Book Review- A Good Night’s Sleep
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A Good Night’s Sleep
I remember when her elder brothers were her age they didn’t wake up just as often as her to nurse. I had written down in their journal that they only woke the most 1-2 times a night and were much better sleepers than her. She is really hyperactive for her age and only naps like 1-2 hrs during the day.
In A Good Night’s Sleep
It would be great that she can sleep a stretch of at least 4 to 5 hours of sleep at a go so that I too can have my own uninterrupted sleep. However, looking at things now it does seem impossible unless I try out Anna’s method.
In her book she recommends that we put Tiger Girl on a 2 week routine to “cure” her wakefulness. She focuses on providing the child with the 3 pillars of peace, security and enjoyment so that they will be able to sleep through the night.
Peace
She mentions that young children should feel calm in their beds when they sleep at night. If they are feeling anxious they will not be able to drift into sleep and the parent could assist through rocking, buffing or fanning depending on the age of the child.
Security
Anna believes that all young children must be calmed if they are to relax, fall silent and then fall asleep. I agree with this point as I constantly see Tiger Girl waking up and frantically searching for her security blanket (me) when she wakes up in the middle of the night.
Enjoyment
Your child should enjoy himself and you too should enjoy their presence. Both the child and the adult deserve to enjoy a good nights sleep. This is something which I’m still working on at the moment.
More then half of book were filled with various testimonials from parents who have tried the cure and it had worked for their child. I ended up skimming through all the testimonials as I was wanting to go straight to the cure and learn how to apply it to my current situation.
I was rather disheartened when I read what the cure was and how it was implemented. No doubt the author is not a medical professional and did mentioned in a disclaimer at the start of the book that what is written is based on her own experiences and actions and results are not guaranteed.
I guess that being sleepless for so long I was wanting to have something which could give me some hope and be the “CURE” to my current problem.
Anna’s CURE involved going through a routine of jingles, buffing, fanning and following a given set of actions on the child to ensure that they remain sleeping/asleep in bed.
She recommends that the “CURE” be done by both parents as it would involve the parent having to sacrifice sleeping for four days in order to put the plan to action . Reading about going without sleep throughout the night and for up to four days straight was a real turn off for me. I’m already surviving on minimal sleep and now she’s asking me to go without sleep just to ensure that my child is able to sleep through the night??
I grew even more skeptical when I looked at the schedule that was used as one of the examples in the book.
During the 1st night – The dad in the example had to buff and jingle his daughter about 11 times throughout the night each time his child awoke and that was between 10pm and 7am.
During the 2nd night– It is another 11 times of buffing and jingling to put the baby back into sleep mode from 10pm to 7am.
On the 3rd night– It too him 7 times of buffing and jingling for the girl to sleep from 10pm to 7am.
It doesn’t mentioned how many times or how many nights this routine kept up. There is only mention that after one month the girl managed to sleep through the night.
I’m being very pessimistic by guessing that that dad had to keep up with the routine for two to three weeks. Even though he maybe lucky enough to share the “job” with his wife. It is exhausting enough having to do it for 1-2 night let alone a week.
I’m so not ready to be morphed into a zombie due to any sleep training program. I’m also not able to make up for the shortfall in sleep as during the day I can’t afford to doze off as I have two other kids and the household to attend to.
Anna’s method may be suitable if Tiger girl was the first born and does have her own room to sleep alone. There are some good pointers in about how to create peace and security for your child which I will adapt for Tiger Girl.
I also realized that I have to work on soothing her night time separation anxiety and continue adjusting her schedule to find one which will work better for both her and me.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes. Opinions are 100% my own.