- You can find Kari at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy
What is your biggest struggle as a mother? My biggest struggle as a mother is juggling the completely different needs of my sons. I am helping one learn to drive while teaching another how to use a fork and spoon and then attempting to remember what time I gave the other one a bottle.- What is your favorite tv show? I am having an affair with my TiVo. I don't know what we did before we had it. I won't hide that I love my reality shows; Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser, Big Brother and Top Chef.
- Whats one thing your mother did that you swore you would never do & now you catch yourself doing? My mother's favorite saying was, "Because, I said so!" and I swore I would never say that to my child. I now say it on a daily basis.
- How do you unwind? I wouldn't trade my life for anything but I seriously need my alone time and take my ritual night-time bath to unwind and read something not related to parenting.
- What's your guilty pleasure? My guiltiest pleasure is entering giveaways. I just can't stop and am truly A Giveaway Addicted Mommy. I enjoy learning about new products and companies (especially mom-owned) and share that information on my blog along with random thoughts/events of my life and of course links to fabulous giveaways!
Enjoy your sleep while you can! That was the phrase I heard most when I was pregnant. I was so panicked! I love my sleep and it had been 15 years since I had had to worry about this. 15 years ago I was young and sleep was for the weak. Surely there had to be someone who had come up with the secret to getting our children to sleep through the night by now?
I began to look for books on the topic, but which one was the best? There are so many to choose from. Luckily, I was home watching The Today Show one morning and I caught a segment featuring Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack from Sleepy Planet. They are sleep consultants that wrote a book that I now call my “baby bible,” The Sleepeasy Solution. The book is encouraging and easy to read. They walk you through each step of building your child’s sleep plan and how you can maneuver through the inevitable bumps in the road. There are separate sections for bottle-fed and breast-fed babies as well as working with older children. 
My son is a Sleepeasy success story. He sleeps 11 to 12 hours a night and 2-3 hours a day (naptimes are also covered in the book) without needing any assistance from us. No bottles, no rocking. At night we do our bed-time ritual of bath time with daddy, a short book and then we kiss him good night and put him in his crib. At nap-time he actually comes to me and lets me know he needs to nap! It is beautiful!!
I will admit, we fudged a little bit here and there. There is a bit of crying that is involved on the part of your child (and I did a little too). But we were committed to getting him to sleep through the night. The great thing about this method is that children learn to self-soothe. That is, they learn how to put themselves back to sleep again if they wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I hear him in the middle of the night. He will cry out, maybe he had a nightmare or my teenager slammed his door and woke him up. But that is all I hear. I will check on him and he will be fast asleep. No sign he was ever awake.
44 comments:
Wow! I wish I had this when my girls were little! They still have trouble sleeping, it would have been nice to stop it from the beginning. I need to buy this for my two sisters who just had babies!
Great post Kari!!
Yep I need this!
I really and truly need this in my household! Thanks for the great review.
Awesome Kari! I would love to be able to give up my career to better my children. Thanks!
Great review - it seems like this really worked for you! I can't wait to try it with my little one.
Awesome post Kari! It was fun learning more about you and this product! I am going to see if it is for sale on Amazon right now, although I will hold off on buying it in hopes that I might win the giveaway... Thanks again!
Wow--it sounds like you found an "Amazing" way to be a "Survivor" of those nights all of us moms understand too well. I hope this gives you more relaxing bath-time and more time to become the local "Top Chef." I'll definitely pass this information on.
bookjunkie50@yahoo.com
sounds like a useful book
Great post, Kari - a truly useful product, and I already dig your blog!
I thought I already posted here, but I love you review and reading you blog. thanks
Great post, Kari. I, too, share the same "guilty pleasure" - I can't stop entering sweepstakes and giveaways. I've even won a few:) My son and his wife need the book "Sleep Easy Solutions", so I'll be heading on over to your blog site.
maggie@mannwieler.com
My vote is for Kari! She has a wide range of ages of children and therefore would do an excellent job on reviews for products all moms and dads can use.
