Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old: A Step-by-Step Plan for Baby Sleep Success

This book is my bible during maternity leave! I used this method with my first two babies and plan to use it again on my third due in August. It really works! Your family may think you're crazy because it involves following a strict routine, but they changed their minds when they realized it actually worked. My two oldest kids, aged 6 and 4 now, have continued to be excellent sleepers since starting this method. My family always praises me on how well my kids go to bed and never fight me on it. And I truly believe it all stemmed from the training in this book.

It takes patience and discipline to do the routine. But do it for a few weeks BY THE BOOK and it pays off for months and months and months. It will save your sanity and make everyone, especially baby, very happy and well rested. The number one question you get with a new baby is, "How does he/she sleep?" Everyone asks. Why?? Because most babies don't. That means most parents don't. People are amazed when I tell them our kid sleeps 12 hours every night and has a routine. They think it is impossible or magic or something. They tell us we are just "lucky" and "must have gotten a good one" because they can't believe it. Nope. We followed this book as directed. Not luck, not magic, a routine. When we followed this book to a 'T', it worked exactly as described. My little guy is one year old now and he still sleeps from 7 pm to 7 am EVERY DAY, and has since he was 9 weeks old. Literally he has only had 3 or 4 nights in his life since 9 weeks that he has not slept 12 hours straight. There are a lot of negative reviews for this book. I've read many of them now. I can't fathom that. Really people? All I can say is there are a ton of people out there that have very very strong feelings about co-sleeping, about breast feeding constantly, and people that can't be disciplined, or have the willpower to stick to the routine that ARE SIMPLY HATING on people that have used this book's methods successfully. I think some of them are stay at home mom's that took pride in the difficulty and think other's should have to "earn their stripes" too. I don't understand why they think suffering is the good route though. People that claim the baby will be mal-nourished, or throw out the "these authors aren't doctors" criticism are not only mis-informed on the actual plan, but they are being very over-dramatic and un-educated on the needs of the baby. It is funny how quickly people criticize authors for "not being experts" and turn around and give terrible, non-informed, even less expert opinions. You feed your baby the same amount, just not every hour all hours of the night. You funnel the feedings away from night and into day, then eventually just to 4 times daily. Many humans eat 4 times daily. It isn't dangerous or unhealthy. Yes, the babies stomach is smaller, but it is still proportionate to the baby, it doesn't mean they have to eat constantly. Of course your baby would eat every hour all night if you offered it milk, it doesn't mean it needs to. It would eat every 10 minutes if that is the routine you offer it. Why would you though? If you are worried about your milk drying up, you are not following the plan. The plan says to still pump if you need to. If you are so dramatic to claim this would cause depression or anxiety, you are wrong, it causes the opposite! My baby is always happy, very well developed, hitting all his milestones, and is happy to go to bed at night every night with this routine. Our whole family is well-rested, energetic and loving life because of this book. It is simple if you just do it and stick to it. Save your sleep, your sanity and make the whole family happy. Use this book! For all those haters that are saying it is impossible and unrealistic, they should meet my wonderful little boy (just not between 7 PM and 7 AM because he will be blissfully sleeping). There is seriously no product on earth I would endorse more.

Why I recommend this book · Easy read. I read in a couple of hours with breaks in between to care for the babies. · It starts with what to do from day 1 to eliminate habits that may be hard to break later down the road. But can also be useful to a mother at any stage of sleep training your children. · Discusses habits that may lead to a child not sleeping through the night · Discusses age and weights of when a child is ready to sleep through the night. I really like this since my twins are preemies. It was nice to know when they weigh 10lbs then you can try these methods vs. when they are blank age try these methods. · Discusses schedules and nap times. · Lastly, because it works! It has worked great for both of my twins. Both sleep through the night without waking every single night and can sleep for 12 hour stretches. They are happy well rested babies! I have read and heard the horror stories of one baby sleeping through the night and the other baby being a wake the whole night! As I said earlier you may have to tweak some things (as with any book) to make the "plan" work best for your family. For example: my babies can easily sleep the 12 hours but I wake them after 9 hours of sleep to feed them and put them back down for the other 3. I do this so when the nanny (our moms) walks in the house she will have an easier transition and so I can have some mommy time with them before I go to work. So we put the babies to bed at 9pm and wake them at 6am to feed them. When they are done feeding we put them back to bed until 9am. Another tweak to the plan is we feed the babies less and more often this the book's schedule recommends. Right now we are feeding ours twins every 3 hours/ 4oz/6 times a day... the book says 8oz bottles 4 times a day. Our babies can't finish an 8oz bottle in one feeding and if they drink much more than 4oz at time they spit it all up. This is still a total of 24 ounces. The last tweak ... the book suggests a 1 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. We do three 1 hour naps instead. So they are still having 3 hours of nap time a day. But three 1 hour naps just works better with our feeding schedule and the twins wouldn't nap much longer than 1 hour when we tried to do a 2 hour nap. So as a wrap up this book is great but you may have to tweak some of the tips for your children! As a first time mom it really helped me to get an idea of schedules, sleeping patterns, and naps. Again my twins sleep through the night every single night! So I recommend this book! Hope this book helps someone like it helped me!

