretty good sleeper, I was wanting to read something to help her become an even better sleeper. This book makes sense! I was glad to finally hear how and why babies sleep and why they need sleep! It gave biological reasons that explain how sleep really affects babies, and how they behave. We are getting her on a nap schedule (still in her swing - one thing at a time!) but she is going to bed earlier and it works. Last night she went down at 6:15 and I heard her around midnight and went in and turned on her fish aquarium in her crib and she fell back asleep until 3:00. I fed her at 3:00 and she fell right back to sleep until 6:45! I always thought keeping them up later would make them sleep later and it's the opposite. The key to this is how important naps are to help nighttime sleep, and getting used to an earlier bedtime. Also, it's OK if your baby cries. They are not going to be tramautized by this. The crying means they are tired and they need to do it sometimes in order to fall asleep. My baby woke up this morning with a beaming smile so I know she didn't hate me! This book would not work for people who don't get home until later in the evening, or people who are totally anti the "crying it out." I didn't think I could do it, but this book reassures that it's ok. This guy knows what he is talkig about. He's studied this for years and has 4 sons. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Sleep, baby, sleep!
Review: Sleep...I desperately needed a book to guide me as a new mom. I read many (all of the popular ones), but none provided as much insight into the sleeping patterns of children as this one. A step-by-step guide to getting your baby on regular naps and a good sleeping schedule at night. Provides you with detailed information of why sleep is so important for babies, toddles, children, and teens. You MUST be willing to put forth the practices it advocates and adhere to a schedule for your child. If you want to run errands all day with your 6 month old, and you are wondering WHY they aren't sleeping through the night, then you may want to alter your lifestyle before you buy this book. My son is 8 months old....sleeps a solid 12 hours each night and takes two naps a day...2 hours each. I commend Dr. Weissbluth for offering such practical advice. It all makes sense to me now! SLEEP RULES!
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must-have for sleep deprived parents!
Review: My first daughter, Ryan, spent the first nine months of her life seeing on how little sleep a baby--and, therefore, her parents--could survive on. In desperation, I picked up Weissbluth's book based upon a recommendation from my pediatrician, and it changed our lives almost immediately by teaching us how to approach naptime and bedtime parenting, as well as how important it is to make sure that children are on a good and healthy sleep schedule. As a bonus, once Ryan was established on Weissbluth's methods, her naptimes and bedtimes were anticipated--maybe even looked forward to?--by her and we never had to resort to "cry-it-out" methods in order to get her to sleep. Now nearly 2, Ryan is a happy and healthy child, and I attribute most of that to Dr. Weissbluth. The best part of all? The lessons learned from Weissbluth's book have helped me keep my 4 month old on a healthy and hassle-free sleep routine since the day he was born. None of us has lost any sleep since his arrival, and we are cherishing his infanthood so much more than we did Ryan's, which dragged by in a sleep-deprived haze with way too much crying from both her and us! I have recommended this book to many parents over the past year, and all have benefitted tremendously from Dr. Weissbluth's theories. It's a must-read not only for us parents who are up for 3 hours in the middle of the night with a 6+ month old baby, but for ALL parents who should be learning more about the importance of sleep and the effects of sleep deprivation on their children.
Rating:
Summary: Take what's useful and let your common sense guide you
Review: This book has a couple of really good things going for it, and a number of not-so-good. I recommend it as a very useful tool provided you use your common sense when you do (and who would blindly follow what ANYBODY told them to do anyway??) Good points: He provides an excellent understanding of the sleep patterns of babies and children. The best thing about this book is that it helped me predict with almost 100% accuracy when my children (baby and pre-schooler) were ready to go to sleep and would therefore do so quite happily. He also passes on the number one piece of sleep advice that ALL knowledgable people in the field will tell you: your child MUST go to bed under the same circumstances that he/she will discover when he/she wakes briefly during the night. So...if the kid goes to sleep with music playing, the door open, and the night light on, these conditions must persist throughout the night or the kid will be disturbed when they have a partial awakening and find the environment changed and will have a hard time going back to sleep. For this reason it is essential that the child NOT go to sleep with you standing over it unless you're planning to be there all night! We used to read my 3 1/2 year old to sleep every night and he would wake up and cry hysterically for mommy or daddy at 3 am several times a week and when we made the simple change of having him fall asleep without us in the room (we would wait until he was very tired and then say something like "mommy just has to go to the bathroom for a minute" and then leave) this completely stopped. As a result of this book I never stay with our six-month when he falls alseep and he sleeps 11 hours straight through the night and naps like a log. BAD POINTS: The books is very badly edited and makes the same points over and over again. You have to read a section about 6 times before you fully take in the important points since they're all mixed in with a lot of repetitive babble. Tight editing and "key points" lists could have eliminated this. The book describes it self as a "step by step" guide, but you're going to have to figure out the steps yourself! Also, I for one get nothing out of long anecdotes intended to prove a point. Anecdotes prove nothing, so keep them few and far between. The guy is obsessed with early bedtimes as the cure for everything -- and that means before 8 pm. Hey -- babies can't tell time! What happens when daylight savings begins? Your baby who was going to bed at 8 is now going to bed at 9, and suddenly his sleep gets ruined? "Early" with respect to what? Daylight? Arbitrary clock time? Family activities? . Strangely, for a guy who seems to have pretty "strict" ideas about sleep, Weissbluth states that babies need one (or TWO!) feedings a night until almost 9 months. In fact, by six months virtually ALL babies can sleep through the night without night-time feedings. They eat because they're conditioned to wake up and eat at a certain time. You can stop this easily in just a couple days, but you wouldn't even try if the only book you read was Weisbluth's and you didn't know any better. Final caveat: Weisbluth is right that you can't let a little whining prevent you from acting reasonably and it's very possible that, for example, when you put your baby down for a nap, he may whine for 5 minutes before falling to sleep. The bigger deal you make of it the more you are going to teach HIM to make a big deal of it. BUT there is a BIG difference between five minutes of whining and 20 minutes of hysteria. NO baby should EVER be ignored when it is crying in a paniced hysterical manner. If you have let the situation get screwed up to this point, you need to back off and start from square one. Keep your kid awake and out of his bed the next night until he is really tired. (Weisbluth would tell you that you should put him to bed EARLIER otherwise he'll be "too tired" to sleep. Hogwash!!) Put him down in bed and (if he is old enough to require it) make an excuse to leave briefly. Next night do this 15 minutes earlier, etc. until the kid can go to bed at a decent bedtime with no crying. It works!
| 
