Sleeping Books

I know a lot of you are a fan of Babywise, as am I. It was recommended to Reed when we were pregnant with Lara and we started it right away after she was born. It worked like a charm and she was an awesome sleeper (for the first 2 years anyway). I am not a to-the-T follower of Babywise, though. I read a few other books and relied on my own experience and training to tweak Babywise to my liking. There are a lot of other books out there about sleep training and good sleep habits so if you don't totally agree with Babywise, here are some other options.

The Happiest Baby on the Block- There is also a sequel to this called The Happiest Toddler on the Block. I actually have not read either of these books all the way through but my mother-in-law tried some of the techniques on Vivi. The main idea of THBOTB is that babies need 3 things to sleep: something to suck, swaddled, and movement. She would swaddle Vivi, give her a pacifier, sit on the couch with Vivi placed on a cushion on her lap, and would bounce Vivi quite vigorously while "shhhhh"ing. Sounds weird but Vivi loved it and would fall asleep within minutes. This was a good alternative when we were out and about and not able to put Vivi to bed in her bassinet. As for The Happiest Toddler on the Block, I didn't agree with his ideas on "toddlerese" but that's a discussion for later.

No-Cry Sleep Solution- I picked this book up recently because Lara has started some other really bad sleep habits and I wanted to read up on other methods. This book is really nice because you can skip to chapters that specifically address the challenges that you need. Such as, Afraid of the Dark, Needing Mommy to go to Bed, or Not Wanting to Go to Bed. :)

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child- I have a few friends who really like this book so I read it. I wasn't as impressed but it's another option. It's pretty much totally opposite of Babywise and they make that quite clear.

Babywise- I absolutely love Babywise and, like I said before, it's really flexible so you can tweak it if you want.

Happy Sleeping!