Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep and Wake Up Happy

Rating:
Summary: A Godsend
Review: Finally a book that combines attachment parenting with realistic sleep routines! To get my 16 month old girl to fall asleep on her own (and stay asleep) we did the Sleep Lady Shuffle based on her pamphlet and what I had read about her sleep shaping in Parenting Magazine.

It took about two weeks to get to the point where I could put my daughter into her crib and say good night without any screaming, but even after the second night of the shuffle, she slept through! (She was waking up every two hours a couple of days before) There is occasional backsliding, usually after travel or illness, but after reading her book I see from all the case stories that this is normal. Most of all I learned that it is up to me to teach my daughter how to fall asleep and stay asleep and this book shows all kinds of parents how to do that in the most gentle and effective way.

The best thing about this book is that it is not preachy. The tone is kind, understanding of reality, and takes into account both the child's individual personality and the parents' (ie. my child screamed bloody murder for hours with the Ferber method and my husband can't stand to let her cry for a second) I also tryed the No-Cry Sleep Solution and that wasn't tenable.

This book also made me feel like a good Mom and took away lots of the guilty feelings that so many magazines, television programs and other help books tend to instill. It goes beyond the sleep thing. Its the perfect new mom gift! I gave the pamphlet to all the new mom's in my life and now I will give the book to all of them too!

Rating:
Summary: Give this book to every new and expecting mother you know!
Review: Gently written, the Sleep Lady's guide is a must-have for any parent's book shelf. Ms. West provides not only a carefully thought out method for easing your child into healthy sleep patterns, but also provides the "coaching" and reassurance that parents need during this process. Her method is easy to understand and follow, and the experiences of other parents that are scattered throughout the book provide encouragement that your struggles with sleep are "normal." Every family that I have given this book to has found it enormously helpful, whether their children are infants or toddlers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I actually worked with Kim to help my baby sleep. One night she woke up SIX times in one night and now she sleeps from 7:30pm to 6:45am - almost 12 hours a night. I really like that Kim does not advise leaving your baby to cry it out alone and also when I told her that I was not quite ready to get rid of that one last night waking and nursing session, she said that was fine. My baby eventually eliminated that last waking on her own. Most times I can just put my baby down in her crib awake and walk away. And this was a baby who SCREAMED if I didn't nurse her completely to sleep before slipping her into her swing to sleep. Kim West is totally the hero in our family and I recommend her to everyone!

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Summary: It Really Does Work
Review: I have always rocked, walked and sung our thirteen month old daughter to sleep! She napped well during the day and went to sleep easily at night. However she woke, at the minimum, three times every night and I would have to rock/walk and sing her back to sleep every time. These nighttime wakings ranged from twenty minutes to three hours. (Every night she was up for at least two and a half hours in total.) I was exhausted, but refused to leave her to cry herself to sleep. (To be honest, I find that practice barbaric.)

And then I heard about "The Sleep Lady". I was a little sceptical, but after reading her book, I was prepared to try her methodology. It works! Each three days, when I moved the chair further from the crib, our daughter would fuss a little, but she never cried. The first middle-of-the-night waking there were a lot of tears, but I picked her up and comforted her each time she cried and put her back into her crib as soon as the tears stopped. The first few nights of the "Shuffle" she woke during the night, but each time the "awake" time decreased from two hours stretches to eight minutes. We are on night twenty- eight and she has slept through twenty-two of those nights. She still doesn't sleep for eleven hours, but her sleeping through the night is an incredible achievment for us all.

The downside to this is that it takes an average of fifty minutes for her to fall asleep at bedtime, and I still feel guilty that I am leaving her alone in her crib for that length of time - even though I am sitting out of sight in the hallway. However, we are all sleeping better and I know that in the long term we are doing the right thing.

I am looking forward to using the book to help me implement the once a day nap when our daughter is ready. Thank you "Sleep Lady".


Rating:
Summary: No good for older babies
Review: I would not suggest this book if your baby is older than one. There is not engough information in the sections for older babies and toddlers. Moreover, you have to read all the chapters before that don't relate just to understand the various terms and methods referenced. Even if you read the whole book, you still are left without good guidance on how to treat an older baby, particularly in the transition to one nap. I am a father of three and my experience was more helpful than the book.

Rating:
Summary: Finally - a practical and reasonable resource for parents!
Review: Most of the books available to help your child sleep well are radical one way or the other: either walk away and let your child scream, or do whatever it takes to keep your child from screaming. Kim West's book is a great, balanced guide to setting up healthy habits from the get-go. I especially like that she has such extensive clinical success, and has herself practiced what she preaches. A MUST for any new parent or parent-to-be. A great baby shower gift!

Rating:
Summary: An OK book about sleep
Review: The author who is a social worker seems well-intentioned and I'm sure she has helped lots of familes in her career. The many stories of families problems may be helpful to some people, but I found the book lenghty and hard to find specific ideas that suited me.

