Sleep-Wake Disorders Book

I only read the sections that I felt pertained to my daughter at 5 months. The section about bedrooms, bedtimes, and bedtime routines was useful. Most of the suggestions, consistent routine, same time, a lovey, were things I already had going. The idea of negative and positive sleep associations is helpful. Negative sleep associations are anything that would require a parent to assist the baby in falling asleep (rocking, nursing, singing, cuddling, etc.) Positive associations are things that would still be present during a middle of the night waking (a lovey, a pacifier, a night light, a consistent enviroment.) I was already on the right track with a routine, a consistent environment, putting the baby to bed drowsy but awake, and by keeping the baby in her bedroom during middle of the night wakings. Basically, no rewarding the baby by bringing her back out to hang out with us once I've decided it's bedtime.

Unlike the author, at 5 months old I don't expect my daughter to go all night without feeding. The book suggests that all babies wake naturally and all they need is a the ability to self-soothe herself back to sleep. I'm pretty sure my child needs to eat! Seriously lady, 12 hours without eating, come on! I think the idea of creating positive sleep assocations is worthwhile, but the promises that after just 2 weeks of implementing a consistent bed-time routine with the final step being putting the baby to bed awake, that the baby will sleep through the night is far fetched.

Warning: Dr. Mindell is a cry-it-out advocate. She does soften it a little by suggesting parents take small steps that parents are comfortable with during sleep training, even if that means going in to reassure the baby every 30 seconds. But, once you start sleep training with crying you can't turn back as you'll only make things worse; you'll basically have taught your child to cry rather than sleep.

In general, I'm lucky my child is not a crier anyway, she doesn't freak out when I leave her in her crib by herself. She just humms while sucking her pacifier until she falls asleep. Hopefully as the author suggests, by 6 or 7 months she'll be able to retrieve her own pacifier when it falls out. That will help us both sleep!