Customer Reviews

The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy

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I purchased this book along with Pantley's "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" out of desperation to find some way to help my then 8 month old son sleep for more than 3-4 hours at a time.

Some background data: my son is an extremely high energy, high spirited, self-determined little man. He's a very happy baby but not the kind who will be content to sit in a swing and "relax" for more than a couple of minutes. We phased out night feedings, with the OK from our ped, at about 5 months. After only a couple of rough nights at that, he was going to sleep rather easily and would sleep from about 7:30pm until 12am, get up once and have to be patted back to sleep (for about 10 minutes) then back to sleep until 6am. We had a "bedtime routine" in place at about 4 months- turn down TV, dim lights, feeding, bath, quiet play time, books, rocking and to bed drowsy but not sleeping. Getting up once wasn't that hard and we were content with our nighttime schedule and our son was getting enough sleep and very happy during the day.

Then at about 6 months he started to get ear infections- one after the other and the total time handling ear infections was about 2 straight months. Right after that he got his first cold which lasted about a week and a half. During this time his sleep schedule was really bad. We had to hold him most of the night because it hurt him too much to lay flat in his crib and he would wake a lot from the pain. After he was no longer ill, he became used to my husband or me holding him at night and being constantly with us. So, he started waking up 3-4 times a night and it would take patting his back for about 10-25 minutes each time to get him to go to sleep again and sometimes he'd get so upset I'd have to pick him up and walk him around the house for 30 minutes or so before he'd fall asleep again. After many months of really poor broken up sleep I was desperate to find a solution.

We tried Pantley's book first because I was extremely opposed to any sleep solution that allowed my baby to cry for ANY length of time. We implemented ALL the techniques in "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" for just over 2 months. At the end, the result for us was that it made our son need us even MORE to go to bed and during the night. He absolutely would no longer go to sleep on his own- if we put him to bed drowsy but not 100% asleep, as soon as he touched the crib he'd jerk himself awake and start to get hysterical if we didn't immediately pick him up. To even get him into his crib we'd have to feed him a bottle until he was almost asleep and stand and bounce him for at least 15 minutes each night until he was 100% asleep and he would wake up and cry for us 6-8 times a night and it would take rocking, patting, walking him around for a total of about 3-4 hours each night. My husband and I were beyond exhausted and so was my son. We were crabby. He was crabby. We even took him to the doctor to make sure there was no medical situation causing his lack of sleep (which I would definitely recommend every parent do before implementing ANY sleep solution- make sure there are zero medical issues hindering their ability to go and stay asleep). He checked out perfectly healthy. (The techniques in Pantley's book may work for many babies and families and I'd hoped that it would for our baby/family but it didn't. Every child is different and there really is no "one size fits all" solution when it comes to them.)

So, desperate for sleep, I decided to "give in" and try the sleep lady shuffle as described in Kim West's book (basically, put the baby in the crib drowsy, sit in a chair next to the crib, soothe him briefly by touch/words if he gets upset then sit back down and do this until he falls asleep. After 3 nights next to the crib, move a bit away from the crib/closer to the door and do the same thing etc.) I knew to expect some crying but by this point my son was just over 10 months old and I'd learned what his different cries meant- hysterical when he had a bad dream or fell down while practicing walking, whine type crying when he was tired or hungry, mad crying when he couldn't get what he wanted etc. Beforehand, my husband and I agreed that if my son got hysterical we would end it right away and we'd only try it for an hour- if he was still not sleeping and was upset/cranky/crying after 60 minutes, we'd end it and look for another solution. Personally I could never feel good about anything that made my son so upset he became hysterical (as in Ferber's CIO until you puke method- that's just me.) I made my husband do the first night as I did not want to hear my son cry. The first thing we did (after his normal bottle/bath/book bedtime routine) was explain to him what was going to happen- he's a big boy now and needs to go to sleep so he can get big and strong but daddy will be in the room the whole time until he falls asleep etc. We also gave him his favorite stuffed toy to sleep with. I listened/watched on and off from our video monitor. My husband put our son in his crib, covered him and sat in the chair next to the crib. At first there was no crying- he just stood up and looked at my husband as if confused on why he wasn't being patted to sleep. Then he started to cry. My husband just stayed completely calm and sat next to the crib. I was surprised to hear his cry sounded more annoyed than really upset. He'd cry for a bit then stop and listen to hear if we were going to get him. Cry again, stop for a couple minutes, cry for half a minute etc. Then he'd lie down, whimper, stop and listen, cry, stand up, lay down etc. This lasted just under 30 minutes and he fell asleep and slept through the entire night without waking ONCE- until 6:30am- 10.5 hours! The next night it was the same except he cried for 20 minutes (and slept through the night). By night 3 he cried for 6 minutes then fell asleep. He did wake up once at 2am and my husband went to check on him to make sure he was OK- hadn't peed through his diaper, wasn't sick etc. He was fine, so my husband told him it was "sleepy time", gently laid him back down, sat next to the crib and my son whimpered for less than one minute and fell back asleep for the rest of the night. Night 4 was even better. One thing we are doing though- which is what we do with ALL parenting books/advice - is take what we like and throw out the rest. Try what we liked, if it doesn't work, modify it or abandon it. I thought that only 3 days next to the crib and then moving to the door was too fast a transition so we're staying next to the crib longer and only moving a foot away at a time. I noticed that when I leaned over my son's crib to hug him, he'd cry harder after I let go - I found it best to just lightly pat his back or briefly rub his head and tell him "It's OK. I'm here. Go to sleep now." and "shh.. shh.." You just have to pay attention to your own child's signs and figure out what works for them.

