Book Review: The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
Many new parents are bothered by their newborn babies’ frequent night awakenings to nurse or crankiness at night. The lack of sleep adversely affects these parents, especially those who are working.
Recently, one parent asked in a forum whether it is appropriate to add baby cereal to his newborn’s milk feed to help him sleep longer at night. Another asked whether she should try the Cry-It-Out method on her baby.
It is time to share this long overdue review on The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, which I read shortly after The No-Cry Nap Solution.
Sleeping Problems We Faced at Night
- At four months old, Vee suddenly started waking up about every 1 to 2 hours at night. Previously, he woke up for night feeds at about 3.5 hours apart. We ruled out growth spurt as this lasted more than a week and suspected discomforts from teething and minor gastrointestinal reflux.
- Vee started waking up to cry within 30 to 45 minutes after falling asleep at night. Previously, he would sleep for a few hours until his next feed. When I carried him upright, he felt more comfortable.
- It took 1 hour or more to feed, burp and settle Vee back to sleep in his cot at night. He kept fussing and sometimes I had to try up to FIVE times to get him to sleep soundly in his cot. Before I could sleep for long, he was up for the next feed.
- There were times when Vee was asleep after a night feed but I could not get back to sleep because I was stretching out my hand into the cot to rest it on his chest. Sometimes, I was so sure he would awake anytime to fuss that I unintentionally kept myself awake.
I was utterly convinced that Vee was a high-needs baby and a super-light-sleeper who woke up at the end of EVERY sleep cycle. My night-time sleep was extremely disrupted, and I felt tired and miserable. Fortunately, being a Stay-At-Home-Mum, I could take naps with Vee. (The nap problems were solved more easily.)
How The Book Saved Our Sleep
The No-Cry Sleep Solution explains why caregivers should not allow baby to ‘cry it out’ and offers a suite of gentle solutions to help baby sleep through the night. Some of the areas that I found most useful in our circumstances:
- How to co-sleep in a safe manner. Safe co-sleeping allowed me to continue nursing Vee on demand, with both of us falling back to sleep easily. In short, WE FINALLY GAVE UP USING THE COT.
- Ways to create a bedtime routine and condusive sleeping environment. Many sleeping aids that we tried were ideas from the book.
- How to gently wean him off from bouncing or sucking to sleep. The high-needs baby still needs either kind of help to fall asleep, but there were a few occasions when I could go through the bedtime routine and pat him gently to sleep. He’s progressing, albeit at a slow rate.
- Observing him during his brief awakenings at night and giving him opportunities to learn falling back to sleep by himself. If he seriously needs help, then I would carry or nurse him. Recently, on several occasions, he managed to shift his sleeping position and continued sleeping (erm… on my tummy / chest / pillow) while I pretended to sleep. Another major improvement!
Although I have implemented only some of Pantley’s ideas, Vee has been progressing. Even though he is not sleeping through the night yet (i.e. 5 hours straight), we are getting sufficient rest at night, he hardly cries at night, and he is sleeping for stretches of up to 4 hours. My new ‘problem’: there are times when I wake up in the middle of the night while he is sleeping soundly! I am absolutely pleased with the results.
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What I like about the book:
- Clarifies common misconceptions about baby’s sleep and related problems
- Offers a suite of gentle solutions to help baby sleep through the night
- Solutions produce visible results; timing of success depends on caregivers’ consistency and baby’s adaptability
As this is the first book in the ‘No-Cry’ series, there are less ideas in some areas than the newer books. If you have an older child, you may consider reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Has your baby slept through the night? Or are you struggling through sleepless nights? Do share your experiences and tips on helping your baby sleep better.
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Get Your Own
Pantley’s books are available in most major bookstores such as MPH, Borders, Times and Popular Bookstores. They are hot among parents and often out of stock.
You may also check the price at Amazon.com here: The No-Cry Sleep Solution*
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*: affiliate link to support the growth and maintenance of Mummy’s Reviews™
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my baby is 7 mths old and he still does NOT sleep through the night. He will wake up every 2 hrs or so. Though sometimes for feeds, not always. He cries for comfort.
I am also waiting for the day he sleeps for 6 hrs straight.
Hi shu-yin, your baby is like many others; my boy is still not sleeping through yet at 11 months old. The book assured me that there are ways to help my child achieve that milestone faster than letting nature take its course. Some babies simply don’t naturally sleep through by 6 months old; they need help weaning off their dependence, otherwise it could be years before they start sleeping through. I am glad that there are gentle ways to do so.
