HSHHC

Maybe it's becasue I havn't read the whole book, just different parts. Maybe I have a fried brain! Maybe I'm just an idiot! :laughing:

On the cover it says "A step by step program", so I guess I was expecting:
Step 1: .............
Step 2: .............

For some reason, I just find the book hard to follw. He's always talking about babies with colic and % of this and that. Also, I can never understand when he says things like "Make sure your baby is sleeping well at night" , or "Make sure yor baby is napping well during the day". How, exactly, can you make them sleep well? Isn't this why we are reading a sleep reference book?

I can't find the answer to this question. At what age are they "ready" to go more than 1-2 hours of awake time?

OK, sorry for the vent. I'm a little sleep deprived! :icon_biggrin:

 

I didn't follow it until my girls were over 4 months old. I know people that have done it younger though.

I was having trouble getting through the beginning of the book and then a friend told me she didn't have time to read the book, so she skipped right to the chapter pertinent to the age of her girls at the time. I did the same and it was so much easier that way.

 

QUOTE(MichelleL @ May 5 2008, 12:13 AM) [snapback]755204[/snapback]
I didn't follow it until my girls were over 4 months old.


Same here. It really didnt apply to us until then and the first thing we started with was the no more than 2 hours of awake time before trying to get them down.

 

I hated that book!! It was WAY too much info for me. I was too tired to read it and even wouldn't look at it today! I even gave it to my mother to read since I was so tired but she agreed - too technical.

 

Oh, and by the way, my girls just now go about 2 hours without sleep. They still nap 4 times a day usually!

 

I believe the book says that by about 5 months you can start setting a nap schedule based on clock time. He recommends three naps a day at that age. So the amount of time they stay up will depend on how long they nap for. For example, if they go down at 9 AM and sleep until 10:30, then if the next nap is set to be at 1, then they'll be up for 2.5 hours. Honestly tho, my boys are 5 months (granted only 3 months adjusted age) and we can't go longer than 1.5 hours before they start acting really sleepy. Great book, IMO.

 

I think Weissbluth wrote the book that way to show that his method is based on science, unlike the majority of other books. I take the point, but, guy, get an editor for the next edition! I suppose I would have liked that part better if I'd read it before the sleepless nights and hectic days began.

My guys weren't ready to go longer than 2 hours of awake time until they were about 7 or 8 months old. I think that's when we dropped the third nap for good. That really varies - I think he says that some babies START to be able to stay awake longer around 5 or 6 months, but I know at least one other mom on TS whose babies are just now dropping the third nap at a year. You just have to keep paying attention to the babies and they'll let you know when they're ready.

 

I had a hard time understanding it also because most of the time I was just frantically flipping through it trying to find an answer to something that was happening at that moment. I did finally sit down and read a lot of it. My boys didn't start going longer than two hours awake until about 8 months and then it was about 2 hrs 15 min. Now at a year we are at 3 hours. The main thing is trying to watch for their sleepy signs: Less interactive, staring, rubbing eyes etc...

 

I am glad it is not just me!

I do like how he writes to specific age groups, HOWEVER after reading other parts of the book things made a little more sense.

For example (and maybe this a duh!) but he says that babies should not sleep in swings in one of the part of the book as that is "junk sleep" and they need to have motionless sleep, but in another part he says in so many words put them wherever you can. I finally realized it meant that the swing should not be moving, in that if the baby needs to start out in the swing (moving) just go in there and stop it, put don't move the baby.

I know, no big deal but for me I couldn't understand what he was talking about!

 

It's not just that you're sleep-deprived! I found the premise helpful (that they need to sleep often, that getting overtired makes it harder for them to get to sleep), but the actual writing is a mess, and it's totally disorganized (or at least, it's organized in some way that doesn't make sense to me). A lot of it struck me as padding -- saying the same thing over and over again.

 

I like his concepts and believe in his book, but he seriously needs a better editor. One of the most difficult to follow things I've ever read. It's funny you say that about him saying "Make sure they sleep well at night" I wanted to scream every time I read that.

 

I never had a lot of problems with the book although I agree there is a lot of repeat and going back and forth. I found the chapters per age more usefull than the first chapters which were more scientific and they were a littl harder to read. I guess it helped he was our doctor too, got to ask all the questions I wanted. I also participated in his twin study which he's suppose to publish later this year, not sure it will be a book one day too.

 

I feel the same way. It doesn't flow and I don't have the time to try to figure it out!

 

It is great to hear so many other ladies who weren't crazy about this book!! Anytime I had a sleeping question, people kept saying I HAD to read this book. But it is just so scientific - it's great that his methods are based on that, but who needs to read it? Especially when you are sleep deprived? The guy might be a great doctor but he is a terrible writer - he needs to use some of his book profits to hire a new editor!

 

Thanks, everyone! I was starting to think there was something really wrong with me!

I agree that having scientific evidence is very important, but geeze, GET TO THE POINT!
Thanks!

 

that book saved me! that being said, we didn't follow it until about 5 or 6 months old ... you can't really follow it until you are ready to let your baby 'cry it out.' we didn't let the girls cry until they were 5 1/2 months old ... and it was the hardest thing I have ever done but also the ONLY thing that made them learn how to self-soothe. I know that they know that I love them and they don't feel abandoned and will not suffer any long term damage from crying some to learn how to self-soothe ... that is JMO. I agree with what someone else said, just read the one part that pertains to babies your babies' age. My babies were colic babies, so maybe that is why I liked it so much. Being that they are post-colic babies, they were 4 times a day nappers until about 6 months old ... then 3 until about 9 months old ... now at 9 1/2 months they are consistently 2 times a day nappers and STTN 12 hours! YAY! They are breastfed and have been STTN since about 8 months old ... so all that about formula babies sleeping better at night is not true IMO ... it is all about either being able to self soothe or not being able to self soothe that makes babies wake at night (and whether or not they are overtired ...)

 

I felt like it was hard to follow as well. I didn't apply everything in the book either, I just took from it what I felt was important.