The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5

As a first time Mom, with a baby that has had tummy issues since birth, her Dad and I have been very protective and we never let her cry more than a few short minutes. After all, comforting and soothing your baby is our #1 responsibility as parents. She never slept well and we moved a bed into her room and took turns sleeping in her room every night so we could tend to her when she woke, which was about every 3-4 hours. Now that she is 7-months old and 20 pounds, and her tummy problems are almost resolved, we realized that we needed to get some help so we could all function better. After researching for weeks, we choose this book and read it cover to cover. It made sense and offered solid support. We made sure she was in good health, and not teething and gave it a try. I was hoping for some relief but I honestly was not expecting it to work. I committed to trying it for 5 days and if it didn't work, I was just going to deal with it. I won't lie. The first night was awful! She fussed and cried for 1 hr, and then screamed her head off for 58 min after that. I was a nervous wreak the next day and called my Dr. to ask if I was scarring her by letting her cry. He said no, and that it was important for her to learn to sooth herself. The 2nd night, she cried for only 40 min. The 3rd night she cried for about 20 min but slept 11 hours!!!! I had to wake her the next morning when we had to get going. She's been sleeping for 11 hours, on her own, for a week now! This book is a treasure. We have a totally different baby now! One that is happy, rested, and feels safe and secure in her crib, on her own. I recommend this to anyone who is struggling. Follow it exactly as explained, try to look beyond those first difficult nights, and give it a chance.

Reasons why I WAS skeptical for anything other than attachment/Sears philosophy: 1. I have what the pediatrician has called "high needs"/intense/"spirited" baby. Didn't want to withhold what she needed but HAD to do something differently. Everyone in the house was crying by trying to AVOID the crying. 2. My baby was only 4.5 months when we initiated this plan. I thought that IF we ever did something parent driven, she would need to be much older. I think we did this at the perfect time - had we waited, I'm certain she would have regressed even more due to the lengths we went to to make her sleep (the song and dance got harder and harder each night due to her dependence on it). 3. I have read a total of 6 sleep books out there - all which have good characteristics that sounded less cruel but simply DID NOT work for us. I realize that no plan works for every family, but this was our ticket. 4. My child had to be moving all of the time. She squirmed during feeding/rocking/etc. Anything that called for no motion had to be impossible. How it all went down, and what I would recommend for you if you tried it: 1. Read it first and have a plan. Don't do any sleep plan willy-nilly. If you are doing anything out of desperation or immediate reaction to frustration, you will not be able to be consistent or use your best judgement for the overall picture of your child's sleep issues. Be prepared! 2. Be consistent. 3. Have support from husband or friend - any "cry it out" method is hard, but this one is so emotionally supportive and encourages parents that this is truly training your child to be independent WITH your love and support. 4. Be patient -my baby cried for about 35 min the first night, 20 the 2nd, and She woke up the morning after our first night and cooed and laughed in her crib for about 30 min! She goes down for naps (and did on day 2) with her eyes open and only whimpers for about 30 seconds. Other benefits we've seen: 1. Overall less fussy - less squirmy, intense, uncomfortable appearing. I suppose her "colic" was due to a constant state of chronically being overtired 2. Now a terrific feeder! I suppose due to being more happy and rested. This has allowed us to get into more of a routine and takes the guesswork out of when she is hungry/tired/etc. 3. Nobody is crying anymore (ie - mom and dad getting rest and able to enjoy wake time with our precious child so much more) 4. She has been able to independently play with her toys and not always cry when we put her down on her gym/swing/etc. 5. Awake time is so fun now! What wonderful bonding, snuggling we have now that she isn't such a crab and I have the energy to play with her! I could write FOREVER about this book. After the 1st night, I have been telling my friends that I am now a new mom, and my daughter is a new baby!

