10 Month Old Son Still Does Not Sleep Through the Night. Very Sleep Deprived!

He wants you to come to him and you are. Wean the night feedings, send Daddy in with a sippy cup of water. If he is still persisting, personally I would let him cry it out. Ferber has a good method, it worked well for all 3 of my children. You have to decide what you are going to put up with, being up all night, or a few nights of crying and sleep training. In the long run you'll be so grateful for the sleep that sleep training brings.

Hi Danelle,
I know how tough this is, my daughter (now almost 3) used to wake up in the middle of the night. I would bring her into my bed to finish the night and it seemed to work at the time. Then she started to become a bed hog, and wouldn't leave me alone. This is when i had had enough and decided to do something about. I found a wonderful book called "Sleep Sense Program."
I learned a tramendous amount from this book, mainly that it was my fault that she was waking up. I created these habits and also reinforced them by continually bringing her into my bed.
My biggest problem was that i never taught my daughter to fall asleep on her own. I was always there when she fell asleep. I could go on forever about my problems, but my point is that this book really helped my family, and now we all sleep through the night!
I hope to hear from you soon! ____@____.com

I agree with the posters who suggested some sleep training is in order. Breastfed babies can sleep through the night, too. They will adjust how much their intake is in the daytime to make up for dropping feedings at night... they don't just get less if they sleep through. They WILL make up for it during the day by nursing longer, more frequently, or just more efficiently (or maybe a little of all 3). BUT, you have to teach him to sleep at night and not only after nursing. You said it best yourself... "I don't know how to break this HABIT". That is what it is... a habit. So train him how to sleep differently. There are lots of different ideas about how to go about this, so you will need to do some reading/researching to find one that you and your hubby are comfortable with. ANY method you try might be a little bumpy the first few days, as you will be changing things... I can't stress enough that you and hubby need to decide in advance how you are going to go about it. You need to be 'on the same page' so you can work as a team.

For my family, the Ferber method was a Godsend. It worked wonderfully for us with our 2nd child. I only wish I had known about it with our first! However, we did it around 6 months... at 10 months, this method may take a little more than the 3 nights it took our daughter... so you will have to stick to it for a few nights if you decide to give it a shot. WHATEVER method you choose, give it time to work before you give up on it. You can't TRAIN a child (or break a habit) in just 2 days.... So know it is a process and may take a few nights of "worse" before it gets better. Keep your end goal in mind... in a few more days (or a week or two?) you will get to have some uninterrupted sleep!!!
Best wishes!

Not sure if you are willing but have you considered sleep training? I did a version of The ferber method and it worked for me with both of my kids in three nights. It is not for most people because crying is involved but like you I was having a difficult time functioning from sleep deprivation. My daughter would be up sometimes 5 or 6 times a night. Before you do consider it I would have him checked out to make sure it is not an ear issue or painful teething. Have you tried giving him Tylenol one night to see if he sleeps better, he could have some teething discomfort as well. Does he take a pacifier? Using a pacifier can also be a problem as it was with my daughter. I would have to get up and put her pacifier back in all night long because she did not know how to go to sleep without it. If you would like to try Ferber you can send me a personal message and I can tell you how I did it. Good luck I know how hard it is when you do not get your sleep.

My gosh, what is it with everyone wanting to "train" our kids?!!??!

All I can say is hang in there Mama! Continue to breastfeed your baby when he wants/needs it and continue to be there for him when he wakes up. He WILL sleep thru the night eventually - IT WILL HAPPEN. And when it does you will be so happy that you didn't give up on him or breastfeeding! DO NOT GIVE HIM FORMULA before bedtime. That advice is just so wrong. Breastmilk is THE ABSOLUTE best for your baby and it does digest quicker. AND your baby may not be hungry... he may just want extra mommy time. Can you blame him? You're fabulous - you're his EVERYTHING! :)

I KNOW you are tired - I am in the same boat. My son sleeps next to me in bed so I don't have to get up - we just side nurse and fall right back to sleep. The easiest, quickest solution. He now sleeps in 5 hour stretches and it happened all on it's own. NO CRYING, NO "TRAINING NECESSARY! Just love and soothing!! ALL THE TIME!!!

