Sleep: Secrets to Getting Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night. Tracy Hogg with Melinda Blau

If your baby has trouble sleeping, this is the answer to your problems. This book literally saved me from sleep-deprived insanity. I can't recommend it enough. For those who haven't heard of Tracy Hogg, we're talking a sleep training method that doesn't involve leaving your baby to cry at all. It is a very humane method which works just as well - if not better - as the more traditional methods.Here's how it worked for me:1) The first time I used it my baby was 8 months old, had never slept through the night, and would wake me 6 times per night to breastfeed for just a few minutes. I was a wreck. It took me a month to find the courage to implement a sleep training method and I chose this one. Once I took the decision and started though, it took 3 nights!Given her age the appropriate method was the Pick Up Put Down (PUPD) method. I decided to wean my baby and apply the method at the same time. I applied it both for nights and naps. I followed the method exactly, never gave in (as in never went back to offering the breast to make her sleep) and by the 3rd night she was going back to sleep without any PUPD, i.e., by herself. By the end of the week she wasn't waking up during the night anymore.2) The second time I used it my baby was almost 1 year and a half and had just started going to daycare. That got her waking through the night again, and she wouldn't go to sleep on her own at night anymore either. This time the method was different due to her age. I placed a chair by her cot and stayed there quietly until she fell asleep the first night, and again when she woke during the night. Every 3 days I moved the chair further away from her cot, until after a week the chair was just outside the bedroom door, and then I got rid of the chair. It was a pretty painless way of getting her to go to sleep on her own again and stop waking in the night (or at least stop waking me in the night).3) The third time I applied it we had just come back from travelling and she'd been sleeping in our room during the trip, so she wanted someone to be in her room with her again. I applied the same method as the second time as she was in the same age range, but this time it only took 2 or 3 nights in total until she got used to sleeping on her own again.In summary, this book saved me! This is the best purchase I've ever made.P.S. The only thing I will say is that if you want it to work, follow the instructions, be consistent and don't give in. That is the only difficult part. Once you've set your mind on it working however, and you don't let yourself be swayed by anyone else's opinion or your own tiredness, it'll work. 3 nights is the key number. After those first 3 nights it will be so easy you will never turn back.

Didn’t like this authors style of sleep training. Her advice is very “know it all” and she plays into sleep crutches a lot which I don’t feel are the main problem. I ended up reading “happiest baby on the block” and then doing Taking Cara Babies after reading this and they both were WAY more helpful and a lot more sympathetic to the fact that these are innocent little babies who (especially in the fourth trimester) need you more than ever and developmentally can’t form sleep crutches yet. Plus the strict routine will drive you crazy and make you feel like a failure.

Save your money. Despite its intention, this is not written well enough to be easy for sleep deprived parents to benefit from. A handful MAYBE of good tips here and there but I expected more. I also found the formatting on kindle frustrating.Moreover, if you've found the "EASY" method actually challenging to implement with your baby then skip this. It's more "EASY" and then chides parents who don't follow it for being "accidental" parents -- i.e. I'm making mistakes by accident. Condescending and annoying because clearly we would all love to feed our babies and nap then like clockwork. Babies don't always cooperate. If your blessed baby does, AWESOME!! I'm seriously really happy for you. But you can get all the info from the book online now anyway. Google "EASY" schedule.Finally she does call out specific grievances such as "my baby wakes up too early" but only identifies the cause (according to her), with no solution. Example: "you have conditioned your baby to wake up early." Least helpful guidance ever.

Of all the baby books I've read on various topics this was by far the worst. I bought it because I read somewhere that it is the middle approach between attachment parenting and cry-it-out. I have been deliberating whether to write this review since I gave up on reading it halfway through, but I gave up precisely because it was so useless. It was so infuriating to me that every single point in the book came back to "stick to routine and schedule and if it's not working you're not doing it right". And this sentence stuck with me "there are some people who will do anything to stop their baby from crying" as if that is a bad thing. Maybe the approach in this book works fine for some baby/parent relationships, but if attachment parenting appeals to you even mildly this book is not for you. Save your precious time and enjoy cuddling your baby when it's awake, it will learn to sleep eventually.

I bought this book out of desperation because my 6 1/2 month old refused to take naps and sleep through the night. I have read the Dr. Sears sleep book and started Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and found no real solutions other than hold him to sleep and put him to bed earlier. Neither of which worked because he would scream bloody murder while I held him. We did not want to let him cry it out but we had to try something else because this just wasnt working. The best part about this book is that I think it is a shortened version of the book and we were able to read almost halfway through in an hour and a half last night, which meant we were able to start using the techniques (of pick up/put down) immediately. Although the baby woke up 4 times last night, we tried the pick up/put down method each time, and although it took awhile, it seemed like the baby was finally learning to soothe himself. I really think we have made so much progress already!!! We just tried it again for a nap and after 15minutes hes "sleeping like a baby!" I will write another review after we have truly tried this for a few days and seen some more progress, but if you need a quick fix and are tired of reading 300 page books that get you no where, I suggest getting this one ASAP!

Didn’t help at all with my baby. But no problems with the purchase.

Some good advice but the way is written can make you feel really bad about any parenting you've done so far if it doesn't fit with what the book is saying or if you're baby doesn't confirm to what it says they should be doing.But the premise of the scheduling and getting baby to sleep I'm sure works for some people, I just felt bad that I had a 4 month old that god forbid still wakes for a feed in the night even though he's over a certain weight and comes off worse from using the pick up put down method.

In the depths of the four month regression I purchased this. The author runs through a few methods to try such as the EASY routine and PUPD method. I don't like all of it but it's nice to have a reference and I have to say I have seen an improvement with sleep. Use as a rough guide rather than a bible.

this booked helped us like nothing before. although i do not follow it all as some things in it i find purely ridiculous. however, with introduction of the routine my baby is sleeping well just after 5 days following the advice. the book would benefit from schedule for each month and stage instead of just one example. but if you read and understand what the author means, you can easily find online. so highly recommended with advice of " use your common sense too"

Really useful and realistic.The scenarios are good and relevant.We found it worked for us & we finally got some sleep. Only thing is the steps to some of the skills are long winded and the author does go on a bit. Just cut the the chase. These parents are tired.

Bought for a friend who was delighted with the book. Have previously read The Baby Whisperer which was good so thought I'd try the special sleep one for my friend as she was having trouble with her wee one not sleeping well.