The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
By Elizabeth Pantley
For those many parents who first tested Elizabeth Pantley’s “No-Cry Sleep Solution,” thank you for your combined patience and persistence proving the efficacy of this system with your own babies. I imagine some parents first picked up this book in a hazy state of mind-altering sleep deprivation, read the title through half-shut eyes, and muttered, ‘My baby? Sleep through the night? Are you kidding?’
The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night delivers: there is a ten-step plan you can follow, borne of “dissecting truth from fallacy.” There are insights into the mutual agony for parents and child with the cry-it-out method. You will know you are not alone on this journey as you read parent testimonials and their email updates on their progress, such as, “It was one step forward, two steps back for a while, and now she is sleeping soundly consistently for six hours every night! Hooray!!” There are quotes giving parental confirmation in “Mother-Speak” boxes throughout the text, and photos of sleeping babies, showing living proof of real sleeping babies; a welcome sight.
Mother-Speak:
“We have followed our bedtime routine every night, and I can see that she now expects bed to come after her bath. It’s almost like she looks forward to it.”
~ Tammy, mother of seven-month-old, Brooklyn
To witness your own baby sleeping through the night, Elizabeth Pantley has dedicated her attention to gathering helpful information from many parents and experts on the subject, including developmental research: the reasons behind her suggestions. She offers you the most supportive, effective, simple, personalized and creative ways to make the process smooth and successful. She is aware of the real-life scenarios that parents face having breastfed, practiced co-sleeping, and enjoyed babywearing with her own four babies. She and her very supportive husband have practiced what is shared in this book. Elizabeth speaks from her heart offering comfort to the most weary, and offering hope for your wildest dreams: your peacefully sleeping baby.
In Elizabeth Pantley’s own words:
“Let me tell you why I became passionate about writing this book:
Fourteen years ago, when my first child, Angela, was a baby, I faced your dilemma: She did not sleep through the night. On the contrary, she woke every two hours for my attention. As a new, inexperienced parent, I searched for solutions in books, articles, and conversations with other parents.
I soon discovered two schools of thought when it comes to babies and sleep:
- One side advocates letting a baby cry until she learns to fall asleep on her own.
- The other side says that it is a parent’s job to nurture the baby — all day and all night — and eventually, when your baby is ready, she will sleep through the night.
In a nutshell, the two methods can be summed up as “cry it out” or “live with it.” I wanted neither. I knew there had to be a kinder way, a road somewhere between nighttime neglect and daytime exhaustion that would be nurturing for my baby and for me.
Those many years ago, I felt guilty and selfish when I began to wish for an uninterrupted night’s sleep. To reconcile my own instincts regarding Angela’s nighttime needs with the fatigue that hampered my daytime parenting was nearly impossible. Time passed, and eventually my daughter did sleep through the night — but not until after her second birthday.”
With age-appropriate guidance on observing your baby’s patterns and needs, you’re assured there are ways of finding peaceful solutions. There are strategies to face the night, in simple steps you can take to progress towards cherishing the precious fleeting moments of your baby’s infancy: creating your own comforting bedtime routine, which may include the calm of a rocking chair, creating to a cozy cradle, or nighttime nest, tracking progress with easy-to-duplicate blank charts, and taking care of your own needs, too. The many testimonials offer proof that parents in situations that may be similar to yours have found relief and restored harmony in their home.
Between the exhaustion of all-nighters with your wide-awake baby, and the days of sleepwalking towards yet another one of those, this is a delicate subject, sometimes approached after all patience and emotional resources have been exhausted. Having Elizabeth Pantley’s compassionate and supportive voice gently soothing away your fears and desperation is crucial. Especially true when facing milestones and surprises, such as: growth spurts, new developmental behaviors, colic, ear infections, or bad advice from well-meaning family members and strangers. As it is aptly called, “the dance towards success” is yours to take. This book is a wonderful and graceful partner. The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night delivers sound direction towards sound sleep.
