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October 2013 Moms
spsp143
member
Sleep book recs
spsp143
member
Not sure if this has been brought up before because mobile bump is terrible right now but....
I am wondering what sleep books you guys have read and what methods you think are worth a try. I am at my wits end with my terrible sleeper so I would like to start doing some research! Thanks ladies
I am wondering what sleep books you guys have read and what methods you think are worth a try. I am at my wits end with my terrible sleeper so I would like to start doing some research! Thanks ladies
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Sleep book recs
Here is my "stock" sleep response. There is probably more info than you want, but I'm just copying and pasting. I'm not editing. There are three book recs listed with in.
STOCK SLEEP TRAINING ANSWER
The king of CIO is Dr. Ferber. If you are interested in this method, it can be a very effective method for those that do it right and are consistent. I would get his book. Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. He has studied children's sleep extensively and will give you the reason behind why you are doing what you are doing. He suggests graduated intervals.There are plenty of other books out there you may read. The most important thing is to research whatever you're doing and know why you are doing it. A no-cry answer may be Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution. It didn't work for us with DD1 as we were already too tired, we both worked, and couldn't catch up on sleep any other time. Her method can work for many I think, but it is going to take way more long-term patience imo.
Another gentler method you might try is: Good Night Sleep Tight. I know someone who had a lot of sucess with this. It would not have worked for us because in this method the parent stays in the room with baby and slowly leaves. DD1 would cry more, harder, and longer if we were in the room with her. But this may not be the case for you. It may be a good one.
I know there are other books and methods out there. These are just 3 I'm personally familiar with.
What we ultimately did was pretty much the Ferber method. I never actually read Ferber's book. But by the time we did our own version of CIO, I had done a ton of sleep research and had heard a lot of his method from women on my first bmb. So, after attempting the NCSS unsuccessfully, we eventually went with a CIO (or Work-It-Out as I prefer to say) method.
Basically, we just put DD down in her crib (she was 6m old when we did this and in her crib since 5m, just FYI) with lots of hugs and kisses and a very normal bedtime routine before then. The bedtime routine is important for signaling sleep time. Anyway, we put her down in her crib and left the room. We gave her 10 minutes to WIO/CIO. After 10 minutes, one of us went back in, patted and shushed her (laid her back down if necessary), and left agian. Rinse and repeat. The first night took 1 hour for her to finally be asleep. The second night took 15 mintues (only 1 check) and the third, 5 minutes (no checks).
If she woke in the motn, we gave her 10 minutes to WIO before getting up to check on her. Many times, a check was not necessary. Other times, it was. By this point, she was not eating in the motn though. If she had been, I would have set a time that I would have fed her (say 4am). If she woke well before then, we'd do the 10 minute routine. If she woke close to then, I get up and feed her.
The Sleep Lady tries to find a middle ground between CIO and no cry options (which to me always seem to lead back to co-sleeping).
I've gotten to the point where I just don't think any of it matters. I tried to make sure things would be different this time around. LO was doing 8 or 9 hour stretches by 6 weeks. A couple of weeks ago she reverted to typical newborn sleep (1 6 hour stretch, up every 2 hours after that), which she really never had before. Once you finally figure it out, they start climbing out of the crib and shortly after learn all about making excuses. (The ideal potty training time seems to be bedtime. It's also a good time to get a kid to clean their room, eat vegetables, and do anything else you might have asked them to do at any point in the previous month.)