5 stars

Reviewer:  Happy Mom "Patti"  (VA)  See all my reviews

This is a excellent book! I was referred to her book by my daughters doctor more than 4 years ago. I needed some help getting her to sleep. Elizabeth told me what to do and it worked 100%!!!!!

I was getting sleep deprived with my daughter and I was also pregnant with my son at the time, so sleep I needed. Elizabeth help me to get the sleep that I and my daughter needed.

My husband and I DO NOT believe in crying it out. We wanted another solution and Elizabeth Pantley offered that to us. This is a great shower gift for a new mom!!!!!

1 stars

Reviewer:  C and J's Mom  (Spring, TX)  See all my reviews

I did not find this book helpful at all! It does not offer any suggestions other than co-sleeping which is what we are trying to stop. What worked for us was putting his bed in our room to get him out of our bed and then finally work him up to sleeping in his room in his "big boy bed". We started the process around 15 months and finally at 2 years old, I have my bed back and my bedroom. Took awhile but it worked better than anything this book offered up

1 stars

Reviewer:  M. Anderson  (Grayslake, IL)  See all my reviews

While I was pregnant with twins, I read a lot of books regarding sleeping, because I was anticipating a tough time with that because of twins.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, was by far, the MOST informative. It should be REQUIRED reading before any mom delivers! Boring to read, but you will be SO grateful you trudged through it when your baby (or babies) are sleeping well and well rested.

That said, it DID advocate "crying it out" which me and my husband are against. We also read "The Happiest Baby on the Block". Another AWESOME book that advocated "crying it out". After searching and searching, it looked like this is the only book out there that offers sleeping advice without "crying it out".

I was so excited to read it! And was SO let down. It advocates "family bed" where everyone sleeps in one bed. While that could work for some families, it wasn't something we were interested in. Other than that, it really gave NO solid advice. Just a bunch of fluff about being a loving, attentive, mom. D'uh! Why do ya think I can't do "cry it out"?!

I'd reccomend reading the other 2 books and just NOT doing the "cry it out" part. It worked miracles for us. Our friends can't believe how easily our kids go to sleep and how long they sleep for. And all without "crying it out".

Good Luck-

5 stars

Reviewer:  mominmpls  (Minneapolis, MN)  See all my reviews

Different options for different parents at different stages. Great ideas I was able to take from book. Great for us, we are big no-cry people.

5 stars

Reviewer:  LaceG "Sleep Happy Mama"  (Redondo Beach, CA)  See all my reviews

My husband and I both work full time. Our son is overall a well rounded baby (personality not body shape). Yes he's fussy, demanding, extremely active (and I do mean extremely), but he's also happy; laughing and smiling all the time. Right now, he wants to be held all the time and some days he's clingy and some days he's not. Bedtime was such a battle. He was fussy, squirmy and pretty much fought his sleep each time I put him down. It would take about an hour to get him to sleep just to wake up again 2 hours later.

1-2 weeks after reading the book, my 8 mos old, who sleep-shared with my husband and I since he was born, started to learn to fall asleep on his own without needing a bottle or to be nursed. The bedtime routine we established (that didn't work before) is now working through the help of the No Cry Sleep Solution book. It was wonderful to put him down still awake and watch him fall asleep without a fight.

3-4 weeks after reading the book, I was able to wean the night feedings.

5-6 weeks after reading the book, I worked on getting him to sleep in his crib. Doing what the book recommended, I set up his environment to what he was used to in our bed. I put him in....and to my surprise, HE DID NOT FIGHT ME. I watched him fall asleep (which was all of 2 minutes) and he stayed asleep all through the night. On weekends, he would wake up in the morning and just sit in his crib and play with his toys. I know because I can hear him playing and the toy jingling through the monitor. Sure he wakes up sometime during the night, but with only a short whimper and he's back asleep even before I walk out of my bedroom (and I am a snap to it mommy...I don't spare a second to go to my baby when he cries).