Note: After about a week of this method, my whole family came down with the flu. Of course during this time, we did not use any "method" to get my son to sleep as he needed our touch and closeness to sleep since he didn't feel well. Once he was 100%, we started over with Step 1 of the shuffle and it worked again- fell asleep with minimal whine type crying and then slept through the night!

I was really against allowing my son to cry at bedtime- even slightly- even for a moment, but when my options boiled down to starting to irrationally resent being a mother because I was so sleep deprived I could barely see straight or my son shedding a few NON-hysterical, "I'm mad at you" type tears for a few nights only and then sleep wonderfully and wake up extremely happy- that was the lesser evil for me. With our next baby, if he/she is not as "high needs" as our son, I will try Pantley's methods again first (but not for 2 months this time). If they don't work with the new baby, I won't hesitate to use the sleep lady shuffle - as a couple of semi-rough nights are worth a baby (and mom and dad!) who is happy and healthy because he/she is getting enough rest.

The bottom line is: every child is different- some things will work for one child but not at all for another. So use common sense, follow your instincts as a parent, try out advice/solutions that you, as the parent, are OK with for THAT specific child and if it doesn't work, try something else. One of my friends has a 2 year old son who is very "chill" and calm. They tried Ferber's method when he was 7 months old and her son only cried slightly for less than 10 minutes, for less than 5 days and then went to bed really happy with no complaints and slept through the night ever since. She had also gone with her instincts as a parent and decided that if her son got too upset or cried longer than 15 minutes that she would get him - going against the Ferber technique. She took the parts that she thought useful to her and threw out the rest. I know for sure that method would not have worked with my son so I didn't even try it. Not every solution will work for every single child but the sleep shuffle technique did work for our son.

I really wasn't happy with several aspects of this book. This is the third sleep book that I've read, and I really liked the message. The other two books that I read were at very different ends of the spectrum; the Sleep Lady fell nicely in the middle, and really struck a chord with me since I'm straddling the fence of attachment parenting. I also read:
- Dr. Sears' Sleep Book - another chapter in the attachment parenting bible. However, 90% of the book is "why would you NOT want to cosleep? It's the answer to everything!" As much as I enjoyed my time cosleeping, with a squrimy 1-year-old and a small bed, it was time to stop. Not much advice at all in there on stopping, maybe just 2 pages on transitioning.
- BabyWise - the anti-attachment-parenting book. What a put-offish, angry tome. It spends the first several chapters belittling anyone would would think kindly of attachment parenting, and puts co-sleeping on the same level as heresy. I didn't even get to the actual method, I put the book down after three chapters. But it advocates a cry-it-out strategy.

The Sleep Lady Shuffle, as she calls her "sleep shaping" method, is assisted cry-it-out. You sit in the room at different positions, and turn a blind eye (and ear) to your baby's cries as they learn to put themselves to sleep. Your only role in the room is to let them know that you're there, that you won't abandon them. I'm not a fan of cry-it-out, but this seemed the gentlest approach, and is similar to what Super Nanny does.

