Which sleep book would you recommend?

[Hadeda]

I'm looking at either Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child or The No Cry Sleep Solution. Which would you buy - or would you buy both (e.g for some balance)?

DD is 7 months old and is bf and eating solids. Recently sleep has been all over the show - ranging from sleeping from 11 - 7 to waking at 3 and refusing to go back to sleep until 6.

Earlier this week I had tried everything and left her to cry for about 20 mins. I really don't think that is the way forward for us. None of this "she cried for 10 mins and then slept" for us, after 20 mins she was damn cross and saying so very loudly. And I felt like someone should phone childine . So I don't really want a book which says the only option is to leave her to cry it out.

Any thoughts?

I would get the NDSS, there is nothing earth shattering in it but I liked the author's attitude and approach. I have read HSHHC for the nap routine but I didn't really like the way ot was written. The author has children but you couldn't really tell from his approach, it was kind of scientific which I found offputting. Also he seems to a fan of CIO which I don't want to do. I also liked the Baby Sleep book by Sears and Sears. It really depends. If you want a plan which will supposedly sort things out quickly then HSHHC, but if you want a more gentle approach then the other two would be better. I am in similar position to you (think we are both on the other thread) and am using ideas from all 3 books, but it is slow progress (often backwards!).

Have a look at this web page. There are some good tips too. I own the NCSS and agree with peachsmuggler. I like the way it's written, gives some nice ideas however nothing revolutionary. Im reading Baby sleep for dummies...or something like that and found some helpful ideas there. So as already said, read a few and combine what fits you. I personally did the Gradual Withdrawal and my ds (8 and a half months) settles himself in the evening without me sitting next to him, which is great. He is still bf and we are slowly dropping his night feeds now with some success too. Wishing you luck!

ncss is ok. i found sleep started getting a better from 9m, don't expect miracles but in a year ds went from waking every two hours to sleeping through.

I liked the NCSS (no cry sleep solution - E Pantley). It didn;t mean any startling improvements for us, but it made me feel a helluva lot better about the whole thing. We ended up doing some CC, but only when DS was 15 months and I was sure he was ready (and it took one night so I think he was).

7 months was hellish for us (mind you, most of the first year was) so I sympathise

also this might strike a chord:

moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html

I read every book on sleep, to no avail. Then at a baby fair came across Alison Scott Wright, who is a sleep guru. She's currently writing her first book, so no help there if you're wanting a book, but she runs a phone help & advice line and does overnight stays. She stayed with us and 6 month DD for 3 nights. DD wouldn't nap during day without being wheeled constantly in pram/pushchair and was breast fed on and off ALL night every night. After 9 minutes Alison had her napping in her cot and after 3 nights she slept through! If you want, I will give you Alison's phone number, but don't want to push you into anything. I'm off for a smear in a few minutes (what a fun life I lead), so if you do write back and don't get an answer straight away, I'll get back to you soon.

Thanks everyone, and for the links to. Think I'll get the NCSS and see if I can borrow HSHHC from the library or from a friend before I get it for myself.

The link to Moxie talks about sleep "regression" when a baby is learning to crawl etc. DD just started crawling (on her tummy rather than on her knees) and almost every time we go into her, she's on her tummy and has raised herself up on her arms. So that definitely rings a chord with us.

Mishee - thanks for the recommendation. Our sleep problem is fairly recent so I'll see how I go for a while. Hope your smear was ok!

Haeda - Do you want me to send you my copy of HSHHC to have a read and see what you think. There's no rush to get to back

Hiya - just e-mailed you!

Mischee... how did she get her to nap in her cot? That's our isssssue...

(Amazing!)

HSHHC is appallingly written. Some of the information about sleep patterns is interesting, but the structure of the book is awful and he is sooo repetitive.
But alot of what he says of babies sleep needs/patterns etc proved true for my DCs. Watching DS and recording his mood etc for a few days helped us go from irregular day time naps in motion only to predictably timed naps in cot within a week (when DS was about 4 months).

Wow! How'd you do that, OtherSide? You kept a log and then made changes? Predictably timed naps in a cot?!? Wow....

(Did it include crying-it-out?)

No crying it out. I also was given a lambskin at the same time. Have you tried that?

Will post later if you really want details, gotta get ready for work now.

(Otherside... yes we DO want the details! At your leisure, of coursse... Have a good day!)

OK, most of it is probably common sense for people who are used to being around babies but I got it all from the Healthy Sleep Habits book because I knew nothing about babies and at the time I didn't know anyone with baby knowledge except MIL who is so scared of being an interfering MIL that she never gives advice and with it being her first grandchild her memories were a bit hazy anyway.

