As a parent of a newborn the first thing you often wish you had more of is sleep. These little nuggets of life haven’t quite figured out how to live this thing we call life quite yet. They have gas in their tummy, they cry. They have gas in their bowels, they cry. They have no food in their stomach, they cry. They hate the feeling of that wet diaper against their tush, they cry. There are so many reasons for them not to sleep. Factor in all the visual and mental stimulus happening and it’s easy to see why these kids are always crying. The world is a strange place the them.
Our oldest child, Hazel, was a sleep boss pretty much from about week three of life, sleeping in stretches of eight to nine hours at night. We needed a little help getting to a full 12 hours of sleep, however, and that’s where Twelve Hours’ Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old helped us immensely. After following the principles laid out in this book by author Suzy Giordano Hazel was sleeping from 8:00pm to 8:00am by about 13 or 14 weeks old.
Our newborn, Penelope, was born five weeks early, and the first five to seven weeks of life were a struggle for her, and for my wife and I. But, Penelope, aka Pip, is almost 11 weeks old now and is finally getting ready to do some sleep training, guided by Giordano’s method.
We’ve got Pip on a regular feeding schedule during the day, starting every day with a feed at 8:00 am, then feeding every four hours (noon, 4:00pm, 8:00pm). Starting at the 8:00pm feed, we let her sleep as long as her little heart desires. Last night she made it an unbelievable seven hours! My wife, Laura, and I awoke at 4:45am wondering, “wait, is Pip still sleeping?”. She was.
I can’t recommend this book enough, and now starting to see the results with our second child, I know that Giordano’s coaching truly works. If you’re a parent of a newborn and you want more sleep, you need to read this book.