For parents who have successfully followed Save our Sleep (SOS) by Tizzy Hall’s routines for sleep, how long until you saw these “magical results” and how did you keep yourself determined to follow through and see out the end? I’m very easily swayed to giving in and need some helpful tips and encouragement to keep my foot down.
- I have read the book and it was a lifesaver for me in the early months of having our daughter. I still have a loose routine based around those in the book. Many people will bag people that use it as a guide and this is because they generally haven’t read it. No child is the same. No mother should judge another because they haven’t walked in their shoes. The book taught me that there is a reason that babies cry, whether it be because they are hungry, soiled or just need a hug. It encouraged me to connect with my daughter. Some things worked for me, some didn’t. Give it a go, but don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work for you….go with your gut, you know what is best for your family Shelley
- I feel the key to success with this is to start early with it. I started my dd at 4weeks old on the dream feed routine and self setting, it took her about a week to adjust and from then on she would wake for a feed at 3am then put herself back to sleep and wake and start her day at 7am. At 12weeks she started sleeping from 7pm to 7am without a feed between (was still dreamfeeding until approx 6months old) She has been a fantastic sleeper and slept in her own room from 4 weeks old and still self settles at almost 2 and averages 13hrs a night sleep and still has 1 afternoon nap a day. Samantha
- Best Book I’ve ever read!! As a first time Mum I had no idea what I was doing, this book gave me confidence and made life easier. Jess
- An important thing to think about is this.. How would YOU feel if you were made to follow the set routines etc in the book? Consider the age and development of the baby at the time. Who are the main people in its life right now? Who does it rely on for comfort/food. What can it do for itself right now?
- Over the past 40 years, my Mother has fostered over 100 children, the majority of them very young, a lot of them special needs children and from abusive situations. She has never used any cry it out/controlled crying methods with them. We saw children that had been left to “self soothe” transform into confident children, who had had developmental delays and came forward in leaps and bounds. Sure there may have been other things at play, but they started to grow and develop because they knew their needs would be met and not dismissed as “fussing” or because they needed to be put to bed according to a set routine. Anon
- used this with both of my children. My first daughter was about 1 year old and we used the deep end approach. It took about 3 nights of crying, but after the first night it got shorter and shorter. She then slept through with no hassle. Our second daughter we used it from the start. She slept through very quickly. Both kids have a great sleep (us too ) and are better for it. There were no consequences for letting them cry for a little bit. In the long run, I think it has helped everyone. You just have to be strong if you’re starting it later in their life. It’s definitely worth it. Katie
- We used Tizzie’s book after using many others as guides to getting our son to sleep better. After co-sleeping for 6 months we tried him in his own room and the sleeping patterns were terrible, with my husband and I being both exhausted and had tried all avenues we decided to give her methods a go. Overall with both day time and night time it took about a week for everything to come together. It worked well for us in terms of teaching him to self settle and learn that nap time is sleep time. He has always been a horrible sleeper as his teeth cause him alot of problems but the nap times and feeding schedules worked well and we think he loves knowing when its meal time or nap time. He is almost 2years old and I think he is a much better sleeper for us implementing the SOS techniques. We give our son his dummy but only because his teeth are very troublesome. We recommend her book to others but we also recommend to do what works for them out of the techniques. We let Jack self settle which was hard (first night he self settled within about 15 minutes and got less and less through the week) and I think I cried more than him but there’s no attachment issues at all and he is a perfectly healthy, happy and well rested little boy! Crystal
- I was against putting my baby on a routine at first. I wanted to be relaxed and not hung up on watching the clock. By the time my baby was 5 months old she was waking up every couple of hours. I was feeding her back to sleep. I got SOS out and allocated two weeks to just try. Got my husband on board too! The first night was the hardes but each night there was less crying. I couldn’t just go in and make soothing noises and pat her back. If I went in I’d pick her up take er out the room. When she was settled I’d put her back to bed awake and she would then sleep. It took about 6 nights. Day time sleeps also improved. We never got the full amount of sleep during the day but I was always happy with two sleep cycles. My baby is now 19 months has very rarely woken even when unwell. Occasionally in the wonder weeks and is able to sleep anywhere if put down at the same time. Aimee
- It took me around 3 days with my first and started around 2 weeks old and it was fantastic.. Begin by waking at 7am and go from there, it has worked wonders for both my children and they are both fantastic sleepers. In 2.5 years I’ve never had a sleepless night from the boys. Good luck Sarah
