Book Review: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.

After posting a few days ago about my trouble with Aiden's latest sleep habits I picked up this book.  Jamie over at Another Joyous Journey suggested it, telling me how great it worked for them with their son.  I love her blog and totally trusted her opinion.  I read the book in a day!

It was such an eye opening experience.  I had no idea that our main problem is his bedtime.  Turns out his bedtime is too late!  We normally get him to sleep by 9pm, some nights it's 10pm, and then he wakes up 1-3 times a night before getting up at 6-7am.  We thought we were doing good because 90% of the time he falls asleep easily at 9pm.  The book said to start moving bedtime up 20 minutes at a time and see how it goes.  Last night I put Aiden down at 830pm and I'm sure it's not seriously going to be THIS easy, but he slept amazing!  He woke up at 915 and I rocked him right back to sleep.  Then he stayed asleep form 933pm-712am without waking up once!  I was shocked!  Just having one good night has really inspired me.  I feel like we are on the right track.  After further reading it makes a lot of sense why he needs to go to bed earlier.  I mention a quote below that talked about this.

Once we get him in the habit of going to bed earlier and finding the time that works for us {I'm aiming for asleep between 730-8pm} routinely our next step will be cutting out his 3rd nap.  He still takes it but I know it's time to cut it out.  We'll start doing that slowly, I don't want to change bedtime AND nap time all at once.  So bedtime first and I think the nap will start to fade out naturally. 

There was one passage that as I read I got all excited... I read it to Kris and we were both like "whoa - this IS totally OUR problem!".  I'd like to share it with you... {page 125}

"Sometimes, around nine to twelve months of age, a child falls asleep around 5:30pm and is up around 730 or 8pm {ours is more like 430-6 for a nap}, then is up playing with parents for a few hours until 10pm, and finally goes back to sleep but does not sleep well at night.  The parents think the child is taking a third nap at 530pm, but in reality the child needs a very early bedtime, maybe around 6pm, and no playing between 730-10pm."

After reading that I am confident that this book is the right one for us!  Dr. Weissbluth doesn't tell you that you HAVE to let your child cry it out, it explains how it is a healthy option and how to go about it, it really just explains sleep problems and possible solutions.  I am so very glad it was suggested to me and can't wait to see REAL progress and be able to share it!  The book is broken down by ages and goes from birth all the way until they are in teens.  Talking about common problems that may show up as they grow, like sleep walking, nightmares etc.  I can see this book being helpful for many years, and many children, to come.