The Happy Sleeper: The Science-Backed Guide to Helping Your Baby Get a Good Night's Sleep-Newborn to School Age

I’m writing this for the moms who simply cannot get their child to sleep unless they are literally attached to their boob. Before implementing the skills in this book, my baby literally only slept on her own, in the crib or bassinet, for a max of 35 min. She has been so alert since I had her which has made it very difficult to get her to sleep on her own. I’ve tried all the sleep sacks in the world but until this book, I just couldn’t get her to sleep without feeding her the entire night. Night one had to be the hardest for me and there was a lot of guilt and tears involved….but let me tell you, she slept in her crib (for the first time ever at night) from 7 pm to 4 am!! It turns out she didn’t even need anymore night feedings but I would have never known before this book.Every night forward she’s slept for atleast 11 hours by herself every night, sometimes 12-13. Naps were aways a struggle for her but I’m going on 3 weeks of using the techniques and her naps have completely changed now as well. Not only does she barely make a fuss when it’s time to go down, but her naps have started to lengthen and she started giving clear indications of when she’s ready to take them.I’m honestly in awe, especially since she had some serious sleep debt from not getting enough sleep every day for about 4 months. She still cries the hardest at night compared to her naps, but the length of crying continues to shorten. It’s like we have a new happier and more rested baby!

This book changed our family's life and brought so much health and happiness into our home. I read all the sleep books. ALL OF THEM. 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). I (mama) was TERRIFIED of what "sleep training" would do to our relationship, his secure attachment, his heart? my heart? Our marriage? I was absolutely convinced there was NO WAY I could hear him cry and not run in and pick him up. It felt so wrong not to soothe him immediately whenever he cried. Our 7 month old son has never slept more than 3 hours consecutively without feeding... he and I were cosleeping in a separate bed... I am a birth doula primarily for planned home births and I put a lot of pressure on myself to cosleep (as did the midwives, birth teachers, doulas, and other "attachment" parents I knew). We had a very traumatic birth ending in an emergency c section under anesthesia and I thought I would be furthering both our birth trauma by separating at night. By seven months, our son was nursing every 45 mins- 2 hours, napping 4 20-30 min naps a day, and not gaining weight on the curve as he had been. Every time he woke to nurse, it took 10-30 mins of rocking, shushing, and sucking in my arms for him to fall back asleep. I was an absolute zombie... I stopped driving because it didn't feel safe, and I wasn't able to socialize with other parents with kids the same age because I was so jealous, and I have never been a jealous person.I finally admitted to my husband that I "couldn't survive this anymore". I had gone back to work part time, as had he, and I really felt like my health and safety were at risk if we continued on this path, but I just didn't know what to do. We tried having him do several bottles a night, etc. but still none of us were sleeping and our son was screaming for mama without me in bed with him. We tried soothing him without nursing, sitting with him while he cried, etc. so he wouldn't "feel alone".This was 100 % the right program for our son. We prepared for two weeks, prepping a space for him to sleep just as the book described, writing a plan, and doing two consultations with Heather (worth every penny!). On our first night of training, I did our bedtime routine, laid him down, said our mantra, and walked out of the room, and then RAN out of the house to go for a walk while my husband did the five minute checks. I thought I absolutely couldn't hear him cry without interfering. After 15 minutes, he called me to tell me that our son was "out cold!" having cried intermittently but never as hard as he did when we were trying to soothe him before. He only woke 3 times the first night, twice the second and third, and once for the next few days (he slept for nine hours in a row and then fed then two hours after). He never cried for more than 20 minutes, and usually not at all or for a few minutes, and never half as hard as he had when he was in our arms. We used their method for almost all of our naps in the next week (he once dozed off on the couch and did a few naps in the pack on papa so I could sleep in) As Heather said, "you will be amazed by how capable your little guy is". Indeed, we were absolutely blown away by how skillful he is at soothing himself. It honestly has been a real pleasure to go through Happy Sleepering him. Heather was available by email throughout the entire process and we tweaked the feedings and such with her help.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. This book truly is "science-based" and lays out great detailed plans. Any doubt I had about whether this was right for our baby and our family was soothed by our consults with Heather. Heather and Julie really try to keep their practices open for consults themselves, as opposed to some of the other authors of similar programs who have lots of people working for them.Our family and parenting has forever been changed by reading this book. We are so glad we "sleep trained". All our friends and mentors who coslept happened to have babies who slept for at least 3-4 hours consecutively without feeding, or who nursed for minutes and went straight back to sleep. With our sensitive little guy, it was clearly just too much stimulation to cosleep. Now he is much happier, growing really well, his development is clearly more supported, and he has two very happy parents. We spend lots of time together during the day cuddling and nursing, and he seems so settled in his own independent sleep space.This is THE book. GO FOR IT!

