I have as a postpartum doula for twelve years and agree that “The 90 Minute Sleep Solution” works for many babies. It’s beneficial to both babies and parents, providing an easy and accessible tool without instituting a rigid schedule.

@Heather That’s great that co-sleeping works for you and I agree that all families need to find what works for them. What works for one may not work for all. Thank you for commenting!

To each their own. All children are different. I think it’s best that all parents realize that before they decide a particular scientist’s prescription for everyone is right for their child…large generalizations are always dangerous.

@Meagan It doesn’t sound too complicated to me in that we often had different strategies for bedtime than night-waking and such. I recommend that after feedings, make sure he’s still semi-awake to keep the consistency that he always goes back to sleep on his own to limit possible confusion on his part. Thank you for commenting!

@Lydia Goes to show even babies within the same family are different! 🙂 Thank you for sharing our experience.

@Mahua In Weissbluth’s book he doesn’t talk about all the temperament traits (that I remember), but does talk a lot about how there are different types of babies. For example, on Page 80 (in my copy), he talks about making different decisions for different babies. I appreciated that he wasn’t making the assumption that all babies are the same. Having said that, I agree that a lot of the books imply “do it my way and it will definitely work.” Soooo not true! There is no silver bullet that will work for all babies and all families. And, not all babies will cry just 3 days that the books imply. That was another thing that drove me nuts! 🙂 Thank you for commenting!

@Kendra Oh yes! “Sleep begets sleep” is sooo true in a lot of circumstances. Get better sleep during the day and help your baby sleep better at night. Your baby sounds like a good self-entertainer! That always makes it a little tougher. Depending on his age (when they are young, they are not afraid of the dark, usually), you might turn off the nightlight. We had to do that when our boys were babies until their imagination started flourishing around 14 months. 🙂

@Natalie Sooo true! We *have* to expect change. Babies are not robots and go through A LOT of development so quickly these first few years.

@Shannon That’s great you’ve seen such great success and so quickly! I wish everyone had such quick success, but unfortunately, we won’t. But, it’s great when some families find what works and what works well for the baby! Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

@Elizabeth Oh no!! I’m sorry your 20 month old still doesn’t sleep through the night! 🙁 That is exhausting, I know! I have heard of “The 90 Minute Sleep Solution” but don’t hear about it too many times in consultations. I often recommend 90 minutes of awake time in babies 4 months and younger, though. Thank you for sharing!

@Sophie Is she hungry at 4 a.m.? If so, add in another snack somewhere in her daytime schedule, say right before bedtime, which can help a lot. My boys struggled a lot going 12-13 hours without eating, so we found a snack to be imperative.

@Jennifer Awww, thank you! 🙂 Seeing how different my two boys are (sleep-wise and otherwise) and reading soooo many family histories every day, there is no question that temperament, sensitivity to stimuli, self-settling tendencies, and personality are huge influences in what type of experience you have surrounding sleep. Thank you for commenting and your kind words! I knew my son would change my life, but never knew just how much. I LOVE this! 🙂

My children have extremely different temperaments and I believe that makes all the difference in their sleep habits. I have never read a sleep training book but I do enjoy thoughtful dialogue, discussion and information that is presented on this website. I find Nicole’s personalized approach and perspective refreshing and so much more tolerable than a one-size-fits-all attitude. Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing your stories with us :.)

All this sleep stuff is so frustrating!

We also had a problem with extinction at 7.5 months … She cries off and on for hours. One morning I went in after 3 hrs of off and on crying to find her pj’s and sheets soaked. Her diaper had leaked.

Also I never see anyone mention “The 90 Minute Sleep Solution” for baby sleep. Even our sleep specialist hadn’t heard of it (although he was familiar with the science behind it). That was the most useful for naps for us.

It’s taken a while longer to get into a rhythm with our night sleep. I’m still breast-feeding and up ’til 5-1/2 months, our LO would wake up 2 – 3, sometimes 4, times at night and want to be fed (at least that’s what I was interpreting from his cries — or I fed him just to calm him down and go back to sleep myself). I was exhausted at having such fragmented sleep and figured at 6 months, we would try for extinction, especially since he would start eating solids and I felt he’d be getting enough nourishment to make it through the night. Here’s what happened:

Night 1: Put in bed awake, but sleepy, at 8 p.m. He started crying at 11 p.m. Everything in me wanted to go in and check on him, put his pacifier back in or rub his back. But I resisted. He cried for 30 minutes and stopped. Phew. Then he woke up at 2 a.m. and cried for 15 minutes. Then back to sleep. He made it to 4:30 a.m. and woke up crying again and I went in and fed him. Put him back to sleep and he slept ’til 8:30 a.m. woke up happy as a clam.

Night 2: Put in bed awake, but very sleepy, at 7:30 p.m. He started crying around 12:30 a.m. for just 15 minutes. Slept ’til 2:30 a.m. and started crying again, only 10 minutes. Then slept straight ’til 5:45 a.m. and I fed him, put him back to bed, and he slept ’til 7:45 a.m.

Night 3: Put in bed awake, but sleepy at 7:30 p.m. I honestly don’t remember if he cried at all, because if he did, it was so short that I probably didn’t have time to consider going in. He woke up at 5:30 a.m. I fed him, put him back in bed and he slept ’til 8:15 a.m. Hallelujah!

Night 4: Put in bed awake at 7:45 p.m. and he slept straight until 5:45 a.m. I fed him, put him back to sleep and he slept until 8:15 a.m.

I was amazed at how quickly he learned to sleep through the night, with little or no crying to boot. I realize every baby is different, so I don’t expect this to “work” for every child, but for us, we are a fan of Dr. Weissbluth’s methods and his encouragement for babies to get a lot of quality sleep. I agree that you need to watch your babies cues, so I put him down for a nap when I see that he’s tired. Again, 4 naps a day and 11 – 12 hours at night. It seems like a lot of sleep to me, but I trust that he’s getting what he needs because that’s what his body is telling me he needs.