I do recommend, if you don't like what I'm saying, that you read a couple books to help you along - I've heard the No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley is a gentle nurturing way to sooth your baby to sleeping longer... Or my fav is The Baby Book, by Dr Sears.!

GOOD LUCK MAMA! Keep up what you're doing - your baby is loved and he knows you will always be there for him! You're raising him to know that he can count on you NO MATTER WHAT!!! YAY FOR YOU!

**One more thing - I get so angry when I hear parents say, "CIO worked". OF COURSE IT WORKED! Thier babies were LEFT ALONE to just cry and cry and cry. They are not gonna cry all night and will eventually give up. And the next night they may cry less and so on... Do you REALLY want to teach your baby that the only way he's gonna get to sleep is he basically gives up on his mommy and is on his own? I just think making a baby CIO is cruel. Sorry. I also will NEVER understand how a mommy can deny their own motherly instinct to sooth her crying baby. As far as I'm concerned that would cause more stress on mommy.

Holy cow girl I know what you're talking about!! I had the same problem with my son. It lasted until he was 15 months so I ALMOST went crazy....almost. At the one year mark I decided to just give up. I'd tried every trick ever heard of short of a voodoo lady!! I changed my attitude totally because I realized that one day my son would go off and marry some girl and I wouldn't have to get up anymore! Long story short I just accepted that it wouldn't last forever and that as a parent I wasn't failing my son because he wasn't sleeping thru the night. Some people have dream kids that sleep all night after a couple of months. I didn't so I had to stop making myself crazy with my own criticism. The other secret is ASK FOR HELP. I'd have my sister or my mom spend the night to have night time duty I'd pump before bed and leave them in charge and go to bed like I did before I had a crying little monster! It helped me recharge to know that somebody else (that I trusted) was going to take total responsibility and wouldn't wake me up unless the house was on fire! Having the break to sleep was great but having 12 hours where I didn't have to worry or be responsible for my baby was a huge relief. You don't know how much of your energy is sucked up by worry until you have a little while with out it. Holy cow it's awesome to be free of responsibility even if it's just for a few hours. Good luck and he WILL sleep thru the night eventually and you WILL survive!

We were in this exact routine with our eight month old and sucked it up and did some hard core sleep training. It was easier than we thought. It took about two nights of letting her cry it out at the 4am feeding. She never cried more than 20 minutes. The thing is to be consistent, if you decide you're going to do it, you have to do it until she's sleeping through that feeding session. She's now just over a year and sleeps through the night as she has since then. To help get ready for this, I would breastfeed about an hour before dinner then give her a sippy cup with formula right before going to sleep. That way she doesn't have to nurse to fall asleep. If your son is nursing to sleep, I'd work on kicking that first by either putting him down still a bit awake or perhaps what we did. Best of luck. A few tough days ahead and you will all be sleeping, well, like babies.

You know, there's this myth that babies should sleep through the night right away. And it's just that. It's a myth. Sleeping through the night is a developmental milestone just like walking and talking and teething. Here's more info on sleeping through the night as a developmental milestone: http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/sleep.html

Babies wake for a variety of different reasons: I'm hungry, I'm lonely, I'm working on learning something new like crawling, I'm cold, I need some love. These are all needs. It's rough sometimes to get through it, but it's so important to meet those needs. You can no more "train" a baby to sleep through the night than you can force one to talk. (((hugs))) You simply train them that mommy won't be there when he needs you. He'll still wake up, he just won't bother calling for you. That's heartbreaking. But there are other choices! You don't HAVE to resort to sleep training!

Here are some good books to check out:

Elizabeth Pantley The No Cry Sleep Solution
Dr. Sears The Sleep Book

Good luck. 10 months is a really intense age for all sorts of milestones and growth spurts and changes. This too shall pass. I promise. Just take it one day at a time.

Update: I would STRONGLY encourage you to read this website: http://www.ezzo.info/index.htm before purchasing anything related to babywise. This is recognized by the AAP as a method that is both dangerous and NOT compatible with breastfeeding.

Additionally, please read this info on various "sleep training", "controlled crying", "Ferberizing", and "Cry it Out" methods. Research shows these methods to impact both the physical and mental health.