Her reviews are well thought out and insightful and If I had a baby, I would most definitely buy this product.
This sounds like a fabulous product! I had a really hard time getting my toddler on a sleep schedule. I hope that's not the case with the one due this year!
couponcrazymom00 at gmail dot com
That was really interesting and I could really use this. That was a great review!Thank you!
Your post was my favorite. I feel like I can relate to you because my children are 10 years, 8 years, and almost 1 year old. I did go to your blog and tried to subscribe but I don't know what happened. I'll try again another time. Thank you for being down to earth and for sharing with other mothers.
nhmummab@comcast.net
Thanks for sharing your personal experience. I wish I knew about this book a little earlier ~ but it's never too late to learn. I always love reading your posts. Keep up the great work!
I have this book. I'll be trying it out. I'm due in 2 weeks !!
Glad to meet ya! :)
Great article Kari! I could have used this book with my son but he is almost 3 now and sleeps fine (the first year was rough thought). Thanks for the insight.
I would be willing to try this book! I can't get baby to take naps!
It was nice learning more about you Kari. It's so interesting that you have such a range of ages in your kids.
My son fortunately is a good sleeper most of the time, but this would come in handy for those times when we need to transition him into a new sleep pattern.
Night time was the absolute hardest time with both my kids. I'm assuming that since it was so hard with both kids that the problem was my husband & I, not them. I am so glad to be done with that.
I have an affair with my DVR and I love the biggest loser and reality shows too. Great post, I learned more about you :)
I have enjoyed reading your blog since I found it, not to mention that the giveaways are also a plus! I myself and several family members could definitely use some tips from that book, I'll have to pick it up on my next excursion to the bookstore.
That would have been a God sent when my son was little, but....instead I had my parents. It was nice to learn so much about you, I recently found your blog and am enjoying it immensely.
We didn't have that book when Charlie was little - we used the Happiest Baby on the Block. That seemed to help some with her sleeping. I'll probably get this one for my sister's shower though. She NEEDS her sleep big time.
Awesome post Kari.I had one son that would take cat naps ,ready to go again,wish this was available then. Thanks
Great post Kari and I love your blog.
Christie
dctm at bellsouth dot net
This sounds like a lifesaver. I know a couple of friends who could really use this. Thanks for the great review.
ceashark at aol dot com
If I don't win the book, I wil; have to get this. Glad I came across your blog.
Thanks for being honest about the tears. I trust it if it comes from a mom.
laikilu@yahoo.com
hope you win :) gl hun
my son is the same way sleeps wonderfully at night and nap times he tells me ninight same with bed and he goes to nap with nothing other than a kiss and a hug. I love being a WAHM/SAHM I would not change a thing and I am sure you feel the same way
I can't wait to see how it works on my Little Man. We will be waiting till 4 months since he is a cranky little boy.
I could really use this, our little pooka is just at the stage where she feels like she's missing something if she goes to sleep.
Great post. Being a mom is hard and it's nice to hear from people who are both honest about the tough stuff and happy to be a mom.
I wish I had this book three years ago. Think it'd work on a toddler?
Gosh this looks like the perfect thing for my daughter!! we tried the "Cry It Out" method and she screamed for two hours at which I could not take it anymore :P things have gotten a little better but I think that I need something else.
I didn't know there was a book! Our pediatrician told us what to do to get our first to 'put himself to sleep'. It was hard at first, but all 3 of my kids sleep great, and have never needed rocking or anything. Just our normal routine of drink, potty, prayers, and then we just put em in bed and they go to sleep! I'm so thankful our ped gave us this advice!
Kari - it was neat to learn more about you...I had no idea you were a Jr. High teacher! You must be a patient person.
I, too, wish I had this when my daughter were little...she never slept!
Thanks for sharing with us!
The book sounds interesting... very little sleep over here :(
Kari,
It was fun to learn more about you here. Great review too!
~Katie
It's good to know more about you. And very good review. My kids sleep very well...even through my selfish music playing at times.
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