The Dream Sleeper: A Three-Part Plan for Getting Your Baby to Love Sleep

Best sleeping book I have read so far in terms of detailed information provided related to a specific sleep method (cry it out in this case). Great examples, plans, schedules, etc. Quite rounded. I found it very interesting that it approaches sleep as something that is related to everything the baby does day and night (eat, naps, schedules, etc). My baby is 11 months and wakes up between 2-5 times a night and I haven't sleep trained him NOT because I think "I cannot do this CIO thing" , or because I think that once he will start sleeping through the night it will be best for me and my husband. The reason is that we have read other literature that says that a CIO method could be HARMFUL for the baby (I will not go into details as why is bad here, but you can read any no-cry out book/paper for this). While this book gives great advice in the first couple of chapters on what can you do to help babies sleep better (and the only item I don't agree with the book here is putting only a fleece footed pajamas with a short sleeve onesi to a baby in a 68-72F room, since I tried that one night and my baby's hand and cheeks were VERY cold...I would also be cold if I slept like that and aren't we supposed to dress babies with one more layer than us?) I feel this book provides a lot of encouragement and examples of the kind "your baby WILL sleep through the night if you are strong for a few days and let him CIO", and address very briefly the concerns that some parents, like me, have around how detrimental it can be for the baby. IT doesn't provide enough research and evidence to make me feel this method is SAFE in this respect. There is a lot of research and support information on the benefits of sleeping, which we all agree on. But ... at what cost? After reading this book , I still believe that this sleep training method (CIO), is created for parents that are in desperate need for full night sleeps, because they cannot handle it. But what if you can handle waking up at night, but would just like your baby to sleep longer for his own benefit?. After reading this book I'm still not convinced that the methods suggested here will be SAFE for my baby... I still appreciate the read and information given. Still quite insightful. But I will pass on sleep training for now.

Parents must make their own decisions based on what they know about their own children as to how they want to handle the sleep issue (and many others). For us, this book provided excellent advice. I know many parents who used the authors as sleep consultants with really good results so we decided to try the book first. I should add that he is breastfed/pump bottle fed (no formula).The first two nights were very hard for us- yes, there is crying it out in this method, but within 3-4 days, our son was sleeping 12 hours at night (instead of waking up 2-3 times) and taking good naps. It took about 2 weeks for the 5 minutes of crying at nap time to stop. But we now have a great routine and by the time we get to the bedroom, he knows it is bedtime and if I take too long to say goodnight will just grab his crib and insist on being put in it. When I put him down, he just rolls over, gets comfortable and goes to sleep.Once he started sleeping better, he became a much less fussy baby during the daytime and his learning seemed to speed up a bit. He is now very happy with sleeping when it is sleep time. And we are much much much happier that we can sleep.We did this around 6 months, and he seemed to figure out what was going on pretty quickly - we felt that he understood a lot of what we were saying and that explaining it helped. It also helped to get a "bedtime" book that has toys going to sleep so he knows what is coming. He seems happy to have routine and know what is coming next. It's amazing what a trigger the bedtime book is for yawning.I understand this is not right for all parents. But for us, we wanted to trust our son to learn how to do this on his own and he did. This book makes no bones about the fact that letting your baby cry is part of this method - so the ratings that judge based on the crying part - to me that is the same as rating a vegan cookbook poorly because it doesn't have any meat recipes.

We were fortunate to have Conner and Kira from Dream Team Baby consult us when we were desperate for sleep with our eight month-old first son, William, nearly five years ago. Their disciplined, yet loving approach really appealed to our sensibilities and we were so grateful to have a plan to get our family on track. We put their daytime eating and napping schedule into place first - it was very straightforward and William took to it easily. We approached the first night of sleep teaching with some apprehension, but took their advice to support each other and believe in our baby ... and it worked in just one night! William went from waking two-three times per night to sleeping 12 hours straight overnight. It felt like a miracle. And we felt like new people. And sweet, happy William was even happier than he'd ever been because he was getting enough sleep and being taken care of by parents who were getting enough sleep!When our second son, Jackson, was born last year, we promised ourselves we wouldn't wait eight months to sleep again this time around. We followed this book's plan practically to the letter and had a four month-old sleeping 12 hours every night. Of course teething, stuffy noses, and milestones do put a wrinkle in our sleep on a regular basis (as with every nine month-old), so of course we give extra love and late-night snuggles for our little guy when he needs it, but once he's feeling better, he now puts himself back on his schedule. It's amazing.And don't get me started about how incredibly both boys sleep while we're traveling ... The white noise machine is my favorite gift for new parents - and now this book will be accompanying it! I'm giving the combo as a shower gift this coming weekend ...This method gave us the confidence we needed to know that we were making the right choice for our children to help them learn to sleep well at an early age. They love sleep and are happy, well-behaved, fun little dudes because of it. Helping them learn to sleep was a gift for our whole family!