DS was quite a sleepy baby so we started off quite happily with a bf to sleep, put down, sleep, wake, play, bf to sleep again schedule. But once he got more alert and keen on interacting other than feeding (around 2 months) at first he wouldn't stay asleep when I put him down so he would sleep on me. Then as he got tireder and more overstimulated, he would only stay asleep if he was moving around in the sling or pram. He was still waking a few times a night to feed and it took a lot of rocking etc to settle him so in the day I really wanted to be able to nap when he was napping or at least sit still!

From the book I learnt about we call the sleep train in this house. It's the optimal moment for someone to fall asleep. With a baby it comes into the station, stops for about a minute then goes. If you don't get baby on the train, you've missed your chance. As they get older the sleep train stays in the station longer so you have more of a chance to catch it.
The book gives the completely unknowledgeable (as I was) info on the signs that baby is sleepy eg eye rubbing. It advises you to have a nap time soothing routine in the way that you put them down and for you to start that routine the minute you see your baby is tired. For 3 month old DS it advised putting him to bed to sleep whenever he seemed sleepy and noting down how long he protested, how long he slept, how long he was awake and happy before becoming sleepy and grumpy ie time to start soothing routine. That way you can figure out the max time your baby can be awake and happy. With DS at 3 month it was only 45 minutes. I didn't mention a nap routine in my earlier post because at that age you can't go by the clock but by when baby last woke.
With older babies, he suggests a clock based routine for the ideal moments to sleep. IIRC it is wake around 7, nap around 9, lunch, nap around 1 and a final nap later in the day but if the baby doesn't nap again before 5pm you should go for an early bed time.

Apart from the appalling style, I didn't really like the way the book accepts leaving the baby to cry for up to an hour. For the first few days I had to leave DS to grumble in his cot for up to 15 minutes which I had never done before but I don't think I could have left him if he had upped the scale of his crying. But the grumbling was definitely necessary because then he would fall asleep for an hour and a half when before then he had only been napping 20 mins in the sling.

HTH

A vote for The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. Pick-up Put-down saved our life!

pinkdelight - am going to start PUPD next week with almost 6 month old DD. Can I ask you a few questions?

How old was your dc when you did it? How long did it take? Did you do it for all wakeups and naps, or just the first put down of the night?

Hey OtherSide. I'm just seeing your post now after a few days offline. Thanks so much for your response, and especially the detail of it! I agree that timing is key: part of our problem is me not acting quickly enough to DD's signals, and also, perhaps I'm going too long with the naptime routine. Sigh... here's to hoping the sleep train stops for us to get on it tomorrow....

Thanks again!

Hadeda, what book are you going with?

Hadeda, what book are you going with?

ARAG - peachsmuggler sent me her copy of HSHHC which I've read. I would second what Othersideofthechannel said about it: the style is appalling and I don't agree with his "cry it out for as long as that takes" approach. But there are some useful things in there, although no rocket science.

Helpful hints were things like:

• putting your DC to bed the minute they look sleepy even though you might have thought they'd be up for longer
• having naps at increasing intervals (generally for baby around 6 - 9 months, first nap at 9am two hours after waking, second one 1pm three hours after waking and go to bed 6:30/7pm four hours after waking)
• using different techniques for day time naps and night time sleep as the brain processes which trigger these are different - so you might try putting them down sleepy but awake during the day, even if this means it takes ages to get them to sleep if at all, but do whatever it takes to get them to bed at night.

I haven't got to ordering the NCSS yet, mean to but I never remember to bring my wallet with me when I'm on the computer..... And I used to be the most organised person, really I did !

TBH, I'd see if you can find both in the library or your local bookshop and have a quick flick before you buy one. I think an author's approach to cry it out/not is perhaps the main difference between the various sleep books - and there's no point buying a book that strongly advocates doing something you know you wouldn't do!

Have you had any progress Hadeda?

Thanks for taking the time to write the hints... sounds good!

We have - but not sure whether it's anything I've done! She has slowly started sleeping for longer and going to bed earlier. The past 2 nights DD has slept through [angels in heaven playing trumpets emoticon], although has been difficult to settle at the start (taking about an hour to settle). But Sunday night we had a shocker, up at 1:45 and didn't go back to sleep until 4:30.

I think the only things I've done which might have helped are to really take note of her nap times and then try to make her next sleep fit with that so short nap means starting the next nap earlier, being v strict with myself about nap times and making sure at least one per day is at home in her bed.

How are things going for you? There is a thread running with quite a few people going through this that might be useful to you. It's called something like "calling co-sleepers, long post sorry" and was started by Chairmum Miao - I'm on blackberry so can't do a link to it, sorry!