Every baby is different, and the sleep training methods that work for one baby may not work for another. "Ferberizing" (cry-it-out alone with 10-minute checks & soothing) just did not work for my baby. She got increasingly agitated as time went on, and let out a shrill, blood-curdling scream that lasted for two solid hours before I gave up. However, though she still did cry for two hours when we started The Sleep Lady, the tone and severity of the crying was much different, and she did end up falling asleep in the crib without my intervention.

For babies that respond well to Ferber, that method is faster. But for those who don't, give this method a try. The downside in comparison to Ferber is that this method does take longer, you need to "fade away" from them.

My biggest complaint was not the method or the philosophy in the book. I think a lot of the explanations and discussions of baby sleep needs at different ages and stages was very informative. However, the editing of the book was pretty atrocious, and whomever designed the layout should be fired. The number of 'breakaway' texts was ludicrous. You know how when you read a magazine article, they will take one or two poignant phrases and put them in large, bold font in the middle of the page? This book does that.. a lot. I've never read a book like this that has so many breakout phrases. They're littering the whole first section. And they are all phrases that appear right in the next paragraph. So, before you read a full paragraph you've already read half of it as a breakout text not 10 seconds earlier. To have that over and over and OVER again was annoying.

My other complaint was that all of the age-specific sections were copy-pastes of each other, with only a few differences between them. And as you read the sections for the older ages, a lot of tips will simply say "please see this item in the age 6-12 months section." If you're going to copy-paste whole swaths of text, why not copy that too? It would make a whole heck of a lot more sense to put it all in there once, and save all of those breakouts for an actual useful purpose, by highlighting strategies for specific age groups within the greater text of the steps of her method. No more copy-paste.

And instead of copy-paste text, they would now have room for more content. I found that most of the "good stuff" in the book was easily found online for free in various articles and message boards. What I really needed the book for were specific strategies and "troubleshooting" steps if we were to encounter them. And while there is a section called "routine busters" (teething, vacations, illnesses) there isn't a section called "what to do if your child starts ripping off her jammies while she's supposed to be soothing herself to sleep and you're supposed to be ignoring her." There isn't a section called "Days 1-4 went great but we've stopped making progress and now she's getting worse." And there is no section called "choosing and attaching to a lovey, 101". For all of those needs I've had to turn to the aforementioned message boards and parenting sites. I'd rather pay the book's price to go to a website that has a message board that *she* posts on, so I can ask questions directly to her for these issues, since that is where I would find the most value for my money. The book simply didn't provide enough value, enough 'new' content that I couldn't get elsewhere.

And here, the entire meat of the book is online for free by the author:
[...]

We wanted help getting our daughter to sleep for naps. She sleeps great at night but is a terrible napper. Prior to reading this book, she would nap in our arms for 30-minutes per nap. I love holding her for her naps, but knew that she would eventually be too big/old for this, not to mention I'd like a few minutes to get something done while she sleeps. She would wake up from naps still tired so I knew we had to change our ways. I previously had tried laying her in her crib for naps but couldn't stand listening to her cry. We believe in attachment-parenting and didn't want her to ever cry herself to sleep so we tried the No-Cry Sleep Solution, but it didn't work for us.

Our pediatrician recommended this book to us at our six-month wellness visit. We've been following the Sleep Lady Shuffle method for naps and IT WORKS! The first day was really hard (sitting next to the crib and periodically patting baby while she cried) but my husband was in the room to support me through the thirty minutes of tears before our daughter eventually fell asleep. Each nap time resulted in less and less crying time (Day one, second nap she only cried/fussed 15 minutes, Day one, third nap she only fussed 7 minutes). By day THREE our daughter took a ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTE nap in her crib after only 5 minutes of fussing (no tears, just making noises while she got comfortable).

I recommend this book and the Sleep Lady Shuffle heartily! Good luck parents!

