Book Review: The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program

Not my image

This book has changed my life. 

True story. 

(I seriously hope Im not jinxing myself by writing about this...)

From the very beginning, Baby M has been a very spirited, fiery baby. That will translate to full of personality, charismatic and passionate when she's older. Many of our early days were spent walking the floors, bouncing and yes, sometimes crying. The word that we used most often to describe her during weeks 2-10 was "fussy." I hated this. It broke my heart, not knowing what was wrong or how I could help. When I would talk to friends and family about it, they just said that babies cry and at that age, fussiness is normal and expected. I understood this, but I felt like there was more to it.

M rarely slept during the day. Rarely. Naps were like a golden gift when they did occur. My mom told me I never slept as a baby, so I thought M was just coming by it honestly. But I kept thinking, "Arent babies supposed to sleep?" All of the books said babies her age sleep 15-20 hrs a day. Ha! We were lucky if M slept 10 hours a day. She would fuss and fuss until she eventually wore herself out.

Being a first time mother is exhausting and very, very hard. I called my mom in tears more than once, lamenting that I must be a bad mother or doing something wrong. Why else would M be so fussy and seemingly unhappy? Dont get me wrong- she wasnt always fussy or always crying, but I remember once saying that she was probably fussy 50% of the time.

And then, the day after Thanksgiving, my husband gave me a gift. An early Christmas present. We were having an especially difficult day. A very "Black Friday" indeed. The gift was this book. I had put it on my Amazon wishlist after reading about it in an email from thebump.com. I read the book that day and decided to try the suggestions the following day.

That Saturday, our world began to change. We implemented the plan in the book and our days became so much better, our baby so much happier. Our days are now structured on a flexible schedule. I am so much happier, better able to deal with any fussiness and less stressed. I can actually get things done around the house and I feel comfortable running errands. Most importantly, M has flourished! She wakes up in the morning smiling and laughs and "talks" all day long. She's a little ham, making J and I laugh all the time. No longer is she a "fussy" baby, but a happy baby. And as her momma, I couldnt be happier about that!

Now, Im not saying we dont have bad days or that M is never fussy. What I am saying is that those happen infrequently. Out of a 7 day week, we probably have 1.5 bad days now. Before, it was more like 3-4 bad days a week.

The main points of the book include:
*Start the timer from the moment the baby wakes up.
*~90 minutes later, the baby will be ready for a nap.
*The point that was most key for us--- because she is so young, the baby will need help falling asleep.
*When the baby wakes from her nap, start the timer again.

M wakes, eats (every 3-5 hours), plays for an hour-hour and fifteen minutes and then goes down for a nap ~90 minutes after waking. This is our schedule all day long. The times vary depending on what time she wakes up every day, but the routine doesnt. I didnt realize that she just needed help falling asleep. It was a "lightbulb" moment, when I read that. So now, when she starts displaying her sleepy signals, I swaddle her arms, place her in the side lying position in my arms, give her her paci and either walk with a bounce or sit and pat her bottom until she falls asleep. She naps for 45 mins-2.5 hours at each nap. All along, she just needed more sleep and a little help getting there.

This book may not work for everyone, but it worked for us. Now, if she would just sleep through the night...

*I was not compensated in any way for this review. This is my own, personal opinion.