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/linda_folden_palmer2.ht...#
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/comfortnursing.ht...
http://www.aeca.org.au/Controled%20Crying.pdf
http://www.kellymom.com/pantley/pantley06.html
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/T051200.asp#T051205
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/control.html

Good Morning Daniel, First let me say at 10 months he should be using a cup, you can put breast milk in a cup, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told another mom this morning.sleep training does not start at 10 months, take this advice from some one who has already done it. Sleep training starts from day one, All 3 of my now grown children started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. The reason he keeps waking up is because he knows you will go in to him. it's not about hungry at this age it's about habit, When I had first baby I didn't know anything about feedings the hospital told me to wake him up every 3 hours to feed him, so thats what I did, until my mom who had 5 kids found out, at 6 weeks she told me to give him a little rice cereal at bed time and that would help him sleep through the night, I felt like he was to young, but my mom said that is what she did with all 5 of us, so I listened to my mother and it worked. Here's something I did to, when i saw afriend of mine do it, I put fish aquariums in my baby's/tot's room with a blue light, the light and the movement of the fish and water a long with the blue light was very soothing and relaxing, my friend was in the Navy so she could not begetting up all hours of the night, she said it worked wonders during teething time. I think this site is great, but I'm surprised you all seek advice from moms who haven't really had much more experience than what you have, instead of your mothers who have already raised kids. That's the best place to start, that's where I always started, my mother and grandmother who both raised 5 kids.

Updated

Good Morning Daniel, First let me say at 10 months he should be using a cup, you can put breast milk in a cup, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told another mom this morning.sleep training does not start at 10 months, take this advice from some one who has already done it. Sleep training starts from day one, All 3 of my now grown children started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. The reason he keeps waking up is because he knows you will go in to him. it's not about hungry at this age it's about habit, When I had first baby I didn't know anything about feedings the hospital told me to wake him up every 3 hours to feed him, so thats what I did, until my mom who had 5 kids found out, at 6 weeks she told me to give him a little rice cereal at bed time and that would help him sleep through the night, I felt like he was to young, but my mom said that is what she did with all 5 of us, so I listened to my mother and it worked. Here's something I did to, when i saw afriend of mine do it, I put fish aquariums in my baby's/tot's room with a blue light, the light and the movement of the fish and water a long with the blue light was very soothing and relaxing, my friend was in the Navy so she could not begetting up all hours of the night, she said it worked wonders during teething time. I think this site is great, but I'm surprised you all seek advice from moms who haven't really had much more experience than what you have, instead of your mothers who have already raised kids. That's the best place to start, that's where I always started, my mother and grandmother who both raised 5 kids.

This is what I did.....My son was 10mo old, and in the 75% for weight. He was a CHUBBY boy and did not need to eat in the middle of the night.

Give him bottles not the boob at night. Make him hold his own bottle if he does not already (hold his hands up there)

After you do this for a week.....start watering down your Breatmilk at night ONLY....and giving him less. I would dilute it by half,and reduce the amount gradually over a few days.

Once you get thru this.....after doing all of this if he is STILL waking up....when we wakes up, go to his crib, lie him back down, and say good night. Let him cry for a few minutes (3-5 minutes), go in calm him down, and then lie him down again....repeat, repeat, repeat...until he goes to bed. Pacifiers also work great with this....

Good luck, I went thru the same thing 3 months ago.....this worked for me!

Your baby is hungry please feed him. He is still a baby and needs to be fed on demand. My son woke up every 2 hours to eat at this age. He can be growing now. In that case he needs to eat more often. It is very important to fed on demand. Your baby knows when he needs to eat. He needs food for developing mentally and physically. I was very tired but he's is worth it and babies depend on there mommies to take care of them. As I say the more you meet your babies needs now the more secure he will be later. He needs you. As I was told by a CHOC Dr. you can not spoil a baby. I would make sure he isn't teething or has anything hurting him. If you look up this subject you can see different topics and there are other mom's with the same questions. There is lots of responses to this question He needs his mommy now.

My daughter was like that. I night weaned, with water. It took a few months, but she then slept a full 12 hours. You have to break the habit system, and if you stop nursing, he will decide he can't be bothered to wake up.