- We started using SOS when bubs was 9wks old, after my sil gave us a copy. After a week we wanted to chuck it all in, but decided that we should keep going. We persevered and by 12wks (or thereabouts) he was going to sleep on his own and feeding 4hrly. We were using the dreamfeed, but he did not start sleeping through the night until recently (hes now 16mths)! We also started solids at 4mths and wonder weeks and growth spurts weren’t as horrendous! I would – and have- recommended the book to others. Good luck. Melissa
- Best book I ever read x Julia
- We tried Save Our Sleep. We even paid to join the online chat directly with Tizzie herself. Our first one was a nightmare sleeper not sleeping through the night until he was older than 3. This caused major stress on our relationship and my wife just kept throwing more money at different solutions and nothing worked. Finally at age 3, Tresillian was our saver although I think he was already on his way to becoming a great sleeper. Now, he’s in bed awake after a book or two at about 8:30pm and we don’t see him for 11 hours. How much more would you want a child to sleep? Our second is so much more the better sleeper (although having said that, my wife tried to get him to sleep tonight for 30 minutes followed by me with a 40 minute stint). But we won’t see him until 6am, maybe even as late as 7am which is so much better than the 5am wake ups for the older one at the same age, and that was only on about 4 hours sleep. Darrell
- If you are easily swayed then I think this method is not for you. Trust your mama gut and do what feels right. Sure you’re exhausted, it sucks big time when your baby won’t sleep easily and other people’s babies do (or at least the parents say they do). Research has shown that sleep is associated with genetics and also that there are much much higher levels of cortisol in babies left to cry. Routine is lovely but it’s not for every baby. http://www.examiner.com/article/study-shows-babies-who-cry-it-out-remain-stressed Bear in mind that the author of this book has no qualifications in child sleep or feeding and she contradicts many leading authorities in relation to her advice re breastfeeding and giving solids. My 8 mo DD is a terrible day sleeper, had no interest in naps whatsoever since she was 2 months old. I take her for walks in the pram, wear her in a wrap/sling, lay in bed with her so she knows I’m nearby. Now she will have naps sometimes or at least will happily lay in bed for an hr or two and have some quiet time. When she wakes or is done, she babbles a bit knowing that I will come to her and pick her up/feed her/give her some company. You are your babies world. It can be exhausting, I totally get that. It’s not convenient to do more gentle methods with sleep but will stay with them much longer. Mothers in my mothers group have had to re- do the methods in the book because it hasn’t stayed with the children. I recommend you read Elizabeth Pantleys “no cry sleep solution” as an alternative. Sure Tizzy Hall may have helped some parents in the past, but if you are feeling uneasy about it, don’t do it. You know your baby best! (Pinky McKay also has some great info as well). This link is quite helpful also: http://gulliblenewparent.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/save-our-baby-from-tizzie-hall.html?m=1 Kim
- I think with any program you take what works for you and leave the rest. Some of her info is useful, such as appropriate nap times and lengths, but other than that I’ve mainly gone with the flow. I never wanted to make a rod for my own back. For example yesterday we went out for lunch over my toddlers nap time. I made sure he had a short nap before we left and he went to bed early. Easy as! Oh and I did controlled crying with my son once he was over 8 months. Recent research shows its not harmful and we have a lovely, secure attachment to each other and he has a lovely, secure attachment to his father too! http://www.mcri.edu.au/news/2012/september/evidence-based-advice-to-help-reduce-sleep-problems-in-older-babies Rosa
- I started using SOS with my first daughter at age 3 months. It takes a lot of hard work and you do need to follow it through to see results. For me, the thing that kept me going with it initially is that my daughter was only sleeping for 2 x 20min sleeps in the day and taking up to 2 hours to get to sleep at night (and progressively getting worse). This was not working for me and I was really wishing away her baby stage. I wanted something different. I made the decision to stay home for a couple of weeks to really be able to follow the routines properly. I would say it took about a week to see remarkable changes but it happened gradually. Within that week she had started to sleep at least 40min or her day sleeps but more and more 1.5- 2 hours. And she was going to sleep with only about 5-10min of whinging and sleeping from 7pm to 7am without a wake (she had already been sleeping from around 9-10pm to 7am anyway before that). It is not without it’s challenges (it is not an easy thing to stick to when listening to them protest) but overall it has worked fantastically for our family – both my daughter and my son. If you decide to give it a try I highly recommend getting the bedding guide as well – adding layers of bedding made a huge difference to sleep. Sara
- Hi, I follow save our sleep. I started when I got home from hospital. Up until bub was 6 weeks old, after the dreamfeed he would wake between 2:30am-3:30am and then around 6:30am. From 6 weeks until 12 weeks he slept from the dream feed to anywhere between 5:30am-7:00am. If he woke after 6:15am I would feed him then put him straight back to bed and then offer a top up at 7am. If he woke after 6:40am I would try to hold him off until 7am. Bub is now 5 months and since about 12 weeks he has slept 7pm to 7am with a dreamfeed at 10:30pm. I know it can be hard when they’re crying but trust me it’s worth it in the end. Everyone comments on how happy my bub is, even when he’s getting tired. If you feel the need to go in, then follow the self settling guide in the book, but remember that often it’s harder on you than it is on them. If bub is only new it’s hard to work out their cries but within a couple of weeks you’ll know what is a protest cry and what is an emotional cry. One thing I don’t do is I don’t give my bub a comforter as I am concerned from a SIDS point of view. I will probably give him one when he gets older and can easily move it around. Anthea