May your baby sleep through soon. All the best!
My cousin once asked me (this was with my first-born) – does your baby sleep through the night?
I said, “Yes.” After a moment’s hesitation, I added, “He wakes up to nurse though.”
To which my cousin replied, “I like your perspective.” She was referring to the fact that I considered my son to be sleeping through the night despite the fact that he woke up to nurse at night. I guess because he breastfeeds and I could automatically nurse him at night without really “waking” up, it was pretty much like sleeping through the night. Some nights, I wouldn’t remember waking up but I knew I did because I would wake later with him back on the breast without me remembering how he got there.
We had some good nights though where he really did sleep through the night. My younger boy, too (he’s two and half months now). I think because they were/are both big babies and could/can hold more milk in their tummies, they didn’t need to wake so frequently to feed.
The reason why we co-sleep is so that I could sleep and nurse at the same time. My boy is a big baby too, yet he wakes up frequently to nurse (really gulping down milk); we concluded it’s a combination of huge appetite and the need to drink for comfort. Despite having 4 milk feeds, 3 meals and 1 snack in the day, he’s like on a milk buffet on most nights!
my baby boy is 8 months old and wakes up about every hour (not really waking up, ie opening his eyes, but crying) if i rush to him to nurse him immediately he falls straight back to sleep. but this happens every hour all through the night! he co-sleeps, but still i feel like im not doing anything to help him sleeping longer stretches.. result of his many night feedings is that he needs a nappy change in the middle of the night which sometimes wakes him up. all together he sleeps about 8 hours at night and 2 naps of max 1 hour a day… he falls asleep nursing only. if not, he just rolls over, stands up and takes little steps in the bed until he’s exhausted, i tried this but it took 3 hours of ‘playing’ in the bed and me ending up nursing him anyway to fall asleep. Should I stop feeding him at night? I know he’ll wake up all the way then and I’d spend an hour rocking him to sleep..don’t know what to do, what’s best for him?
Hi lisa, my boy also fussed every 1 to 1.5 hours for many months and it was super-challenging for us. He does not nurse to sleep (was bounced instead) but when he fusses in the middle of the night, nursing him back to sleep was easiest for all of us.
My boy is a very heavywetter because of the night feedings too and using double-stuffed cloth diapers could last him through 12 hours. (Changing is almost sure to wake him up too, so we eliminated night-time changes since he was very young.) Our night-time diapering solution is shared here.
If your boy falls asleep by nursing only, then you’d need to try many of Pantley’s ideas to help him learn sleeping longer stretches without nursing. I did not stop feeding my boy at night. After every feed, I try to unlatch him using Pantley’s method. Sometimes I had to unlatch him, put him over my shoulder, bounce a little, then put him down to bed and let him continue sleeping.
He really improved when we started day-weaning at 14 months old. Gradually, he relied less on the breasts for comfort. He slept through his naps without fussing to suck. then he slept through longer hours at night. Finally, at 18 months old, he slept through the night.
8 + two 1-hour naps sound little for an 8-month old. I think night-time sleep should be at least 10 hours with 2 good naps. Is your boy usually in a good mood during the day or easily cranky from insufficient rest? If he’s easily cranky, then you’d need to work hard to help him sleep better.
Some things to start off:
- relaxed evening: reduced activities, avoid loud noises and bright lights. I only allow quiet play after dinner, so that he could tune down easier for bedtime.
- bedtime routine: bring feeding to earlier part of routine. Ours is feed, change, dim lights, white noise (rainfall sound), story, songs, goodnight kiss, lights out (with small night-light). If baby insists on nursing to sleep, then let him suckle again before sleeping.
- early bedtime: we shifted bedtime to 8-9p.m. in the early months and he was less fussy.
- similar bedtime routine for naps
- help baby take longer naps: I aim for at least 1.5 hours, as per Pantley’s suggestion. When baby wakes up after 1 sleep cycle, I nurse or rock him back to sleep for another cycle. After that, he is much more well-rested. Apparently, a well-napped baby sleeps better at night.
Try to borrow or buy a copy of the book to try out the various ideas. The initial chapter on sleep cycles also gives a good understanding of your baby’s sleeping patterns. For us, it was well worth the money spent.
All the very best to you! Keep in touch!