I don't think anyone has mentioned a pacifier. These have helped us tremendously, I have seen my daughter go from a tired wreck fighting me to get up and play to a pacified little girl ready to snuggle up and go to sleep. I agree with others that you need to implement a routine and STICK with it, whether it be CIO or not. The pacifier helped comfort my daughter and she was more at ease on her own in her crib. To me, it's bad news to start having a child in your bed as a routine. It's fine for the odd occasion, but if they "learn" to only sleep with you, it's harder to undo. Try the pacifier with the first awakening, let him have it the whole night if need be, then you can start taking it away once he gets used to sleeping through on his own. Kids wake for various reasons and I'm sure you are checking the obvious, it's just sometimes they need "help" with sleeping. It could also be teeth, if you think so, you can try Hyland's teething tablets or in worse cases Infant Motrin, both have helped us all get a better night's sleep. Good Luck.

This sounds like me with my daughter. For my daughter, 7:30 was too early to go to sleep since she is not a big sleeper. We ended up pushing bed-time out to 8:00 and now 8:30. I breastfed my daughter for a year, and at about the 10 month point I gave up on her nightly wakings. My husband and I finally decided to let her cry it out to see if she could go to sleep herself. We used the method where you respond to babies crying after 5 minutes, but don't pick him up. Just go in, check to see if he's OK, say nice words and good night kiss, and then leave. Then extend the time to 10 minutes, do the same thing, and then 15, etc. Amazingly enough, this only took us 2-3 nights, and our daughter was sleeping through the night. After they realize that you're not going to give them tons of attention if they get up at night, they are less likely to bother trying to wake you up.

Buy a copy of Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weisbluth; it's a fabulous book that has answered all of my sleep questions. Whatever you do don't keep your child up later it can lead to him being 'wired' and then he'd have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep.

What we did with both of our babies was cry it out. I know a lot of people think it's cruel, but it's not, it's just one of those things you have to do to keep your sanity! Our doctor told us we needed to do it. It was a miracle for us. It only took one night with both babies (but they were around 5-6 mos. so it may take longer for your baby). It really was the best advice I was given when they were babies. They are now much older and have been great sleepers ever since! You may cry along with the baby, but it will be so worth it. We had to do it because our babies were taking up to 2 hours to fall asleep, then waking at night and taking forever to fall back asleep. Good luck - when it's all over you'll find it's the best thing you've ever done, for you AND your baby!

I recently read an article in "Parents" magazine on exactly this subject in which it gave a timeline as to "when was the best time to sleep train." Wish I had read that BEFORE I went through 10 mos of sleepless nights with my 2nd son. It hit the highlights of the books that were mentioned by some of the other posters. We ended up doing a CIO with my 2nd at 10 mo and my oldest at 3mo out of desparation. I didn't want to do CIO but I had hit a wall with both of them and was about to have a nervous breakdown if I didn't get some sleep. (Youngest was up 8-12 times a night. With a VERY active toddler during the day, I was completely maxed out.) To this day, my oldest is a better sleeper than my youngest and I wonder if that is because he got to be a pro at an earlier age.
To be honest, CIO worked well for us. For the judgemental, I'm sure they are looking down their noses at us for doing it this way but nobody walked those months in my flipflops but me. Each mommie and each kiddo is different and ultimately it's up to you what boundaries you set within your family. At some point, you sacrifice being your best mom for being someone else's picture of a good mom if you don't listen to what YOU need. (Earplugs were what I needed to make it through!) ;-)
Hope this helps.
:-)

hi, my second child is 8 mos and I also breast feed. keep in mind that while your child is well on his way to eating solids, the milk is still his main source of nutrition. here is the pattern that has worked for months with my child and perhaps tweaking your current "pattern" my do the trick?

7am- wakes and is breastfed
8am- eats some baby food
9am- breastfeed to sleep or falls asleep by self til 10:30ish
11 to noon- play
noon-breastfeed (flexible, may happen earlier in which case i'll feed him baby food at noon... if not, no biggy since the milk is the thing he really needs)
noon-2:30pm awake time
2:30ish- breastfeed to sleep...baby sleeps a couple hrs here
5pm- breastfeed
6pm- eats babyfood
7pm- bath (optional)
8:30pm- breastfed again to sleep
baby sleeps til btw 5am & 7am... start routine all over.

the BEST routine I've found for sleeping is the 2:3:5... which means, two hrs from when baby first wakes in the morning baby should take his/her first nap. when baby wakes from nap, the next nap will occur three hrs from then. then, baby will go to bed for the night 5 hrs after the last nap.

