The Natural Baby Sleep Solution: Use Your Child's Internal Sleep Rhythms for Better Nights and Naps

Our first little one is 10 months old, and had yet to sleep through the night. We bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, and I started reading it the day it arrived at our door. We were eager to see if it worked and were desperate to have our little guy sleeping better - we couldn't wait for me to finish the book before trying out the program.So, as much as I hate to admit it, I skipped around in the book a little so I could get the gist of it and start as soon as possible, which was this past Saturday morning as it turned out. We kept track of the timing of everything - what time we put him down, how long he fussed before falling asleep, what time he woke, what time he ate, what time we would lay him back down, etc. - and with only one exception through the weekend, we were able to get him down right on the 90 minute mark after each previous waking. It was really interesting and exciting to see improvement almost immediately, just by putting him down at that interval. On Day 1, he already seemed to be napping longer more soundly. That night was a fairly normal night, and we weren't actually at home so we decided to feed him when he woke to try and minimize disruptions to others in nearby rooms.Sunday also went well in terms of napping. That night, we put him down for bed. Typically, within 3 to 4 hours of bed time he is awake, standing in his crib, crying, and expecting to be fed. However this time, after following Polly's program for only two days, he slept for 6 hours before his first waking. And this time, instead of feeding him like we normally would have, we followed the program and laid him back down as matter-of-factly as possible - no talking, no cuddling, no eye contact - and within minutes he was back asleep, which was totally surprising. After that, he slept for another 3 hours, so when he next woke at that point we followed the same method, and although it took a couple of lay-downs this time, he again fell back asleep until waking for the day 2.5 hours later. This was the first night he went without feeding, so already we were very impressed!The next day was his first day back at daycare since starting the program. We were unsure how it would go at daycare considering the schedule may be harder to follow because of the needs of other kids, commotion and noise of other kids, etc. Fortunately, our provider was very receptive to the program, and the day seemed to go very well. They were able to get him down for naps at the 90 minute intervals, and he seemed to sleep well. When we got him home, we fed him dinner and got him promptly to bed at the 90 minute mark, which was at 6:00 pm. He fell right to sleep! An hour or two later, he awoke with a couple little cries due to our noisy barking dogs. Waking from the dogs would usually result in full waking, standing, crying, and would require us to go in to soothe him and lay him back down, possibly several times...not this time. Within seconds (maybe a minute at most), he was back down on his own and asleep! This was just so out of the ordinary for him, I was completely shocked. And to top it all off, the next time he woke was at 6:30 am!!! And that may only be because I got up to get ready for work.I am completely astounded that after 10 months of difficult nights, on only the third night of this program he slept through!! I am still working my way through the book cover-to-cover so I can learn all the ins and outs of Polly's program, but I have to say I am just so impressed by its effectiveness in such a short time. Such positive results can only be a product of the book's concrete basis on and support by the physiology of humans rather than standard "conventional wisdom." I absolutely recommend this book to anyone with an infant, especially if sleep is problematic. There truly are not enough positive things I can say about this book and the program!Thank you so much Dr. Polly Moore!

We were 'blessed' with a sensitive sleeper, like many parents writing reviews here. Since birth my son would completely resist napping, and only sleep short 5-15 minute segments throughout the day after nursing, while still on me or while being worn in a Moby Wrap. He was *always* cranky, irritable crying, and overtired, all day every day, but continued the cycle of resisting naps until a monthly 3 hour crash. Swaddling helped, but not much... and when we finally realized a pacifier would help and not hinder that also was a breakthrough.Here is what helped us the most once he hit 3/4 months and we decided we needed to take a more active interception of his habits before we were all driven insane: Dunstan Baby Language (get this! watch it the first month. It WILL help you understand what your child is 'saying') - we also liked the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD (DVD, not book - you will not be able to focus and read with a fussy kid constantly with you... the demos are really helpful)... the Woombie Houdini Swaddler (expensive compared to other swaddles but SO WORTH IT, easy to put on a flailing kid and doesn't come off). We also use and like the Binkibear (without the binki which is removable) for its classic styling and use that as a lovie at night when his arms are free, and a Wubbanub to keep the pacifier in during daytime naps when he is fully swaddled. We're trying to wean him off the pacifier for naps now that he is 6 months old, but up until 6 months old and permanent habits emerge, pacis are apparently considered kosher.This book (get the kindle version and read it in chunks when you can) was the best and only way we were able to get our kid on the right path - but it took an active application and PERSISTENCE all day every day to fight him into napping for the first month or so until he was better with the sleep debt he had accumulated. The ipod app iBabyLog is helpful in tracking how long your child sleeps and how long it has been since the last nap if you're going to specifically follow this 90 minute program. Other books that helped us without expecting every reader to do a harsh cry it out method: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night. I also REALLY like the blog 'troublesome tots.'The mods we did to the 90 minute program: if he would fight the nap at 90 minutes, we would wait out another 1/2 cycle (45 minutes) and he would often go down at the 2:15 mark. She doesn't mention this in the book, and it makes me wonder if the 90 minute brain thing is actually two 45 minute cycles instead of one complete chunk. And... now that we have been doing the program for 2 months we have modified it to put our son down exactly two hours after his morning wakeup, which works like a charm, and then follow the 90 minute program throughout the rest of the day.Hope this info is helpful to other parents of fussy 'high need' babies -- it's been a tough first six months for us but with the tools listed above it helped us a lot.