I bought this book when my little one was 6 months old, and when me and her mother were at our wits end with her waking in the night all the time, struggling to nap in the day (which lead to her being cranky all the time), and all the usual issues that can arise when you have a baby that just refuses to sleep.I bought this book at that time because it was written by people who have gotten consistently good results, over a long period of time.We applied the principles in the book by the time our daughter hit 7-8 months, and were able to teach her how to fall asleep on her own, and how to nap in the day consistently. Immediately we saw a huge improvement in the speed of her mental development, it turned out that not getting enough sleep slowed her cognitive development (as the book suggest).As she grew up over the years (she is over 2 and a half) we used the principles in the book to deal with any regressions (there were 2, they happened during big growth milestones when children challenge things more) and adjust for her needing to drop naps.Now that she is a toddler that you can talk and reason with, she asks to go to sleep herself, she can sleep fine in new places when we visit relatives, she enjoys and likes sleep, and on average gets 11-12 hours a sleep a night.Through it all the fundamental principles in this book, and the advice garnered from experience of these authors was our guide on how to help her sleep well, and get us good sleep in turn.The beginning is challenging, and you will listen to your child cry (if you choose to follow this path), but it is the right thing to do. A family is a unit, and the wellbeing of all in the family is important (that includes everyone being able to rest enough), and parenting itself is more than just about love and comfort (if it were that simple, most of us would have had perfect parents). We realized that by protecting our daughter from the discomfort of learning to fall asleep on her own, we were stunting her growth, giving her under-slept, inattentive and cranky parents, and not equipping her with the tools she needs to have autonomy over her own body.Two years later I can tell you that there is no emotional issue with my child, no trauma, no nonsense that people are usually afraid will happen if you follow these principles. Naturally that is true because if you are loving and attentive parents in the day, the child will not treat you letting them fall asleep on their own as some kind of traumatic bond severing moment, but rather a teaching one.

The first half of this book is spent arguing why it's ok for parents to go against their instincts and let their babies cry themselves to sleep, which would happen at the beginning of the 'sleep teaching'. If we need that much convincing, that immediately makes me doubtful. The book says it's not a 'cry it out' book as it doesn't advocate crying for hours on end. But I don't think that even 'cry it out' books do that. Still, this book is probably helpful for mothers with a baby plus a toddler, or multiples, or a particularly difficult sleeper, and I would use its suggestions if I was in those situations.But for me it's no problem to sit for a while with my toddler while he goes to sleep. They grow up so fast and I'm sure he'll eventually go to sleep on his own. Most of the other sleep tips about food and the cot setting and timings of naps, bedtime etc were not new to me but are valuable. I did like the suggestion that it's not necessary to wind down for hours and that quite active play can continue until quite close to bed time.Breast feeders beware: this approach will require you to pump twice in the first part of the night to maintain supply since you will be aiming not to feed during the night. It may be easier just to feed during the night.I think it's disingenuous to suggest that a baby who cries herself to sleep will sleep more hours. If babies wake up in the night or too early they either resettle themselves or it's usually possible to resettle them quite easily. The important thing is for the baby to get sleep, however it's done, but for many the easiest, quickest, least stressful and nicest way to get a baby to sleep and back to sleep, if you can do it, (and not all of us can) is by nursing, not crying.

Definitely helped us in a great time of need with our 10/11 month old that had ALWAYS been a screamer and would wake up multiple times at night. I was stressed because I didn't want her to wake our other sleeping daughter, so I would run to her right away. Then I started sleeping with her and my husband slept downstairs so I could just turn over and feed her when necessary. We used a bed guard rail so she wouldn't roll off. After thoroughly reading the book and psyching myself up, we gave it a try. I was desperate. On a normal night, I would be up 6 - 8 times with our baby. The first night was rough for sleep training, she cried about an hour, but it was only a couple more nights and she learned to sleep through! It worked for us! I don't think there was any other way with her. We didn't do any sleep training with our first daughter, but this one really needed it. After a while (days or weeks), she would cry again (from teething or what have you) and I would run to her the same way out of habit. Then I would have to do the sleep training over again. The training worked every time and was shorter and less stressful each time. Finally I made a mental note of no longer running to her so quickly and she would almost always go back to sleep on her own after just a very brief 'complain' cry even when teething. The book was a real life saver for me!!! If you've never had to do sleep training and think you might need to, this could save your life. Honestly, it saved my LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!