The age group arrangement of chapters doesn't always make sense since not all problems fit in a the age category defined, so you have to search for your issues. It seems kind enough, but I found more nuts-and-bolts answers and a way to make a clear plan to follow in The No-Cry Sleep Solution, another book about sleep. If you are a reader and like lots of books, I'd say get both of these.

On one other topic, Kim West is tolerant of co-sleeping which she calls hotly debated (and says you'll be stuck until your child is 8 years old), and she thinks it should end by 3 or 4 months of age. The No-Cry Sleep book is supportive of co-sleeping, which the author syas is normal and says you can change when you want to make a change. So, if you are a co-sleeper this may not be your choice book.

West doesn't seem to understand breastfeeding very much as she suggests doing a nighttime feed and THEN brush teeth, play a game, sing a song and read a book. If I did that my child would be wide awake and want to nurse again.

In summary, this is a nice book about sleep but you'll need a second choice to actually solve your problems.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to use, and it works.
Review: The Sleep Lady is the reason our daughter is finally sleeping through the night, after a long struggle with up to 12 night wakings every night. We attended a phone class taught by Kim West and then later bought her book.

The most valuable part of this book is the Sleep Lady Shuffle. My husband and I tried using Ferber's method first, and my daughter cried until she just collapsed from sheer exhaustion. When I went in to check on her, finally asleep, I could tell she had slumped over from sitting up - with tears still drying on her face. This is not the picture of a child who has learned the art of self-soothing. We gave it up, and it took some time before I could shake the guilt. We tried the No-Cry Sleep Solution next for almost two weeks and did not see any improvement. I think that for us, the method was too difficult to implement. Our daughter would cry as soon as she left our arms... putting us into a pick-up-put-down dance for hours at a time, and after seeing no results over a few weeks, we quit.

The Sleep Lady Shuffle is something "in-between" these two methods. It's phased and gentle. It does involve some crying, but mom or dad is right there in the room to comfort and reassure baby... and although it took some time, our daughter did fall asleep peacefully and on her own. Over the nights it took less and less time for her to do this. We had some setbacks along the way - sickness and travel - and when those were over, we could just implement the Shuffle again in about half the time it took originally... we got our nights back, and we feel that our daughter is eating better and acting happier because she's getting more quality sleep.

You don't really need the book to implement the Shuffle. We found the book valuable because we could use it for inspiration to continue being consistent, and to help shape our daily and nighttime routines. I also felt the anecdotes gave me confidence to work with Kim's suggestions for our own family's needs. For example, instead of cutting out night-nursing completely, I continued nursing my daughter once per night for a few months, and we were fairly successful at keeping her to this one night waking until the time was right to night-wean her.

All that said - I feel the book and method work very well for a young toddler, since we used it with success when our daughter was close to a year old. I have not used the sections on newborns or older children. As with any book, read it, take what you want and believe in, and throw away what doesn't apply to you. Her advice on breastfeeding, for example, didn't sit completely right with me, but I feel that I know enough now that I could tailor her suggestions for the needs of my particular baby.

If I were co-sleeping and did not plan on moving my baby to a crib, I don't think this is a book I would choose - her only examples of shaping the sleep of co-sleeping babies involved moving them to a crib.

This book is very well suited for people who, like my husband and I, tried to let their baby cry and could not handle the tears... and who find that avoiding crying at all costs is causing sleep-deprivation on everyone's part. It is sensible and gentle. It works! My family owes the Sleep Lady big time! We could not be more happy with the progress our sleep patterns have made.


Rating:
Summary: Thanks but no Thanks
Review: We were also clients of Kim West so I followed the book with interest. Some reviewers have suggested that the advice in this book is compatible with attachment parenting, breastfeeding and cosleeping. That impression is incorrect. Her ideas boil down to get the baby in the crib, feed the baby on a strict schedule and make the baby learn to put him/herself to sleep no matter how much he/she cries. After our consultation with Ms. West we decided not to implement any of her suggestions. If you are committed to attachment parenting skip this book and get something by Dr. Jay Gordon or Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution. If you think the world needs one more sleep training manual that tells you that hours of screaming are the path to "self-soothing" then by all means order this book immediately.

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Summary: Mother of Four Gives This Book a Thumb's Up!
Review: You can imagine as a mother of four all under the age of six that sleep has been my main focus for about five years! I was forwarded one of The Sleep Lady's newsletters by a friend, and was impressed with it's caring approach to both parents and children. When I saw a book was available, I jumped at the chance to "enhance" my family's exhausted condition. My husband and I have seen marked improvement in all areas - sleep, behavior, and eating of all four of our children. It is hard at first to change your "style" of night time routines (or lack-there-of), but after about a week of following a couple of suggestions made in the Sleep Lady's book, we started seeing results. I would highly recommend this book to both new and seasoned parents as it's never too late to sleep better!