I have used both of these books as my “bibles” when trying to get my boys to sleep.  My current problem is this:  I have a 4-year-old and a 2.5-year-old who share a room.  The older one goes to preschool 5 mornings, does not nap, and sleeps about 12 hours (7pm to 7am).  The younger one goes to school 3 mornings, usually naps for an hour or more, but is resistant to bedtime.  They go in their room at the same time, but our older son falls right to sleep with the younger one is in and out of the room for 2 hours.  I don’t think that different bedtimes will work, and I’ve considered eliminating the nap, but he really seems to need it.  Because he’s missing that nighttime sleep, he’s overly tired and overly ornery.  Now what?

My son goes to bed around 7pm but always wakes up at 5am. Now with the time change he is still going to bed at 7pm but waking up at 4am. I need sleep and help. Any recommendations?

we really need help.  my three-month-old son refuses to nap.  he fights them with a fury and when i do get him down he takes a maximum thirty minute nap.  so, because they are so short, we are battling through six naps each day because he is always tired.  i have a routine that i’ve been doing - diaper change, hum to him and rub his head.  then i turn on the fan, turn out the lights and turn on the lullaby music we have.  i then lay him on the bed in his room (where he then begins to get upset because he knows he’s going down for a nap) and i swaddle him.  swaddling is how he sleeps at night, too.  i then rock him or walk around and bounce him a little and hum to him until he is asleep( he usually is protesting most of this time).  i place him in his crib at which point he often wakes up and starts to cry.  i then have to pick him back up and rock him some more until he goes back to sleep and place him carefully in the crib.  this can happen several times each nap.  when (and if) he does stay asleep after putting him down, he may sleep for half-an-hour, and often times wakes up ten minutes after put down.  i then have to repeat the rocking and humming until he is back to sleep.  this is my second time writing to you, so you may have noticed, but i think i submitted incorrectly and you never received it. we are in need of some advice in a bad way! we are trying the cry training this weekend - he fell asleep after half-an- hour last time, but only slept for fifteen minutes before waking and crying again.  what do we do?  i dread my days knowing that this is the pattern i will face all day long.  he is a motion sleeper (car, on walks in the snugli or stroller, etc.) and after a little battle will sleep on us for his last nap at night sometimes for forty minutes, but i know you say these are not good quality sleeps (plus we don’t have the time to do this for every nap).  Do we need to wait till he is older before we can expect him to nap longer?  or is this something he is capable of doing at 3 months?  Thanks for any help with this!

Jessica, you need to read the books.  You are perpetuating the problem!