Around 12 mos or later, baby may "drop" a nap and only nap once/ day. I've found the most common nap time then is from 12:30-3 give or take 30 minutes. This would be for a baby that wakes btw 7-8am and goes to bed around 8pm.... so it's 5 hrs and 5 hrs of awake time during the day.

hope that makes sense? try to establish a routine/ structure....keep baby well fed with mommy's milk first! it is perfectly fine for baby to wake at least once a night...but 3-4 times is excessive and you are right to look for solutions! good luck!

Updated

hi, my second child is 8 mos and I also breast feed. keep in mind that while your child is well on his way to eating solids, the milk is still his main source of nutrition. here is the pattern that has worked for months with my child and perhaps tweaking your current "pattern" my do the trick?

7am- wakes and is breastfed
8am- eats some baby food
9am- breastfeed to sleep or falls asleep by self til 10:30ish
11 to noon- play
noon-breastfeed (flexible, may happen earlier in which case i'll feed him baby food at noon... if not, no biggy since the milk is the thing he really needs)
noon-2:30pm awake time
2:30ish- breastfeed to sleep...baby sleeps a couple hrs here
5pm- breastfeed
6pm- eats babyfood
7pm- bath (optional)
8:30pm- breastfed again to sleep
baby sleeps til btw 5am & 7am... start routine all over.

the BEST routine I've found for sleeping is the 2:3:5... which means, two hrs from when baby first wakes in the morning baby should take his/her first nap. when baby wakes from nap, the next nap will occur three hrs from then. then, baby will go to bed for the night 5 hrs after the last nap.

Around 12 mos or later, baby may "drop" a nap and only nap once/ day. I've found the most common nap time then is from 12:30-3 give or take 30 minutes. This would be for a baby that wakes btw 7-8am and goes to bed around 8pm.... so it's 5 hrs and 5 hrs of awake time during the day.

hope that makes sense? try to establish a routine/ structure....keep baby well fed with mommy's milk first! it is perfectly fine for baby to wake at least once a night...but 3-4 times is excessive and you are right to look for solutions! good luck!

Updated

hi, my second child is 8 mos and I also breast feed. keep in mind that while your child is well on his way to eating solids, the milk is still his main source of nutrition. here is the pattern that has worked for months with my child and perhaps tweaking your current "pattern" my do the trick?

7am- wakes and is breastfed
8am- eats some baby food
9am- breastfeed to sleep or falls asleep by self til 10:30ish
11 to noon- play
noon-breastfeed (flexible, may happen earlier in which case i'll feed him baby food at noon... if not, no biggy since the milk is the thing he really needs)
noon-2:30pm awake time
2:30ish- breastfeed to sleep...baby sleeps a couple hrs here
5pm- breastfeed
6pm- eats babyfood
7pm- bath (optional)
8:30pm- breastfed again to sleep
baby sleeps til btw 5am & 7am... start routine all over.

the BEST routine I've found for sleeping is the 2:3:5... which means, two hrs from when baby first wakes in the morning baby should take his/her first nap. when baby wakes from nap, the next nap will occur three hrs from then. then, baby will go to bed for the night 5 hrs after the last nap.

Around 12 mos or later, baby may "drop" a nap and only nap once/ day. I've found the most common nap time then is from 12:30-3 give or take 30 minutes. This would be for a baby that wakes btw 7-8am and goes to bed around 8pm.... so it's 5 hrs and 5 hrs of awake time during the day.

hope that makes sense? try to establish a routine/ structure....keep baby well fed with mommy's milk first! it is perfectly fine for baby to wake at least once a night...but 3-4 times is excessive and you are right to look for solutions! good luck!

oh my. I feel for you. we JUST went through this. I stopped nursing at 12 months. he JUST started sleeping throught the night at 14 months. we tried SO many methods. I am not a fan of CIO, but as a last ditch effort, I tried. did not work. we finally did a modified version (started with the nanny, and naps, which seemed to help). we would lay him down awake, he would SCREAM, then we woudl go back in every 5 min or so. took 5 times. by then he was still upset, but when she walked into the room, he would lie down on his own. I am still able to cuddle him to sleep at night with out ruining the routine (thankfully). Also we read something about times to sleep train (last months parents magazine). Turns out I was always trying at the worng time. apparently 12 - 15 months is a good time. it took two days.... now, he goes to bed at 8pm, wakes at 8am. i even run the laundry and ishwasher in the morning wtih out waking him up. I can even go in and say goodbye with out waking him

good luck!