I started out wanting to use Sears' approach and accept night-wakings through toddlerhood. When my baby started sleeping through the night at 3 months, while co-sleeping, I thought we were doing great. She transitioned to a crib in her own room easily. However, her sleep started deteriorating a few months later and by the time she was 11 months, she was waking up every two hours screaming for a nipple. I tried a couple nights of night-weaning cold-turkey at 8 months. I did not leave the room but my baby basically cried-it-out with me there. I was grasping for this book's method at the time, but I didn't know what I was doing. She didn't night-wean and she developed a mild fear of her crib. At 10 months, I tried The No-Cry Sleep Solution and though I was able to nurse for less time and the bedtime routine got a little shorter, I was not able to progress any further or night-wean my baby without tears. I was starting to realize that it was unreasonable to expect that I could always find steps small and gentle enough to prevent crying. Her night-wakings actually increased during this time. At 11 months, after several nights of waking up every 2 hours, I decided to find a different method, and was considering trying cry-it-out. However, before I did that, I went to the library and checked out all the baby sleep books they had: The Baby Whisperer, Mindell, Ferber, Weissbluth, and this book.

This method was basically a fast-track of the method I had gleaned from The No-Cry Sleep Solution, but was more clearly written, and was honest about the fact that her method was gentle but not no-cry. The Sleep Lady puts much more emphasis on consistency and minimal interventions (to avoid creating a new sleep association) than Pantley. The effectiveness of graduated extinction methods like Ferber's are well-supported by research. Here's a book that shows you how to use that effective method without leaving the baby alone to cry.

I appreciated that I could go directly to the chapter covering my baby's current age and find all the advice for that age in one place. Great for my exhausted mind. I find her book very balanced and I wish I had followed it from the very beginning. Within days of reading this book, my baby slept for 12 hours without waking enough to need intervention, something she had never done before. She cried out a few times but put herself back to sleep every time within a couple minutes.

I recommend this book to anyone who has problems with getting their kids to sleep. My son was 15 months and had never slept throught the night. As a matter of fact, he was up at least 3 or 4 times a night. After reading this book and following "the Sleep Lady's" guide my little fella was sleeping within 5 days. Believe me the first few nights were rough, but after that first week I couldn't believe the difference. Now, a month later we put him in his crib awake and he goes to sleep on is own and for the most part sleeps all night long.

I wanted to write this review to show that the method was not easy and my son didn't sleep through the night until night number 11, but that it WORKED and was SO worth being consistent and making it to this point. When I started the training he was about 6 ½ months.

My son has never slept for long periods of time. However, from 6-10 weeks, he would sleep from 7PM to 12AM or sometimes even from 7PM to 2AM. This did not last long, and from 10 weeks on, he began waking up more and more, almost never sleeping longer than 2 ½ hours at a time from four months on. Occasionally, I could pat him back to sleep, but usually I had to nurse him back to sleep and was nursing him at least four times per night. That said, from six weeks old on, he went to sleep easily enough most nights for the first time each night, alone in his crib, albeit to the sound and sight of his electric mobile which shut off automatically after 25 minutes. He might protest cry some nights when being put down for the first time but usually calmed alone within five minutes. (I separate protest crying (intermittent calls) from hysterical crying (tears, constant, loud, `real' crying). If he did ever hysterical cry, I would go back in. For the first put-down of the night and his naps, I did not nurse him to sleep.

I had read several sleep books - Weissbluth's unassisted cry-it-out (my instinct tells me that this method is cruel and I believe in listening to my instincts), Jodi Mindell's book who purports that if a baby can fall asleep alone for the first night put down all problems will be solved (this was NOT the case for us and I see from other Amazon reviews on that book that I am not alone on that), the Baby Whisperer (her pick-up put-down method made things worse...after trying it one night for HOURS until he went back to sleep, the baby would not let me put him down for a second without crying the next day, not even under his play gym where he has always been willing to play contentedly for several minutes), and Pantley's No-Cry (I found no real advice in the book - any tip seemed to be something that I was already doing out of normal logic). So I had given up. I had resigned myself to never sleeping for more than two hours at a time. But I was resentful and grumpy in the morning.

Alas, just browsing casually, I saw this book - The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy and grabbed it, not really believing it would help.After reading about her shuffle method, which is so clearly outlined in detail, I decided to try it. I decided that I would follow it to the letter and I did (except perhaps for the method to night wean, I sort of created my own method, see below). I knew that I could tolerate protest crying if I could be there to comfort physically and verbally my baby. Our pediatrician had assured me that our son did not need to eat at night.

Here is the diary: (I am not going to describe the method of patting and sitting and moving the chair and verbal soothing which is in the book. Just know that I followed the method exactly except for the nursing the first two nights. So below, when I talk about my son crying, I was right there with physical and verbal soothing).

