Product Description

Two experts who are helping Hollywood's A-list babies get their zzz's share the no-fail, family-friendly method that has helped thousands of sleep-deprived moms and dads.

Even Hollywood's biggest stars face the same dilemma as other parents do: "How do I get my child to sleep?" As parents in the know are finding, whether they're on the red carpet or the soccer field, the answer is the same: The Sleepeasy Solution.

Psychotherapists and sleep specialists Jennifer and Jill, the dynamic "girlfriends" all of Hollywood calls on to solve Junior's sleep problems, have perfected their sleep technique that will get any child snoozing in no time—most often in fewer than three nights. The key to their method? It addresses the emotional needs of both the parent and child (yes, how to handle the crying!)—a critical component of why most other sleep methods fail.

In this much-needed, family-friendly guide, weary parents will learn to define their own individual sleep goals, those that work for their family's schedule and style. They'll create a customized "sleep planner" to ensure consistency with both parents as well as extended caregivers. (As an added bonus, they'll even improve the readers' relationships with their spouses with the "marriage-saver" section.) With comprehensive sections devoted to each stage of Baby's and Toddler's development, plus solutions to special circumstances like traveling, daylight saving's time, moving to a "big kid bed" and multiples, The Sleepeasy Solution is a dream come true!

"This approach was truly amazing in helping our family to thrive. . . . We are eternally grateful!"
—Ben Stiller and wife, Christine Taylor, actors

"With their gentle approach, Sleepeasy gave us the tools we needed to solve our daughter's sleep problems."
—Conan O'Brien, host of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien

"Sleepeasy gave us all the tools we needed to get our baby sleeping through the night. Now when we say good night to our daughter, we know it really will be a good night."
—Greg Kinnear, actor

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6448 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780757305603
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Jennifer Waldburger, LCSW, is a trained psychotherapist and partner of Sleepy Planet, the preeminent parenting/sleep company in LA. She is a former writer and editor for Town & Country, Redbook, Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar.

Jill Spivack, LMSW, is a psychotherapist who worked as a pediatric sleep consultant who co-founded Sleepy Planet, Inc., in 1999. The two offer private sleep consultations for celebrity clients and others, standing-room only workshops and regular keynotes at Baby Expos with audiences of over 300. They have appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Inside Edition (feature piece) as well as in The Wall Street Journal and Fit Pregnancy.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from The Sleepeasy Solution

No-Cry Versus Crying It Out

Most parents wanting to make changes with their child's sleep have heard all the debates about allowing a child to cry. This has led to a lot of confusion. Some of the methods that promise "no-cry" solutions suggest to parents that their child wonÆt ever cry. The idea is that being ôgentler and more responsiveöùcontinuing to soothe your child by patting, picking her up, holding her hand, and the likeùmeans that she is less traumatized.

Ironically, though, parents often report that the child still cries even while they continue to attend to her; all children protest change, and the way they let us know they don't like the change is to cry. As important as it is for parents to express love to children through physical touch, and as illogical as it may seem that doing so while helping a child learn to sleep is counterproductive, it is indeed the parent's touch that can exacerbate a child's frustration in this scenario. The result? The child often continues to struggle with sleep, usually for weeks or even months, because she is not being allowed to learn how to soothe herself. With older children, using touch can be especially detrimental, as it tempts them to continue testing limits with you, to keep pressing until you cave in and help them to sleep. WeÆve found that when using these kinds of "hands-on" methods, parents often give up on sleep learning because it takes so long to actually get better sleep that the process itself becomes exhausting.

On the other end of the spectrum are the experts who suggest that the fastest way to help a child to sleep is to allow him to "cry it out" in other words, shutting the door and leaving your child completely alone, crying, for as long as it takes him to fall asleep. Also known as full extinction, this method actually does work, and sometimes quite quickly, although we have heard stories of children who have cried for as long as several hours at a stretch on the first night or two, perhaps bewildered and frightened because the usual helpers (namely, you) have disappeared. The idea of a child alone in the dark, crying inconsolably, doesnÆt sit right with most parents, and it doesn't sit right with us, either. It seems unnecessarily hard on both parents and child.

We think experts on both ends of the spectrum are well intentioned, but we also believe that the so-called no-cry solutions focus too much on the parent's and child's emotions and not enough on the necessary conditions for learning, and that the extinction methods focus too much on the child's learning and not enough on the emotional side of sleep learning. This is how we arrived at what we call the "least-cry" approach.