- I just read your comment and was amazed at how similar your situation was with my son… I also started it when I got home from the hospital and I currently have a 5 and a half week old and he has his dream feed at 9:45pm and is always waking up anywhere from 2:30- 3:00am and again between 5:30 – 6:30am… You mentioned that from 6 weeks your bub slept through after the dream feed until 5:30 at least? Did this just suddenly happen for you? what changes and they suddenly sleep longer? Also, Although my son has the day time naps and self settles all day and over night, he seems to need help settling for his 7pm bed time… did this happen to you? It is the only sleep time that he grizzles and cries for attention… I think he finds it hard to be awake from 4:45pm, feed, bath and then feed again without becoming exhausted… he never has a good feed at 6pm because he is falling asleep usually on the boob and therefore I also wonder if he finds it hard to settle at 7pm because he is hungry from being too exhausted to eat properly at 6pm… I usually give in and give him another feed at 7:40ish and he finally settles after that although when I try to feed him before bed, he never has the energy to stay awake and take in what he needs.. Your over night sleep experience with your bub before 6 weeks sounded so similar to mine, I wanted to message you to see if you had any other tips… Thank you Fotini
- Oh, I am so glad I read this! This is exactly my little girl (5 wks). I was getting worried about the feeding schedule. She would do her 4:45pm feed but the 6pm feed was terrible. She would also fall asleep whilst being bathed! Last night she woke at around 7:40pm too and I gave her some more food before she slept until about 1am (including the dreamfeed). Even though it is ‘not the program’ I think I am going to relax a little on the 6pm feed as she never really wants to eat too much and offer food at 7:40pm if she wakes. This way I know she is full and I can stop worrying if she is hungry. Rae
- I followed the sleep sense program which is very similar to save our sleep! Both have the cry it out methods my son was nine months old and waking every 40minutes to and hour every night and all day I had literally tried everything else! I had my first full night sleep on the third night at close to 10 months old I felt like a new person and so glad I stuck it out with him! The first night he cried in intervals for an hour and a half and only Woke 3 times in the night, on the second night he cried in intervals of up to 40 minutes and only woke once, third night 10 – 15mins crying and he slept from 7-630 eventually after another week no crying at all he was asking to go to bed! It’s so hard to follow strict routines but the benefits for my family far put weighed how hard it was! Jenna
- I started my daughter on the routine at 5 weeks and by 9 weeks she was sleeping through the night from 7pm-7am with a dream feed at 10pm. Since starting her on the routine there has only been 1 night where I have spent most of the night up with her and that was my own fault. I checked on her one night and she was asleep face down so I tried to roll her over and woke her up! Even when she is really unwell she still sleeps through the night. She is 16 months old now and has dropped her day sleeps down to one a day and as she is at childcare full time she is lucky to get an hour on weekdays so I have moved her bed time forward to 6.30pm and she still sleeps through until about 7.15am. Putting her on this routine was the best thing I could have done. It sets boundaries early and she quickly learnt that she would get food, milk and sleep when she needed it and she rarely fought it. There was the odd occassion through wonder weeks where it would regress a little bit but I just stuck with it and she would come good again within a matter of days. Leanne
- I’ve successfully used sos for both my girls. I started them both at two weeks old. They were self settling after one week. It can be hard sometimes but well and truly worth it in the end. You just need to know the difference between your babies distressed cry and just a protest cry. If i was sure they were just protesting about going to sleep and it was bothering me i would go have a quick shower. By the time i was out they were asleep. Katrina
- SOS is a one-size-fits-all approach, written by a woman when she was a babysitter, not mother, and who has no qualifications in child development. There are plenty of studies that show CIO in any form is bad for babies and leads to long-term problems. Plenty of people will roll their eyes at that, but I would encourage you to look it up and learn about it. You will generally find that your baby is happier if you listen to him/her and follow the cues they give. It sometimes means you’ll be waiting a little longer for a child who sleeps through the night, but you’ll also generally have a better attachment with your child, which is worth a lot more in the long term. Jess
- I know some people have found this book helpful and that’s great. I am a psychologist who works with lots of parents, and many mums with PND. In my experience some mums find Save our Sleep depletes their confidence. That’s why I wrote our book (Sensible Sleep Solution). Angie
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