My first son started sleeping through the night at 6 months ( thanks to my mom), but my second never slept through the night until he was 2 1/2. Seriously. He nursed forever - just at night to sleep!!!! I did like you and tried everything. So how did I get some sleep? I slept with him - put a mattress on his nursery floor and that worked pretty good. If he woke up and was cuddled next to me then he would normally go back to sleep. He had a gorgeous nursery and I swear he never slept one entire night in his baby bed. Good luck - I became a coffee drinker too :)

I had the same problem w/ my son. Eventually when he was about 8 mo old it dawned on me that he didn't really need to breastfeed 2-3x per night; he was getting enough food the rest of the time that the nighttime feedings were a habit and preference and not nutritionally necessary. It still took me several more months to work up the nerve to break that habit but life became SO much easier once I did. I had no sleep for a year and I was miserable and losing my mind. So screw up your courage for a difficult process but yes you should get your baby over this habit. He's crying at night and wants to breastfeed to get back to sleep because that's how he's accumstomed to going back to sleep; it's not hunger. You'll need to teach him to get back to sleep on his own. There are plenty of books, web sites, etc. out there to walk you through this -- all are a variation on the "cry it out" theme. I hated to hear my baby cry and felt horribly guilty through the whole process but it did work. I worked on eliminating the middle-of-the-night feedings first (saved the bedtime one for last.) When he cries, go to his room, rub his back, shush him with calm voice but DO NOT pick him up. If you do he expects to eat. He expects to breastfeed anyway, but the more breastfeeding steps you take before denying him the breast the more upset he'll be (picking him up and snuggling always comes as part of the feeding, right? So don't pick him up.) Leave the room, let him cry for a while. If he doesn't calm and go back to sleep after a while (5 min? 15? up to you), go back, shush him, rub back, talk calmly again, then leave again. Each night make the number of minutes shorter. Also do less over time to comfort him; maybe after a night or two you don't say a word while you're checking on him. ) Repeat the next time he wakes up. Depending on your child's temperament this will teach him to get himself back to sleep in a matter of a few nights or many weeks (similar experience with my very stubborn daughter took 6 weeks!) I can't remember whether I had to go through this process at my son's bedtime eventually as well or whether by conquering the need for wee-hours nursing he "got it" at bedtime as well -- it's been 11 years! Anyway, plan on on being exhausted during this process and don't pick a week when you have a lot of other things going on. Take a lot of naps. It's tough but in the long run is best for your health and sanity and your baby's well being that everyone is well rested and he does not depend on you to get him to sleep. Good luck -- I know how rough this is!

Try these books: "The No-cry Sleep Solution" and "Super Baby Food." I found each of them a godsend.

The other thing you can do (and this might be controversial, but it worked for me) is to bring your son into bed with you. That way you can still breastfeed on demand, but neither of you has to wake fully.

I went back to work when my sons were 3 months. Both of them discovered that the "Breastaurant" was open at night, and switched their feeding schedules. If I hadn't had them with me, I would have been a dead woman (seriously sleep deprived). We put a rail on the side of the our bed and each boy in his turn slept between me and the bed rail.

The nice thing was that I didn't have to worry so much about pumping at work, because I knew they were eating at night. Co-sleeping really has a lot of benefits, the best being the SLEEPING part. :)

Both of my sons are now good sleepers -- getting them out of my bed later was NO PROBLEM.

BTW, another opinion of mine: keep the bedtime at 7:30. They'll be early risers, but you and the spouse will have more time to yourselves.

So much good luck to you!!!

Please read "On Becoming Babywise". It talks about getting your baby into a routine with feeding and sleeping. It also emphasises that as important feeding your baby is, even more important is to get your child to sleep through the night so your baby grow and develop properly. It is designed for parents who are about to have a baby, but it also has a chapter for parents on what to do if they are just starting this philosophy after some trouble. I'm due next month, and everyone I talk to about this book loves it, and swears by it, and wouldn't do it any other way. I hope it can help you.