This book helped us so much that I feel compelled to write my first review. The most impressive thing to me is that when I emailed the author (at [...]) with a question about a recommendation in the book, she emailed me a complete and personal response within 24 hours! My husband is so thrilled that he said we should send the authors an extra $10! For months I had asked our doctor, researched on the internet and read several other books to help my 8 1/2 month old son give up night feedings AND sleep through the night. I very strongly didn't want my child to cry for hours or go hungry. However, I also didn't want him to form long term habits that would be hard to break later, as I had already observed his sleep habits getting worse as he learned to sit, crawl, stand and etc in the crib. Although I very much wanted the "No Cry Sleep Solution" to work for me, the techniques in that book just made my child significantly worse every night. Rest assured, that even with this book, I NEVER had to let my child cry much. On the only bad night we had, he cried for about 20 minutes off and on. This book is well organized and well written. You can read the essential sections to get started very quickly. I was very wary about waking a sleeping baby one hour before his "usual" wake up time in order to wean night feedings. But, I made a commitment to try their approach, so I did it exactly as prescribed in the book. Wow, within three nights he gave up BOTH night feedings without going hungry or crying or waking for a pacifier. Within the next two nights he started sleeping for around 11 hours. We only had one night that was somewhat difficult, which I attribute somewhat to the daylight savings time change on the first night of no night feedings.

I swore I would never let my child cry herself to sleep but I finally gave in. Our 5 month old baby was waking 6 times a night, couldn't nap, and was chronically sleep deprived. I bought this book and the Richard Ferber book. While this book has much of the same information and concepts as Ferber's book this book is easier to read and is organized very well. It also has sample sleep/nap schedules which helped us tremendously. This book was a lifesaver for our baby and us!

My 9-month-old daughter had never slept more than 4 hours at a time before we read this book. She would wake up several times a night, sometimes every hour! We tried other methods, but they didn't work. Finally, we decided to try a new method, and after pouring over every book in the parenting section of the bookstore, I decided that this one seemed like the one for me. I liked how the authors were very sensitive to parents who, like myself, were resistant to letting babies cry. We were prepared for the worst, and figured that we would have a terrible week ahead of us, maybe longer. The first night, she fell asleep after 30 minutes and only woke up once during the night. The second night, it took her 17 minutes and she never woke up. Last night (the third night), she fell asleep after 7 minutes and slept for 12 hours straight! We were amazed, and refreshed, since we'd gotten the first full-night of sleep that we've had in 9 months! It also works wonders for naps. We are now like a new family, with a happy, rested baby, and parents who are not exhausted all of the time. By the way, I have never written a review of anything before, so for me to be writing this is a REALLY big deal! Try this if you are a desperate parent, it really does work, and FAST! If it works for our baby, it will work for yours. *** Note: After posting my review, I noticed that several new reviewers refer to this method as "lazy parenting", and seem to be of the opinion that this method is the worst thing for your baby. This may be true for them, but I just have to respond by saying that my baby is much happier now that we have been doing this method for a week- when I put her down at night, she is smiling, and does not cry at all, but just rolls over and goes to sleep for 12 hours. Before, when she was waking every few hours, she was cranky most of the time. Since she would go through 3-4 bottles a night (which, at 9 months, she definitely did not need!), she would not eat for most of the morning, and her naps were a nightmare! As a result, we had a baby who was overtired and not eating well during the day (and, as a result, getting most of her nutrition from formula instead of food, which she needs at this age). Now, she wakes up cheerful and well-rested (and, I might add, always happy to see us, even though we'd "abandoned" her), eats solid meals during the day, naps regularly, and is much more adjusted. My husband and I also have more energy to spend with her when we get home from work, since we're no longer only getting 4 hours of sleep, which I think is also a huge benefit for her. I was always against the "cry-it-out" method as well, but this really isn't about that, and it gets results very quickly. By the way, I have read Dr. Sears, and tried "The No-Cry Sleep Solution", and neither of them did any good. This will work very well for some people, but not for others, and I think that's OK.