I am a new Mom (daughter is 8 months) and I've never been on a website like this nor do I know what I am doing. I have been using The No Cry Sleep Solution book and agree with about everything in there. My problem is I am not seeing much success. Granted it has only been ten days, but thought others could give suggestions on what to do now. My little girl has several sleep associations and they all seem to include me; pacifier, nursing, holding my hand, holding baby. I have been focusing on the gentle removal plan with the pacifier for the last ten days but wondered if I should focus on something else, any suggestions? Is it easiest to work on reducing all the sleep associations at once since I am involved in all or should I do one at a time and if so which one? Please help I am beginning to feel hopeless. Thank you.

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Glad to see you here! It's great to see how much you care about helping your baby learn to sleep with this gentle method Thanks for asking questions; I will try to help you as best I can! Feel free to ask as many questions as you want!

That's exactly like me! I had never come to a website like this before until I started having my son wake up 12 times a night and I was trying to figure out how to use No Cry Sleep Solutions!

I know what you are saying! I had gone through about 2 sets or more of 10 day logs and thought "am I doing something wrong?" but really you're not doing anything wrong at all, it's just that when there has been 8 months or more of having certain habits, then it can take a while to learn new habits... it's kind of like if you play an instrument - even recorder in elementary school, or piano lessons: when you start to learn a song, you get annoyed at your fingers for going in the wrong places, and you keep having to play the same song over and over, each note, each little phrase, and even though today it doesn't work, tomorrow is a little better, and the day after that it seems even easier until eventually it's like you were born playing the song and your fingers feel like they are flying over the keys that at first your fingers couldn't even find... but to keep the song at that level you have to keep practicing that song every day to keep it at that level... how this relates to this sleep plan is that at first it's going to seem like the sleep plan isn't working at all, and that's okay because one set of 10 days is not a habit quite yet... so it can take several sets of ten days to get "practice" of how going to sleep and how to stay asleep is going to work... and it depends on the temperament of the child, too. An easy going laid back baby is going to fall in line and develop this new sleep habit sooner, but a baby like MINE - my first boy - is pretty stubborn by nature so it took 5 months for the plan to work. He was teething throughout the whole thing, too, which makes it very hard and they need tons of cuddles and comfort during that pain... but the beauty of it is this is truly a habit you are creating, and I can tell you right now that my son is almost 4, and ever since the plan started to work he has sleep ALL NIGHT EVERY NIGHT because he was TAUGHT how to sleep and developed wonderful sleep habits from this book.

What you might like to look at is the link above that says "Extra tips from the author of NCSS" where she talks about how it can take a while to learn new habits. Here's the link:

Extra tips from the author of The No Cry Sleep Solution

and here is what she says:

"Understand that things may appear worse than better at first. You are changing sleep habits that have existed for 6, 10, 15, 20, or more months.
The beginning of the process of change is often uncomfortable for you and different for your baby and it will require
some adjustment."

The author, in the extra tips, points out that she feels you really need to do as many tips as you can... here's what she says:

"During these first 10 days it is helpful to
refer back to the book as often as you need to. Use as many of the solutions
as possible, as they fit together like puzzle pieces. Doing only one or two
things "a little bit" will help, but committing to your sleep plan and
following many of the solutions will bring you better, quicker results!"

I know it can seem frustrating because 10 days feels like a long time , but really it's a very short time when learning new habits... I think you are doing a great job trying this book, and trying to see what is the best way to go about helping teach your baby to sleep!

Hope this helps! In case I was too blabbery (as I often am), to sum up:
- Use as many sleep tips/solutions in the book as possible from the solutions section, and use them all the time, every night - they all work together
- This can take a while to learn new sleep habits, but it's worth the effort and patience!

To get LOTS of success stories for motivation with the book, check out the 567 reviews (almost all of which are overwhelmingly postive reviews) of the book at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...stomer-reviews

While I was going through the book, it helped me to see all the mommies and daddies who used the book and it worked for them!

Again, please visit and ask more questions any time!

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Host of:
The No Cry Sleep Solution
Attachment Parenting

Thanks for your help, I will keep moving on. Everytime my little one wakes up I tell myself this is a teaching oportunity for her...sometimes this helps lessen the dissapointment. I have another question for you, do you have a suggestion on the most seamless way of doing the gentle removal for a pacifier and phasing her into her crib at the same time? I'm not sure how I will pull out the pacifier and lay her down right before she falls asleep...any suggestions?