The "Least-Cry" Approach

So if giving your child too much help makes her cry harder and longer, and giving her too little help makes parents (and possibly the child) feel uneasy and overwhelmed, what's left? Finding a balance between allowing your child to learn how to sleep, while lovingly supporting her in the process. Our recipe for successful sleep learning --meaning that children learn to sleep quickly with a minimum of crying--contains two important ingredients:

1. A simple, customized sleep plan that includes step-by-step instructions for scheduling, environmental changes, and helping children change their sleep behavior, and

2. Plenty of support around the emotional aspects of teaching a child to sleep (and some inevitable frustration), to help children continue to feel loved, and to help parents remain consistent as their child learns. Parents who use our methods usually report that their child begins to sleep through the night in less than five nights, because the child receives clear, consistent responses that shape behavior quickly, and because she feels your loving encouragement while she learns. In a matter of days, children learn that they don't need assistance from their parentsùwith a bit of practice they become expert sleepers, and the whole family finally begins to get the rest they need.

Although there are other methods designed to offer parents a "middle-of-the-road" option, we haven't found any that help a child learn as quickly and minimize the crying as effectively as the techniques we use. We believe this is because we offer an equal balance of opportunities for behavioral learning and loving support that doesn't interfere with that learning. In this book, our aim is to give you exactly what a family would get if they were sitting in our office: our expertise, proper tools, and all the emotional support you need.

We'll help you create an organized, fail-proof plan that ensures success--usually in less than five nights. At Sleepy Planet, we've met thousands of parents who are in exactly the same exhausted, barely functioning boat that you're in right now. Happily, your child's (and thus you and your spouse's) sleepless nights will soon feel like a quickly fading bad dream. So hang in there; help has finally arrived! (That would be us, and we're not leaving your side till your child's sleep is much improved. Promise.)

There are seven main "sleep stealers" or reasons your child isn't sleeping well; she may be affected by one of them, by a combination of several, or if you've hit the jackpot, by all seven.

1. SLEEP STEALER #1: No Consistent Bedtime Routine Though most parents know that a bedtime routine is a good idea, it can be hard to be consistent about doing it, either because there's too much to do before bed or because your child has so much energy that it's hard to slow her down. Nonetheless, a predictable wind-down routine is one of the most important tools your child needs to sleep well.
2. There are several important components of a good bedtime routine:
3. Physical activity should come before the routine. If Daddy likes to toss the baby in the air, or your toddler likes to streak naked through the living room, go for it! Just make sure you do these activities before the bath or bedtime routine, when you'll want to start slowing things down.
4. The routine should last 15 to 60 minutes at nighttime, and about 10 to 15 minutes before a nap. The length of your routine will depend partly on the age of your child; a 5-month-old might gum a few pages of a board book, whereas an 18-month-old will enjoy at least one full story.
5. Do your bedtime routine in the same room where your child will be sleeping. It's important that your child spend some time in this space with you, feeling comfortable and relaxed, so the transition into sleep will go smoothly. If you give your child a bath and help him change into PJs in his room, and then return to another part of the house with him for more play or activity, you'll lose the momentum of the wind-down process and will likely find that your child gets a "second wind."
6. Do approximately the same activities each night or at nap time, in the same order.
7. This is what will help your child develop sleep cues, so that over time just doing the routine makes your child sleepy. Wind-down activities can include:

   A bath

   A massage

   Dimming the lights

   Playing soft music

   Diaper change and putting on pjÆs

   Nursing, a bottle, or a cup of milk

   A book or song (or several of each)

   Playing quietly on the floor (no toys that beep or blink)

   With an older child, talking about your day together

   You get the idea. Have fun and be creative; just remember to keep it low-key. Once you've established a consistent routine, anyoneùsitter, grandparents, other familyùshould be able to do exactly what you do to put your child to sleep and have exactly the same results. Mom and Dad are then freed up for a night on the town.

   Imagine that!
   
   

   ©2007. Jennifer Waldburger, LCSW, and Jill Spivak, LMSW. All rights reserved. Reprinted from The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street , Deerfield Beach , FL 33442.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely amazing!
My 9-month-old daughter had never slept more than 4 hours at a time before we read this book. She would wake up several times a night, sometimes every hour! We tried other methods, but they didn't work. Finally, we decided to try a new method, and after pouring over every book in the parenting section of the bookstore, I decided that this one seemed like the one for me. I liked how the authors were very sensitive to parents who, like myself, were resistant to letting babies cry. We were prepared for the worst, and figured that we would have a terrible week ahead of us, maybe longer. The first night, she fell asleep after 30 minutes and only woke up once during the night. The second night, it took her 17 minutes and she never woke up. Last night (the third night), she fell asleep after 7 minutes and slept for 12 hours straight! We were amazed, and refreshed, since we'd gotten the first full-night of sleep that we've had in 9 months! It also works wonders for naps. We are now like a new family, with a happy, rested baby, and parents who are not exhausted all of the time. By the way, I have never written a review of anything before, so for me to be writing this is a REALLY big deal! Try this if you are a desperate parent, it really does work, and FAST! If it works for our baby, it will work for yours.

