Rating: 
Summary: Not my favorite
Review: As I am a complete research fiend, I got every book on sleep when trying to figure out how to get my baby to sleep through the night. It seems that most of them are contradictory with each other -- you could never use all the theories, so you have to pick and choose what works for you. I could never do the "let the baby cry it out" thing... I didn't particularly agree with the methods outlined in this book...
Rating: 
Summary: a lifesaver
Review: I thought this book was excellent! My daughter is 2 years old and has only slept all night, maybe 10 nights. I thought moving her from her crib to a big bed would help. So, down with the crib up with a queen size bed. And the nights of crawling out of bed began. I work full time so it was just easier for me to sleep with her and get some rest myself. Well needless to say this wasn't a good idea. I bought this book and everything Jodi talked about in the book was so true to life for me. The first night of putting my daughter to sleep took about an hour, second night 10 minutes, and after that no problem at all. She is even sleeping all night long. Wow! I should have bought this book a year ago.
Rating:
Summary: It did work over night for us!
Review: The 1st night I tried this method with my 5 month old, she cried 13 min. before falling asleep, & woke once during the night. She cried for 55 min. & I went to her every 5 min. during the night waking. Since that first night she has pretty much been sleeping 10-12 hours a night. She may cry 10 min. at bed time one night & not at all the next. Night waking are very rare & she almost always puts herself back to sleep. One thing that I found extremely helpful was to keep a timer next to my bed. If she wakes, I set the timer for 5 min. & turn the monitor off so I don't have to endure her crying. When the timer goes off I turn the monitor back on. If she's still crying I go to her, but typically she soothes herself back to sleep. One other thing I did that wasn't mentioned much in the book was get rid of her pacifier. Through Mindell's sleep assocation theory I realized that she was waking during the night because she lost her pacifier & needed me to put it back in for her. After the 1st few nights she didn't seem to miss the pacifier. I highly recommend giving this book a try. I gave "Baby Wise" a try & it was a flop for us. I really expected getting our daughter to sleep to be a much more difficult & lengthy process, but got a pleasant surprise instead.
Rating:
Summary: Well rested!
Review: This book is great! My husband and I have taken all of Dr. Mindells advice and have a 16 month old daughter that sleeps from 8pm - 7:30 am daily! We started following Dr. Mindell'a advice when she was 10 weeks old and we weren't getting much sleep. It immediately changed our lives for the better. We continue to refer to the book for on-going issues that come up that sometimes disrupt her sleep. I recommend it to everyone I know.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed with author's coverage of night waking -
Review: I waited to review this book because I really wanted to give it a try. It has been more than 3 months, and I followed Dr. Mindell's plan faithfully. While my extremely strong-willed 9 month old has gotten better about sleeping, she has not magically learned to soothe herself back to sleep at 3 or 4 am. After setting the plan in motion, she naps during the day like a champ, has a set bedtime, bedtime routine and goes to sleep like a charm (though I must admit that occasionally she cries for up to 15 mins. before falling asleep) Unfortunately, I cannot report that her learning to fall asleep on her own at naptime and bedtime has resulted in her sleeping through the night. My daughter sleeps through the night about 3x a week on average (meaning she goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes at 7am) The rest of the time she wakes between 2 and 4 am screaming - sometimes incolsolably. I've never been able to figure out why, and it is often very difficult to get her back to sleep. At our wits end, we have let her cry it out (which is very difficult). She has cried it out in the wee hours for more than an hour for 2 weeks straight - never seeming to relent in the length of time it takes her to stop crying. Obviously, she does fall asleep eventually (probably from exhaustion). We are exhausted too! Unfortunately, Dr. Mindell's book does not address what to do when your child has an iron will and is still waking in the middle of the night despite following the plan. (She seems too young for it to be night terrors). If you have a particularly strong-willed child, this book may not provide enough information to cure the sleep problem. All that being said, this book is well written, extremely informative, and logical. I found it very helpful in theory, but the plan did not transform my baby into a "sleep through the nighter." My baby must have fallen into the 20% that does not learn to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night despite using Dr. Mindell's method.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Upsetting Book
Review: If you do not believe in letting your baby cry herself to sleep, do not buy this book. I have read everything from Dr. Sears to this woman, Mindell, and she is the worst. She devotes an entire page to vomiting and explains how the baby does this to manipulate the parents. She even goes on to say that some enjoy vomiting! What kind of helpful information is that? It seems like child abuse to me and hopefully to other parents too. These are babies we are talking about, not dogs, although I wouldn't treat my pets this way either. This book completely pushed me over to attachment parenting. (...) My baby will never have to experience any of this wacky stuff that Mindell pushes.
Rating: 
Summary: Another cry it out book
Review: The thing with this book is, it's touted as a "gentle" way to get your baby to sleep through the night. The truth is that it is yet another "baby training" book that "teaches" you to let your baby cry alone in a dark room in his/her crib until s/he finally gives up and goes to sleep. The only difference is that Mindell "lets" you go and pick up, comfort, etc. your little one with any subsequent night wakings (Ferber methods "teach" to let the baby cry with each subsequent waking). Basically, if you have the heart to let your baby cry him/herself to sleep, don't waste the money on this book-it won't teach you anything you don't know. IF, however, you don't want to try a "cry-it-out" approach, you'd do much better by buying Dr. William Sears book titled "Nighttime Parenting". This excellent book will explain baby's sleep patterns & why your baby may be having sleep problems. With understanding you can usually gain tolerance, and that will help you deal with a baby who doesn't like to sleep alone a lot better than letting him/her cry.
Rating: 
Summary: This method took time for us.
Review: I purchased this book when my baby was about 7 or 8 months old. We tried laying him down in the crib and leaving the room at bedtime only, like the book says to do. He learned how to fall asleep on his own, but he still woke up throughout the night. The book says to go ahead and rock the baby if he wakes up, because putting himself to sleep at bedtime will teach him to put himself back to sleep if he wakes during the night. This did not work with our son. I had to start just laying him down if he woke during the night, and of course he screamed at first, but I kept it up and it finally worked. He is now sleeping through the night for the first time and he is one year old today. This book is a very good book, but you may have to be a little tougher than the book says to be if your baby is extremely strong-willed like mine is. If you really and truly want a good night's sleep for yourself and your baby, you have to be tough, and your will has to be stronger than the baby's. Turn the baby monitor off and let the baby cry. It is hard to do, but it is worth it in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Not for all...but great for us!!
Review: No parenting book is for everyone. That much should be obvious to anyone. All I can tell you is this book worked GREAT for my family. The goal of this program is to teach your child to fall asleep on his or her own. That way, when they wake up at night, they can fall asleep without calling for you. We just modified the program a bit to suit us and what we felt able to handle. We started when our son was six weeks old (he had his days and nights switched and we were at our wit's end) and only let him cry for five minutes before checking on him (Ms. Mindell recommends going longer stretches, which would be okay for an older child). After six weeks, he was sleeping through the night! He now goes any where from six hours to almost nine hours straight...and he's breastfed (my doctor says he is big enough to sleep that long safely now).
Rating:
Summary: One of the GREATEST parenting decisions I ever made!!
Review: We put this book into action when our son was 3 months old. He is now almost two and bedtime is never a hassle. He actually looks forward to the bedtime rituals and the only time we have a problem is when he is extremely over-tired or sick.I realize that not all things work for everyone but this book was worth its weight in gold for me.
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