Night 1: We've removed his mobile (sleep "crutch"). It took 15 minutes for him to fall asleep, with some crying. Through the night, he woke up over 20 times, with an awake period of over two hours around 2AM. After waking, it took sometimes 30 minutes of frequent but intermittent patting for the crying to subside. I decided that this first night I would nurse him twice (at 11 and at 3), tomorrow just once (around 11) and after that not at all. In all, I got almost no sleep. When he did fall back asleep it was often just for 10 or 15 minutes (except after the nursing session when he fell back to sleep for at least an hour). At some point in the night, I just started `sleeping' on the twin bed in his bedroom (this probably was a violation of the method, but I was just sooooo tired.) His crying was never hysterical (no real tears).

Night 2: Took less than five minutes of protest crying for him to fall asleep the first time. He woke up at least ten times. I nursed at 11PM. But around 1AM, he did a lot of protest crying and then calmed, but was awake for about two hours.

Night 3: No nursing through the night at all! He slept from 7:30 PM to 11:00PM, which is already the longest stretch of sleep in months. He had an awake period of about 1 ½ hours around 11PM, not crying too much, just awake. He had another long awake period around 2AM. Some crying, sometimes just awake.

Night 4: No nursing through the night. He slept from 7:30PM to 11PM and was easily and quickly soothed at 11PM. Slept from 11-2AM, was easily soothed at 2AM. Slept from 2AM to 6AM!

Night 5: No nursing through the night. Put down for the first sleep with less than 10 seconds of crying. Slept from 7:30PM to 2AM (!!!!!!!!). Took a while for him to fall back asleep. Once he went back to sleep, slept until 5:15AM. Cried on and off until 6AM when I could get him up for the day.

Night 6: No nursing through the night. Put down with less than 10 seconds of protest crying at 7:30PM. Wake-ups at: 12:15, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30. I got him up at 6AM. This was a harder night than last.

Night 7: No nursing through the night. Put him down with no crying at 7:30PM. Woke up at 10:05PM, occasional protest cries, took 25 minutes to fall back asleep. Awoke at 11:40PM, took 30 minutes to fall back asleep, loud protest crying. Awoke at 2AM, loud protest crying, took 15 minutes to fall back asleep). Awoke at 5:20 AM, immediately soothed and fell back asleep. I got him up at 6:20AM.

Night 8: No nursing through the night. Put him down with no crying. Awoke at 12:30, loud protest crying, fell back asleep at 12:45. Awoke at 2:30AM, took 10 minutes to fall back asleep. Awake at 4:30AM, immediately soothed and back to sleep. Awake at 5:15, immediately soothed and back to sleep. Awake at 5:45, immediately soothed and back to sleep. I got him up at 6:30AM

Night 9: No nursing through the night. Put him down with less than ten seconds of crying. Awoke at 10:15PM and immediately soothed and back to sleep. THEN he slept with no crying until 6AM. I heard him babbling contentedly around 5AM but didn't go in. Got him up at 6:20AM. Hallelujah

Night 10: No nursing through the night. We had houseguests and the baby had to sleep in our room. So this night doesn't count and I won't detail it.

Night 11: No nursing through the night. Put down at 7PM with one little protest cry. Around 9PM, I heard one short protest cry on the monitor, by the time I stood up, it was silent and I waited - continued silence, so I did not go in. Slept with no noise until 5:40AM!!!! I patted him until 6AM when I could get him up. THIS IS A FIRST!

Night 12: So far same as night 11. I am confident that things are SO much better. I will attack naps next (I think that I was willing to start the night training because she gives you the permission to work on night-training first and then naps later....I couldn't have done both at the same time).

In the whole process, there were never any real tears and no hysterical crying (both of which have occurred at times when I have left him alone briefly during the day, for example, to take a lightening quick shower). I feel that this is a HUMANE method that feels right to this mom. When he calls me, he needs to know I still exist. With this method, he knew that.

As an additional note: upon being night-weaned my son started eating solids with much greater enthusiasm. I started solids at 5 months and he had generally refused to eat more than one bite. Now, after six weeks of almost complete refusal, he opens up and eats sometimes a whole bowl of cereal with fruit puree and breastmilk.

Another additional note: since we have been doing this method, his naps have gotten longer. Instead of a one hour morning nap and one hour afternoon nap, he has started to do two hour morning naps and 1 ½ hour afternoon naps. Beautiful!

