The Happy Sleeper: the science-backed guide to helping your baby get a good night’s sleep ― newborn to school age

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I really appreciated reading a book about sleep written by MFTs, rather than pediatricians or nurses like Taking Cara Babies or some of the books about extinction methods. We know how ready you are to move on from the exhausting early months and have your entire family sleep through the night. After a few stories, a few cuddles, and a song, you kiss her good night, lower her into her crib, and leave the room. And their third book, Generation Sleepless rings the alarm bell on the teen sleep crisis and what parents, teens and society at large can do to help them. We were so hesitant to do any kind of sleep training for fear that it would be traumatizing for everyone involved.

But when we craft a sleep plan together (as we'll do in this book), within a week or two their baby is sleeping eleven hours straight, their toddler is taking a beautiful 2-hour nap in her crib, or their child is kissing them good night, grabbing his stuffed animal, rolling over, and falling asleep on his own. You don’t underhelp (by shutting the door and never responding) or overhelp (lying down with your child, rocking or nursing your baby to sleep after she has outgrown this need). Sleep is a basic building block of your family's health and happiness'just like good food and regular exercise.But we're now at 11 months and bedtime has gotten easier and easier and I honestly think this was the best decision we could have made. Sleep issues arise when parents (with the best of intentions) over-help or "helicopter parent" at night--overshadowing their baby's innate biological ability to sleep well.

This audio version is everything an audio version should be BUT IT DOESN’T PROVIDE YOU WITH A TABLE OF CONTENTS! She now sleeps through the night for 11-12 hours, instead of just about the 9 she made before, with one wakeup to drink. During these early months, the 0-4 month class focuses on strategies to help you gradually step back, a little at a time, so your baby can have space to practice her emerging, self-soothing abilities. Each of the methods in these chapters gives you concrete directions for how to be responsive, but to also allow your child to stay in charge of his own self-soothing (after the age of 5 months) so that he can sleep happily and independently.If one of these is missing, a child's sleep ends up falling short of what she's developmentally capable of: a 10-month-old baby waking every 1 to 2 hours at night (you'd be surprised how many we've met! Passing the job of soothing to your capable baby or child is very much in line with attachment theory. On the other hand it's heartbreaking to watch them at first when they're crying and reaching towards the door hoping you'll pick them up. And we chose this method (which has quite a few important differences from Ferber, including an altogether more nurturing tone and many more helpful details).