Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy

In The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight, Kim West provides a lot of information on the science of sleep as well as a program to teach children from newborn to age five how to sleep better on their own. The first four chapters provide a great foundation for understanding how children sleep and

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why it is so important to help teach them to self-soothe and to not rely on their parents to help them get to sleep in the middle of the night. Although I read the majority of the book for the purpose of doing this review, most people could then skip to the chapter that corresponds to the age of their child as much of that information is repetitive, simply adapted slightly for different age groups. The last section of the book also has some chapters that everyone should probably read on medical issues that can cause sleep difficulty, dealing with breaks in the normal routine, and taking care of mom and dad. The chapters about co-sleeping and twins and siblings will also be helpful for many families.

One thing I loved about this book was all the stories from parents about how the Sleep Lady method has worked for them. It helped me know that I was not alone in not starting out quite right and showing me that we can still work with Elizabeth to develop better sleep habits. The stories also show how easily the Sleep Lady Method can be adapted for different parenting styles.

West places a heavy emphasis on having a schedule and routines to help the child know when it is time to eat, sleep, and play. This gives the child a sense of security in knowing what is coming and what is expected of them West also acknowledges the need for some flexibility in these schedules and often directs parents to follow their instincts about what will work best for their child.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for new parents or for parents who need help with their child's sleeping. Obviously, the earlier you start working on a child's sleep the easier it will be but West demonstrates success with her method with preschoolers as well. She packs a lot of information and advice into the book and it may be hard to remember it all for a sleep deprived parent but West breaks it down and makes it sound manageable.

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If it actually helps us get Maggie to sleep on her own without complaining, I'll give it 5 stars.

This book will improve life. It's already been a couple of days an I already see an improvement in her sleeping. We've already given up middle of the night feedings. The only issue with the book is the lack of problem solving advice for napping. Otherwise I've been really happywith this. I couldn't

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handle CIO because she would be screaming but this is much less stressful on both of us.

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Almost nauseatingly repetitive, as all train-your-kids books tend to be. But it made a lot of sense and worked for us.