Final note - I have felt happier and kinder since I've gotten a couple nights of full sleep. This method has probably made me a better wife and mom!

I hope it works for you - it will be worth the first few tough nights!

I cannot say enough good things about this book!! I had purchased another sleep book before this, the no cry solution and it just wasn't getting us where we wanted to be. I really like how detailed this is, and that it ranges from newborns all the way through the toddler years. It has suggestions for traveling, illness and just about anything else that will throw off your baby's sleep schedule and how to deal with it. My son is 14 mos and we began this when he was about 5 months and he is a champion sleeper! He has been sleeping 11 hours a night since we began this, and I couldn't be happier. I hated having to choose between letting him "cry it out" alone, or rocking to sleep. This is the perfect middle ground where he's allowed to cry some, because he has to in order to learn to soothe himself, but hes not left alone to feel abandoned either. I recommend this to all new moms that I know, and am having my second child in a few months and will for sure begin this program from her birth!!!

I'm not a new mother, but my 3rd daughter came with some new problems I had never dealt with before... namely colic and reflux. When she was diagnosed with colic early 3-4 weeks, we did our best to comfort her and pretty much held on for dear life for the next couple of months. I noticed, however, that she had tell-tale signs of reflux (maybe the cause of her colic), but it was diagnosed late... not all reflux is demonstrated by projectile vomiting.. some choke, cough, and try to swallow it back down :( She was always a cat napper and would wake 2-3 times at night... this I could deal with, but at 5 months her night wakings became progressively worse to the point where I couldn't even put her down. I read several books, "Happiest Baby..." and Pantley's "No Cry..." but neither seemed to address our specific issues. At 8 months a friend recommended Sleep Lady and I read it in 2 days and then referenced it (carried it around with me, read it while she was crying) relentlessly for the 1st 7 days. West states her method is not Perfect and it is intended to be modified to fit our lives, but the basis of it has me convinced it will work. She has a whole chapter dedicated to reflux babies, addresses sensitive babies, and even references the same books I had already read. She covers it all. The first few days were very hard, but I learned my baby's cries were not because she was in pain, she shed very few actual tears (only the 1st night). I have learned how to recognize her different stages of sleep and feel I understand her needs even better by staying in the room and helping her to learn this on her own, rather than leaving her to cry it out on her own. I saw in the beginning how she startled herself and would re-wake... this felt like it would never end..., but by the 3rd night when she startled, she never cried and fell right back to sleep. This was the affirmation I needed to continue with West's program. We just finished Day 10 and we have had 3 nights of 11-12 hours of sleep, 2 perfect naps a day, and completely weaned night nursings. Some of it was hard, some of it actually went smoother than I expected. The end result, my baby is happier, sleeping better than ever - ALREADY!

The mom of two boys under three, I wish I would have found this book SO much sooner! The sleep lady system is a fantastic system that combines common sense approaches with a gentle soothing approach.

My youngest just turned one, and we had literally tried everything. As a full time teacher, counselor, wife and mommy, I felt spread thin...but with this system, within a week we were enjoying a full night's sleep!

What I epecially liked about this system was that Kim West never promises that your baby will never cry, but because you are in the room with or near the room of the baby, you never feel guilty. Trust me...I tried the cry-it-out thing...I'm way to soft, it just didn't feel right to leave my baby in a panic like that. The sleep lady system made it possible to let my son cry while soothing him and comforting him, and still allowing him to learn to soothe himself! It really has been wonderful, and my husband and I are not only sleeping but enjoying having our bed to ourselves again!

A definite must have for all new parent!

This book delivers! It's a true lifesaver for tired, frazzled parents. For the first three months, we did whatever necessary to keep our daughter calm and quiet. By the time I ordered the book, we were swaddling her, using a pacifier and bouncing her to get her to fall asleep; most of the time the bouncing was 40+ minutes. After the first day where each nap/sleep session entailed around 40 minutes of crying, our daughter got with the program. By the third day, she would be asleep in as little as ten minutes.

It's been a couple weeks now and my husband remarked yesterday, "You know what? We have an easy baby!" This would not have happened without the guidance from the book. It took our not-so-easy baby and transformed her into an easy one.

I appreciate that Ms. West actually says your baby needs x hours of sleep and y feedings. As a first time parent, I was nervous that my baby was hungry all the time. The schedules that she gives as examples really, really help.