Dana Obleman and Sleep Sense - anyone heard of her?

[Mij]

When I was checking out old Dr Richard Ferber on google, to find out exactly what the revisions were in his latest edition (please please no discussions of CC here!) I found a link to a site that was offering 'free' advice on sleep, and selling itself as being 'not Ferber'. It all sounds highly suspect to me, so just wondered if anyone has come across her, and before I start requesting stuff I would be interested to know what her methods are. Anyone any ideas?

Goodness, yes, I was fooled inot tjis. In desparartion as dd2 was a terrible sleeper.
From what I remember, I was inundated with emails whaich were crappy, pretend personal ones. And ridiculuos offers for dvds and books. But no helpful advice - for me.

Thanks littlerach, that's what I was afraid of. Being a natural cynic is helpful sometimes

Hi, was wondering if anyone paid the $47 that dana obleman asks for in order to receive the answers and solutions to all our baby sleep problems and did they get anything? littlerach, did you make any payment? Thanks much..julia

Just caved in and bought her on-line book, which is very repetitive and is based on crying it out.

While I definitely don't think there is anything groundbreaking in her ideas, I am using them, as I can't do the boob-to-sleep anymore, with my little man waking up and screaming at my empty boobs only one hour after he's drained them!

Mother of 5-month old

hi mij - yes. i got 'enrolled' onto her website nad still regularly receive emails asking me about ds's sleep. I have not succummbed to buying anything as ds's sleep issues are a thing of the past . I must admit I was sorely tempted at one point out of sheer desparationm, but figured that she was only gonna point me towards cc anyway as there are no miracle cures imho.
kikkertje - Good luck!

No, I didn't pay anything at all - thank God.

I can't sing Dana's praises enough. I have my life back, love and enjoy my daughter even more because we are both sleeping through the night - I'm so pleased I had the help to guide me. Sometimes all you need is a little confidence and some helpful advise - if you don't try you'll never know. It took approx 4 nights, we got rid of the dummy, and the two night feeds at the same time. My daughter is 8 months and because I'm still breastfeeding my husband had to do the 10 minute reassurance checks. I waited until she was having 3 solid meals a day before starting the sleep training. Hope this helps....... it's a bl@@dy miracle.

smile

just wanted to say that i bought the online book and it was worth every penny. Followed it pretty much to the word and it does definetly work. Its not just about controlled crying at all.
I watched my baby go to sleep which is beautiful and he falls asleep now in his room alone.
I am and he is so much happier now.
I cant say enough good things and about the emails i only got two. you are not bombared with them at all!

I used Dana's program with my 8 months old. It worked perfectly. I'm so glad I gave it a try as it worked in one week. Of course if other mums think it's not right to let the baby cry for 3 nights so they can have the long and happy sleep the next 4th and 5th etc night- that's fine. My opinion is that nothing comes without some effort and patience from both-babies and parents.
I'm so much happier as I have 11 hours of uniterrupted sleep every night. that means I can be better mum.

Hello,

I've also been getting her emails, which I don't mind but was wondering for those you've used her system, does she cover much on daytime naps?

My little boy (five months) sleeps ok at night but its his daytime battles that are the problem and won't sleep past forty mins, though these days he hardly goes past half an hour.

Of the six different books I've bought so far, that all pretty much concentrate on night time sleeping problems. Is this the same, could it help with day time naps?

Many thanks

Has anyone used Dana's program with younger babies. My DS is 9 weeks old & still sleeping in our bedroom. Does the program require them to be in there own room and is it as strict a schedule as Gina Fords Contented little baby book? I'm not quite ready to put him in his own room and I know at his age it's normal to get up once or twice in the night. My real concern is that he's not getting enough sleep. The longest stint he sleeps for is 4-5 hours max, and over a 24 hour period he probably only averages about 10 to 12 hours of sleep and that's on a good day. I've read he should be getting at least 16 hours. I'd be greatful for any advise or wisdom. Thanks

I also gave a lot of thought to sleep and was struggling. Paid about 15 pounds for Dana Obleman's pdf file e-book which said lots of things I already knew but it helped me be organised and take action. We were in a feed-to-sleep cycle of sometimes every 60 minutes and I was desperate. It isn't groundbreaking stuff but it helped me. DS now sleeps 7-7 and takes naps. I also only got a few emails. She has a video library of advice on her website which has some OK bits as well. It does involve some crying but not just crying it out and she describes a method of staying with baby even though crying.

yes she does cover naps
and yes she covers young babies although
my DS is 8 months and I only bought the book and took action when he was about 6.5 months.

ha! just noticed only the young babies question was recent!
well her book does cover them, yes

So interested to see this discussion. I've been looking at it for my 11 month old who goes to sleep and then sleeps without waking until about 5 and then that's it. I'm wrecked! Can anyone comment on whether it covers older babies and early waking?