So many people around us thought for sure we were going to have a hard time getting him to sleep in his crib. We have been finger-wagged so many times from friends and family and kept telling us how we should let him cry it out. When my mother-in-law babysat for us a few nights after my son started sleeping in his crib, she couldn't believe how he went to sleep without a fuss and without a peep. She said she put him in and he was so wide awake and just kept looking around she just kissed him goodnight and walked away. She checked up on him 3 minutes later because she didn't hear a peep from him, and she found that he was already asleep.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. Mostly because it made sense from the first page to the last, and also because it gave me assurance that me not letting my baby cry himself to sleep is better than the cold cry it out method. Also, sleep-sharing had more rewards short and long term than putting a baby in his own cold crib at 3 months.

I am so proud of my son, husband and myself for PROVING EVERYONE WRONG!

2 stars

Reviewer:  A. Marquis "Schmoopy"  (New Orleans, LA, USA)  See all my reviews

Pantley has collected a variety of nice ideas to try, but if your baby has deep-rooted sleep associations, don't waste precious time here. This book is not for babies who are "problem sleepers". It's tough, but if you stick with it and stay consistent, you'll see results. It worked wonders for us!

5 stars

Reviewer:  Jon Henshaw  (Nashville, TN United States)  See all my reviews

My wife and I recently had our first child. The first week with our daughter was great. She slept a lot, breast fed well, and we were convinced that we had given birth to an angel. Getting her to sleep during that first week was easy. We would wrap her in a blanket like a burrito, place her in the bassinet or crib, and she would be out. Unfortunately, our honeymoon was soon over after that first week.

As she began to experience her new surroundings, and started to go through tremendous growth spurts, she became increasingly difficult to comfort. As new parents, we felt lost with the multitude of advice coming from our friends and family. There was also the frustration of feeling like we weren't meeting the needs of our daughter, because of her constant restlessness and screaming.

Fortunately, Elizabeth Pantley had recently mailed me a copy of her book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, to review on FamilyResource.com. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Elizabeth's book was packed full of useful knowledge and wisdom to help any parent care for their newborn or older baby.

In the second chapter of The No-Cry Sleep Solution, Elizabeth focuses on educating parents on the basic sleep patterns of babies. Most parents (including us) are quick to believe that their newborn baby has sleep problems, simply because they can't seem to get their baby to sleep on a schedule. In response to this common misperception, Pantley writes:
"Newborn babies do not have sleep problems, but their parents do. Newborns sleep when they are tired, and wake when they are ready. If their schedule conflicts with yours, it's not a problem for them; they don't even know it."

After educating parents about basic sleep facts, she walks the reader through the process of keeping sleep logs. The logs are easy to understand, and she provides templates that parents can use for their own logs. My wife and I weren't exactly in a place where we wanted to start keeping logs yet. However, if you have disinterest in the logs like we did, it shouldn't deter you from getting the book. The chapters that discuss the logs, also include an innumerable amount of helpful suggestions for how to teach your baby good sleep patterns and waking behavior.

The chapter we found most helpful was the one entitled, "Review and Choose Sleep Solutions." Elizabeth breaks up the sections into newborns and older babies. The newborn chapter was a God send for us. Suddenly, much of our daughter's behavior began to make sense to us. One of the many things she talks about is day/night confusion. She suggests not having your baby nap too much during the day, because the infant may get day and night mixed up, which may be why she's up all night.

Parents will enjoy the inserts throughout the book called, "Mother-Speak." Mother-Speak consists of short quotes from real mothers describing their experience trying to get their baby to cry less, and sleep better. I felt like Mother-Speak did a good job of connecting the content with the reader, and I think it helps give the reader a sense of normalcy and hope regarding their situation.

Finally, probably the most educational chapter in the entire book is chapter 8, "Analyze Your Success." There is so much accumulated research and advice in this chapter, that it could be its own book. This chapter seemed to cover everything, literally!

The No-Cry Sleep Solution is a must have for parents of babies (newborn to 2-years-old). If it wasn't for this book, I'm not sure how our sanity would be right now. Thank you Elizabeth for writing an incredibly useful and helpful book!