This book/technique was a game changer for us. My son would only sleep for an hour or 2 max by himself before waking up. I had been waking up with him 4-5 times a night unless we co-slept until he was 12 months old. By the third night he was sleeping through the night…11 hours straight. Unbelievable, and so happy everyone is getting better sleep. This was a more gentle approach that worked great for our family.

My daughter will turn three soon. The methods in The Happy Sleeper have worked for initial sleep training, moving to a new home, changing rooms, vacation, naps while visiting friends for the afternoon, transition from crib to bed. Everything. I'm a solo parent, and I'm not sure how i would have managed without this book.

If you are trying to unlock the trick to getting your baby to sleep through the night you must read this book!

You could pay for an expensive class on baby sleep, or you could just buy this book. We opted for the book and we are very happy with the sleeping situation with both of our sons! It is very easy to read, and also a good reference book - you can jump in and look something up real quick if you need to. I have referenced it many times and have also recommended it to countless friends. We did not sleep train our son until he was 14 months old, and it was excruciating but only took 15 minutes and he was trained, because we followed the rules of this book! And after a few regressions, we can always come back to the rules from the book and get him back on track! We are going to use all the tips and tricks when we are ready to sleep train our next baby too.I also appreciate all the education on sleep and expectations, so there is a "why" behind everything they recommend. Makes it easier to understand and implement!

I'm only halfway through and I'm here to say buy the book. I bought it because my kid was waking up every 2-3 hours and needing my to rock him back to sleep. We couldn't afford a sleep consultant. Just having the mindset of he can do this and working on getting him to fall asleep in the crib has already made a huge difference. Night one, first wake up at 1am. Night two, 2:30! Just having a stretch of sleep is huge.

We bought this book in hopes it would help our 7 month old fall asleep by herself, have longer naps, and sleep in longer in the morning. I wasn't a fan of controlled crying or anything akin to cry it out so felt confident about this book and it's gentle sounding approach.It does contain lots of helpful info, especially about nap windows, the "soothing ladder" for younger babies, some fantastic tips for a bedtime routine and even a whole chapter about parent sleep. I do refer back to it now and again for info about these things. There's examples of routines depending on age, and it's all very easy to read, clearly written with sleep deprived parents in mind!However - the sleep wave, the method you're supposed to use to help your baby sleep better, is controlled crying. Basically what you do is put your baby to bed, and say a script like "good night, I love you", then leave the room for 5 mins, and return at 5 minute intervals to repeat your "script" as long as the baby is crying. The thought behind it is that babies can and do want to settle themselves to sleep, they just need the time and space to do it, which I think sounds great, but after a lot of consideration we decided we didn't want to do it. So while I'm sure this method works well for a lot of parents, and if this sounds right for you then I would definitely recommend this book - there's lots of valuable info and I really do think the method would work, but the sleep wave method just wasn't right for our family. I wouldn't recommend buying this book if you don't want to do controlled crying.

I've read no less than 11 baby sleep books since my son was born 12m ago! Only 2 of them were worth reading, this one and Dr weissbluths book.My son has bedshared since day 1 but by 10m this was no longer working for us,he was restless at night and I was trapped with him from bedtime and every nap. At 11m we moved him to a floorbed in his own room, this helped but I still ended up laying with him for 30mins about 5 times a night which wasn't sustainable, bedtime took 1-2hrs. We could not being ourselves to do extinction/cry it out, and the lack of a crib further complicated the matter.At 11m I started using the happy sleeper method recommend for older toddlers who are out of cribs. The first night was hard, it took 2.5hrs as baby kept getting up and coming to the gate. Second night took 30mins, third took 15mins and since then it's been a couple of mins wriggling and that's it!6week later bedtime is still a dream and we've also just night weaned without a fight. Still getting about 2 wakings of about 5mins each but I can honestly say this method has changed our lives. My baby now actually looks forward to sleep!! He has 2.5hrs of day naps and 11hrs at night at 1yr old and is happy as can be. I finally get a few hours in the evening with my husband

