12 Hours Sleep by 12 Weeks Old - Sleep Training Book Review
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What is the number one concern for most new parents?! I think the majority of Moms and Dads would say "sleep" (or lack thereof!) or "sleep training." I know when I first became pregnant one of the number one things I was told was “get your sleep now, you’re going to need it when the baby comes”. All of the parents I’ve spoken to say that one of the most difficult aspects of being a new parent is the lack of sleep. Whether it’s functioning on little to no sleep, getting baby to fall asleep, or getting baby to stay asleep. Like most first-time parents I wanted to be as prepared as possible for E’s arrival, so I asked all of my friends who had kids what their number one sleep advice was. I received a lot of great advice, but I had three friends (Katie included) suggest the same book on sleep training so I knew I had to give it a try.
I initially borrowed a copy of 12 Hours by 12 Weeks from Katie, but after the first read, I knew that I would want a copy for myself to keep! The premise of the book is simple, it offers a step-by-step method to teach your baby to sleep 12 hours a night by the time they are 12 weeks old. I know, this sounds too good to be true, right? I thought the same thing! But Katie had great success using this method, as well as another friend of ours who mastered this technique with twins. Suzy Giordano, who is a Mom to five kids, wrote this book in a very simple and straightforward style to help parents and babies master sleep. It was a quick read, but a book I kept around from about 9-14 weeks as a reference guide while we were sleep training.
What I Like About This Sleep Training Method
There are so many things that I love about this book! For starters, the methods offered in this book are a “limited-crying” style. I thought before giving birth that it would be easy enough to let baby “cry it out” for a little while, but the sound of your own baby crying can be heartbreaking. This sleep training book gives you a “toolbox” of tips and tricks to help your baby learn to self-soothe but also sets firm time limits for crying and allows parents to comfort baby when needed. One of the most helpful parts of this book for our family was that it helps create a feeding schedule, which helps baby stay full and sleep well through the night. This feeding schedule was so helpful for me as a new Mom! I nursed E on demand for the first 9 weeks, but then slowly began implementing the feeding schedule from the book and it made everyone in our household’s lives so much easier. I knew when E would need to eat so I was able to schedule errands and appointments around those times and was able to have bottles prepared for times my husband would need to feed him. We stuck with this schedule from the time we began sleep training with 12 hours by 12 weeks until I was done nursing E at 12 months.
What Makes This Method Different?
The thing that I found most unique about this book, and the reason that I recommend it so highly to people, is that it encourages you to create your baby’s sleep schedule around your already existing schedule. I read a few other books on sleep training that insisted that babies go to sleep between the hours of 5:30-6:30 or 6:00-7:00. While I think that that can work great for some families, it didn’t work for ours. My husband is a musician and often works late nights and sleeps in later in the morning. We knew that we wanted to create a schedule that would allow my husband to be there for bedtime as often as possible, would allow for the entire family to sleep in a little later, and wouldn’t throw E for a loop if he attended an evening concert. Suzy comments in the book that “you choose which 12 hours work the best for your family.” It was one of the first books that helped me feel empowered as a parent - that I was in control to make the decision that I felt was best for my family instead of being told what was the best. We choose 9 pm-9 am, and for us, it is perfect! My husband is able to participate in bedtime most nights, we aren’t woken up super early in the morning, and my son is a Rockstar at evening concerts.
Does Sleep Training Work?
Does it work?! I think that the most important question with any sleep training system, 12 hours by 12 weeks included, and I can honestly say, Yes! The book suggests starting your sleep training journey around 8 weeks (for a singleton) and gives you 4 weeks to be completely effective. My son is and has always been a big boy. He was born three weeks early at 7 lbs 2 oz and our doctor predicted if I had carried him to term he would have been 10 lbs! He was a big eater, and therefore dropping his middle-of-the-night feeds took about a week longer than the book predicted, but even then he was only waking once at night to feed and then was able to self soothe when I put him back to bed. We began our journey with sleep training at 9 weeks and by 14 weeks my son was sleeping through the night for 12 hours at a time, with two naps during the day. He is now 18 months old and continues to be a fantastic sleeper! He self soothes very well, and besides occasional episodes of teething or sickness, my husband and I rarely have to go into his room during the night for any reason. I contribute my son’s sleep success (and my sanity lol) to two things: this book and the SNOO (read our post on this for more info!) The newborn stage was HARD. There was so much to adjust to and learn, but knowing that I could do it on somewhat normal amounts of sleep was truly a blessing! I now recommend this book to any expecting Moms or new parents! Check it out and let us know what you think!