I purchased the book and am SO GLAD I DID!!!! Yes, it does cover older babies and early waking. My baby girl is 8 months old and has decided to wake up at 5 a.m., and by following the steps in the book (which btw are NOT rigid, cruel, etc) she will go back to sleep and will easily sleep till 8 a.m. We have a life again!!

Some have said it's another version of the 'cry it out' method, i did not find that to be the case at all.

The instructions she gives make a lot of sense, somethings we already knew but weren't too sure how to properly implement them.

Since she gave us our life back i figured i'd give her food sense program a try too.

The faux emails made me boak. In fact something about the whole site made me a bit

I'm not remotely convinced it'll be any use or tell me anything I haven't already read from a million other diff sources.

Are all you people above who've had 'amazing' and almost immediate success really real?

Hi there,

GLRe, my 7.5 month old son sleeps pretty well days and nights, but he's got this bad abit of waking up at 5 or 530am as well!

Part of me wonders if he's truly hungry, because he's not eating his solids-solidly - I should say...Kinda fussy and recently just wants to do finger foods (though he doesn't eat that much in my opinion).

I'm otherwise exclusively breastfeeding...and he has a last feed at 620pm or so, before he sleeps at 630pm. He sleeps till 5ish am, when I feed him (he doesn't always fall asleep at the breast, yet what's good is that he goes straight back to his cot and sleeps till past 7am when I go get him.)

My concern is whether there's ANY POSSIBILITY I can get him to sleep from 630pm to 630am at least? I mean, it's great that he lasts between 10 and 11hours at night, but I do wish he would just wake up and feed at 630am or 7am, lol! Cos other issues arise from the 5am feeds - I'm suspecting his poor solids intake as got something to do with that 5am feed, which throws off his appetite for breakfast...and the rest follows.

Also, his naps are 930 - 1115am, and 2pm to 330pm at the very most (but usually only till 245pm) and he seems to want an early bedtime of 630pm. (I'm constantly pushing for 7 or 730pm, so at least I could try to see if he'd wake closer to 7am, you know what I mean?)

If you read this post, please please share your insights and advice about what I could do!

Cheers,

Kaz

A lot of experty types think that trying to sleep train babies under six months is a bit of a waste of time, although I'm sure there are people on here who would disagree and say they got results when they tried it.

Naps likewise are tricky to increase whatever you try until babies are a little older. And some babies never get the recommended sleep amount - each child is different and they all do things at different rates. Some learn how to sleep easily and lengthily at a young age, some take longer and some A LOT longer.

Speaking as a mum of a 17 week-old who often wakes up every 1-2 hours overnight, it comes from the heart! A bit depressing, I know - especially if you're in the middle of the fog of sleep deprivation, put it will pass in time and they will settle down (I'm telling myself this!)

I think there are definitely things parents can do to help the baby learn sleeping and napping tricks, but how quickly the baby actually gets it is down to the individual infant IMO.

FWIW my sister did CC with all four of her babies (and she is a very attached-type parent) but not until they were around 15-16 months in age and could understand that she would return and reassure them after a little time had passed. With 3 out of 4 of the children, it worked within three days and they never had to be left longer than 10 mins. Her DS was the tricky one, however and didn't really start to sleep through until he was four.

Personally, I still don't sleep through the night and I'm almost 40 (!)

Good luck!

Kaz, half the people on the sleep boards would chew their arm off to have a baby who slept as well as yours. But I know from bitter experience how horrible 5am can be.

As IC says, some babies just don't need to sleep for 12 hours at a stretch.

I wouldn't worry about him just wanting finger food - have a look at the weaning board and posts about BLW (baby led weaning) which is all about finger food for more information.

The saying is 'food's for fun until they're one' - it is totally normal for a 7.5 month old not to be eating very much in the way of solids. At that age, most of their nutrition should be coming from the milk feeds; they are just getting the hang of solids.

anyone followed her book for a 10 mnth old?

I've used it (and yes I'm real)

I can't recommend it highly enough. Our daughter sleeps well at night, naps well in the day and has done since about 5 months old - (She's just over one year now)

Almost immediately we noticed a change in her, she is a happier and much more settled baby, because she is getting enough sleep. As a result we are happier and more settled parents!

The website isn't brilliant, and isn't user friendly but the video blogs where she answers questions are very useful.

She does have a facebook page for anyone who is interested.

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=653109778&v=wall&story_fbid=405467924778#!/pag es/Dana-Obleman/183706597004?ref=ts

There seems to be an awful lot of first posts in this thread...

Butterpie, how do you know if it's a first post? Sorry, just being nosey/curious.

I did download this book a long time ago in deperation but I never read it coz I was too tired! lol!