Book Review: The No-Cry Nap Solution

I’m a fan of Eliz­a­beth Pant­ley and her No-Cry series of books.  Her book, The No-Cry Sleep Solu­tion: Gen­tle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night, helped give me the courage to lis­ten to my heart.  So many peo­ple would ask me if Oliver was sleep­ing through the night, that I started wor­ry­ing that he didn’t and began look­ing for solu­tions.  Her book gave gen­tle meth­ods to help get your child to sleep and to sleep through the night, if that’s what you wanted, but she also wrote that if you and your fam­ily are all fine with the sit­u­a­tion, there is no need to make a change.  I didn’t mind wak­ing, and I still don’t, but now I don’t worry about it when peo­ple ask me.

When I got a chance to review a copy of Eliz­a­beth Pantley’s new book, The No-Cry Nap Solu­tion: Guar­an­teed Gen­tle Ways to Solve All Your Nap­time Prob­lems, I was happy to.

This book is bro­ken down into three parts:

1. Nap Magic — This sec­tion dis­cusses the impor­tance of naps, the bio­log­i­cal effect of naps and sleep on both chil­dren and adults, what hap­pens dur­ing nap­ping and sleep, and how to make a sleep log and a nap plan.
2. New­born Babies — Dis­cusses the bio­log­i­cal needs of babies and how they sleep, then gives options to try to help your baby nap better.
3. Solv­ing Nap­ping Prob­lems: Cus­tomized Solu­tions for Your Fam­ily — In this sec­tion, com­mon nap­ping prob­lems, like cat­nap­ping (tak­ing too short naps), nap resist­ing, chang­ing nap­ping sched­ules and fre­quency, are defined, and dif­fer­ent styles of sleep­ers are dis­cussed (in-arm sleep­ers, nap­time nurslings).  Then there are sug­ges­tions to help you find the right solu­tions for your family.

I guess it’s becom­ing a com­mon theme, but I was wor­ried about Oliver’s nap­ping.  He’s a night owl, often not falling asleep until 10 or 11 pm, and nap and sleep­time rou­tines have never seemed to work for us.  I thought, maybe I’m just not some­one who can do rou­tines, I have enough trou­ble stick­ing to them myself, how can I imple­ment them for Oliver?  But after read­ing this book, I’ve dis­cov­ered that Oliver is a nap­time nursling — he nurses to sleep at bed­time and nap­time — and Pant­ley had this to say:

Very often, nap­time nurslings do not have a spe­cific nap sched­ule.  When they are fussy, they are breast­fed or given a bot­tle or paci­fier and if the fussi­ness was cause by tired­ness, they fall asleep.

She goes on to give tips to try to “wean” your nap­time nursling off nurs­ing to sleep, but at the begin­ning of the sec­tion, she also says:

There are par­ents who put their chil­dren down for a nap this way from birth through tod­dler­hood.  So, if it works for you, con­sider your­self lucky that you have a won­der­ful way to help your child fall asleep.  On the other hand, if you wish to change this pat­tern or if your child only cat­naps once you put him in bed, you can use the ideas in this chap­ter to gen­tly change your routine.

Just like before, I real­ized that I’m happy with nurs­ing Oliver to sleep, and I shouldn’t let exter­nal opin­ions affect how my hus­band and I choose to raise Oliver.  This is how she approaches all the dif­fer­ent prob­lems cov­ered in the book.  First, they’re only a prob­lem if you and your fam­ily think they’re a prob­lem, and if you do, then she offers pos­si­ble solu­tions to try out, let­ting you find the right one for your family.

I rec­om­mend this book for any­one respon­si­ble for putting new­borns through young chil­dren down for naps.  She even says it’s okay (even good) for adults to nap.  So there’s also no need for me to feel guilty on those days when I lay down to sleep with Oliver in the mid­dle of the day.  Read­ing this book was a good reminder of what I think is the most impor­tant thing we can do as par­ents: lis­ten to our instincts over the advice of others.

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Tagged as: advice, baby, Books, elizabeth pantley, kids, napping, no-cry series, sleeping, toddler