*** Note: After posting my review, I noticed that several new reviewers refer to this method as "lazy parenting", and seem to be of the opinion that this method is the worst thing for your baby. This may be true for them, but I just have to respond by saying that my baby is much happier now that we have been doing this method for a week- when I put her down at night, she is smiling, and does not cry at all, but just rolls over and goes to sleep for 12 hours. Before, when she was waking every few hours, she was cranky most of the time. Since she would go through 3-4 bottles a night (which, at 9 months, she definitely did not need!), she would not eat for most of the morning, and her naps were a nightmare! As a result, we had a baby who was overtired and not eating well during the day (and, as a result, getting most of her nutrition from formula instead of food, which she needs at this age). Now, she wakes up cheerful and well-rested (and, I might add, always happy to see us, even though we'd "abandoned" her), eats solid meals during the day, naps regularly, and is much more adjusted. My husband and I also have more energy to spend with her when we get home from work, since we're no longer only getting 4 hours of sleep, which I think is also a huge benefit for her. I was always against the "cry-it-out" method as well, but this really isn't about that, and it gets results very quickly. By the way, I have read Dr. Sears, and tried "The No-Cry Sleep Solution", and neither of them did any good. This will work very well for some people, but not for others, and I think that's OK.

Didn't work for us
The ideas in this book sound good on paper and I watched when the authors were on the Today Show and they make it seem so simple. However, when I put the methods into action I thought they were horrible. The first night my 6 month old son screamed for 1 hour and 45 minutes before he finally fell asleep (from pure exhaustion I'm sure). I was so happy to hear the silence and felt horrible that he had to cry for so long. But almost as soon as he had been asleep for exactly 1 hour, he awoke and started crying again. We let him cry for about 30 minutes until my husband put his foot down and said that this was clearly not the method for us. There are several loop-holes in the so called failproof method. For example, my son often wets himself during the night and according to this book, I am not allowed to touch him at all. So I have no way of knowing if he is soiled or not and I don't think it is appropriate to leave him in wet clothes until morning. Also, after this incident, my son would scream anytime I laid him in his crib even if only to play (which he was doing before). Now he almost seems traumatized. There are many other issues that I disagree with but the bottom line is that I do not reccommend this book or these methods. If you can leave your baby in a room and let him scream for hours and hours then by all means go for it. To me, it doesn't seem like responsible parenting. Beleive me, I was an exhausted parent but there are more gentle and less damaging ways to get your child to sleep. Elizabeth Pantley suggests several good methods and ideas. My son now sleeps through the night (with no crying) for 10-11 hours.

Wow, a miracle
This book helped us so much that I feel compelled to write my first review. The most impressive thing to me is that when I emailed the author (at [...]) with a question about a recommendation in the book, she emailed me a complete and personal response within 24 hours! My husband is so thrilled that he said we should send the authors an extra $10!

For months I had asked our doctor, researched on the internet and read several other books to help my 8 1/2 month old son give up night feedings AND sleep through the night. I very strongly didn't want my child to cry for hours or go hungry. However, I also didn't want him to form long term habits that would be hard to break later, as I had already observed his sleep habits getting worse as he learned to sit, crawl, stand and etc in the crib. Although I very much wanted the "No Cry Sleep Solution" to work for me, the techniques in that book just made my child significantly worse every night. Rest assured, that even with this book, I NEVER had to let my child cry much. On the only bad night we had, he cried for about 20 minutes off and on.

This book is well organized and well written. You can read the essential sections to get started very quickly. I was very wary about waking a sleeping baby one hour before his "usual" wake up time in order to wean night feedings. But, I made a commitment to try their approach, so I did it exactly as prescribed in the book. Wow, within three nights he gave up BOTH night feedings without going hungry or crying or waking for a pacifier. Within the next two nights he started sleeping for around 11 hours. We only had one night that was somewhat difficult, which I attribute somewhat to the daylight savings time change on the first night of no night feedings.