Thank you thank you thank you thank you! My baby sleeps! FINALLY!!! My little girl is almost one year old and what you would call a terrible sleeper. I breastfeed her and on her best nights, would have done this 3x. Minimum. When she was younger, feeding her back to sleep worked so I kept on doing it. Quickest way for us all to go back to sleep. I had taught my daughter to fall asleep by herself with the No Cry Sleep Solution around 5 months. That has worked a treat, but never reduced night waking for us. Around 9 months, separation anxiety hit and she cried a lot so we had quickly fallen back into a habit of nursing to sleep. All would be well with that, except that it was taking longer and longer, and neither of us were happy with it. It was painful and every wakeup was taking longer and longer, sometimes she'd resist going back to sleep for 2 hours, only to wake 30 min later.I was dead against crying to sleep, but I was at the end of my rope and more importantly, my baby wasn't getting the sleep she needed. Before trying the method in this book, I had already worked on not feeding to sleep anymore - we rocked/held instead - so that it wasn't just me who could put her down. I also worked on reducing night feeds by, again, rocking/holding/walking. This had to some degree already helped her sleep longer stretches at night. I had also worked on getting her on a consistent schedule, which also helped her take good naps already. Despite all this, we could tell the one thing she needed was to fall asleep by herself. She was fighting all our attempts to put her to bed, but once in bed and not fully asleep, she would cry. It was a battle we just couldn't win.So - we started the method described in this book. I had prepared for hours of crying, staying up most of the night and me being emotional, but my husband and me had agreed on this and we were determined. We did our routine, put her down - crying for five minutes - we went in. Went back out - crying. However - she stopped crying and feel asleep sitting up within the next 5 min!! She had a few more cries on finding herself asleep sitting up, then eventually just laid herself down and went to sleep!! WITHIN 15 MIN! She woke a few times but each time went back to sleep within 3 min. I fed her only once and put her back down awake - again asleep within 3 min. Since starting this, she goes to sleep within 3 min of crying, and today (day 4) - no cries at all for her nap! She now sleeps through the night for 11-12 hours, instead of just about the 9 she made before, with one wakeup to drink. We could probably wean her off this feed too, but for now, my engorged breasts welcome the relief!Wow wow wow, get this book, and do your baby and yourself a huge favour!!

I can't speak to the exact research/science behind this book (as I've barely got time to read let alone delve into pubmed for this) but the methods have worked well for our baby. The emphasis is on routine, and this is what we needed to regain our evenings. It has been a massive improvement in our quality of life, and our daughter has been happier for it. Worth a look if you're struggling with sleep for your little one.

We are only on night 2, but fingers crossed this method is working miracles already! We have been trying the no cry sleep solution for MONTHS but my 12 month old's sleep was just getting worse and worse. We were spending hours every night fighting to get him to sleep. I read the reviews that say this is not a 'no cry' or 'gentle' solution which made me sceptical because I didn't really want to go down the crying road, but I thought hey, let's give it a go. I'm so glad I did.For one thing, it's a really easy read. I read all the bits relevant to my son's age group easily in one evening, despite being massively sleep deprived. It explains the science clearly and I could recognise my exact situation in the explanations. Still sceptical, we tried it out last night. I was expecting hours of crying and even thinking I might have to stay awake all night checking on him every 5 minutes, there's no way my absolute nightmare of a sleeper would self settle. Ever. But this amazing thing happened and he was asleep within 45 mins! He woke up several times during the night, but instead of spending hours feeding/rocking him back to sleep we followed this method and he settled down within 15-20 mins each time, without us picking him up once. He slept in his cot all night for the first time in months and I only fed him once, when I normally feed him 4+ times. Tonight he went to sleep after only 10 minutes and although he's woken up a few more times he's self settled within 2 mins each time.If you are dithering about this book, try it. Follow the instructions exactly and hopefully it will work for you too!