i always told myself that i wasn't going to read too many books when i became a mom. i know too many women who drive themselves crazy by doing so, but this is one book i was so happy to have recommended to me. i babysat 2 boys prior to being pregnant who went to bed at 8pm with ease, so when this was the "secret" plan, i had to read it. i whole-heartedly believe in helping your child become flexible with his surroundings and thought this would be a great foundation to accomplish this - i'm sure that some babies just aren't as mellow, but it worked for our baby boy. for the most part, he is on a predictable schedule for naps and feedings, i give or take 15 mins before nap and feeding time (i'm on a more combination-led schedule, where baby and parent work together). here's what i like the most about this plan: - not much guesswork: i can pretty quickly understand my baby's needs. it keeps him content and doesn't cause a meltdown. - limited cry-out method: baby is still learning how to self-soothe, but in a more realistic, less traumatizing way. although it can be a lot of work, it is so worth it. - easy-going personality: if it's nap/bed time and we're out and about, he will easily go down wherever and go right to sleep. it does take him up to 15 mins to settle down, but he is not phased by his surroundings whatsoever. what can be challenging about this plan: - eliminating the night feedings: tough to be fully okay with, but you have to remember that baby is getting all its calories during the day...this is the most crucial step to get the sleep

This book was recommended to me by a family member who used this method with her 3 children. She claimed it worked. I was skeptical but I gave it a try. I mean come on, 12 hours?! But it works. I’ve now used this method with both of my kids and it 100% works. I gift this to every single friend who is expecting! MINIMAL CIO!!! (5 mins or less!) My first child had really bad colic between week 6-12 and I was a new mom gaining my footing on motherhood. I had him sleeping through the night by 14 weeks. He’s now 5 and still sleeps 10-12 hours through the night. For my second, it was an absolute breeze. She was sleeping through the night by 12 weeks. The key to my success was 1. She was a great eater (can’t credit myself for that one) and 2. I implemented the nighttime routine the very night we got home from the hospital. Essentially I created a 5 step night time routine and kept the lights low during night time feedings. This allowed for an extremely easy transition when it was time to implement the method as explained in this book. My youngest is now 13 months and still sleeps 12 hours through the night. It’s sooo nice for me and my husband to have “us time” before bed and then be able to sleep through the entire night. 10/10!! So thankful for this book. It seriously works if you follow it to a T! Read BEFORE your baby gets here so you don’t build bad habits.

My wife and I had a premature (6weeks early) baby boy come into our lives in April of 2025. A friend of mine had recommended this book and strategy to help train our baby to sleep through the night. We waited until he hit the required milestones listed in the book and started when he was around 2 months old with the goal of being done or close to done with the training by the time our FMLA time off of work ran up at 3 months. All I can say is this method and the ease of reading this book allowed our son to crush it! By 3 months, he was sleeping from 730pm (after his 7pm bottle) until 7am. There were one or two nights right after we removed the last overnight feeding that he fussed but other than that, hes gone about a month now without waking us up overnight. He's more happy, we're more happy and having a newborn isn't as exhausting as those first few weeks in the trenches. For anyone skeptical of "sleep training" here are the reasons why I think you should reconsider. 1. You have to work to teach your baby almost everything they do so why would sleep be different. 2. This isn't neglecting your baby but instead it's helping them through tough times for the betterment of their own health and yours. 3. Slowly weaning them off overnight feeding and teaching their digestive system to run a schedule is not abusive. Im honestly shocked to see so many people who reject sleep training or refer to it as abusive. If you prefer to just let them wake up and feed overnight, have at it! If you'd rather sleep well, this is the book for you. It was basically our Bible for a month or two. This method isn't easy and it'll test you and your spouse but being a united front and being consistent is key. Of note- we have not stuck to any specific nap schedule as recommended in step 4 so as to be flexible with our daily lives and with childcare. We prioritize getting him to nap for atleast 3 hours wherever we can manage and he still crushes the sleeping overnight, which we have remained consistent with.

This book is amazing.. It was recommended by 2 friends whom I trust and respect as mommas. I wish I had this book when my older kids were infants! She takes you step by step on how to train your baby to sleep and it all begins with their feedings. First she has you write down when your baby eats from birth to 6-8 weeks. Your baby will naturally be on a schedule. You don't force your schedule, but figure out what your infants schedule is. I used the baby tracker app. Otherwise I would have no clue since I am super busy with 3 older kids. She doesn't recommend to begin sleep training until your child is 6 weeks and 10 pounds. If your infant is not both, than you don't begin until both are true. You start with the first feeding of your day and try to make it a little longer (a little longer by a min-15 min./ don't make your baby cry to prolong.. change their diaper.. use one of the tools she gives you for daytime). I began this at 8 weeks.. I had this realization that when I fed my son less than 3 hours between feedings that he literally would throw up all the milk I just fed him. So I began by feeding him every 3+ hours because I knew that he could go that long. He honestly would sleep long enough that it wasn't a problem. I didn't make him cry. I would change his diaper.. prolonging it a few minutes, then feed him. He eventually on his own would go 4 hours in between feedings during the day. As I stretched his feedings during the day, he naturally would sleep longer at night. (She also says this is what your infant will do in the book). He started at 6 hours... a week went by & it was 7 hour stretch, than 8/9, than 10 hour stretches between his nighttime feedings. Then on his own he slept 11 hours. There were times during the 6 weeks of training him I felt like we took a step back (which she says is normal). But after he slept 11 hours on his own several times.. when he woke up 2 times in the middle of the night I knew he wasn't hungry.. so I just gave him his pacifier. The next nights he slept on his own through the night 11-12 hours. This happens gradually, & is not an overnight solution. Stick to what she says in the book & it will be a domino effect. Your baby will sleep in longer stretches gradually until it's 12 hours and 4 feedings that are 4 hours apart during the day. You begin with the first feeding, then when he naturally goes 4 hours in between, you begin on feeding #2, than feeding #3, than feeding #4.. and have your infant eat a little later.. by a min, or 5 min. Each minute is a minute gained. That's when I would prolong his feedings (sometimes just by a few minutes each time because I changed his diaper. But it gave me a better idea of when he was hungry and when he was tired. She gives you a list of tools for daytime and nighttime. I honestly didn't use them all the time, but they were an excellent resource if I needed them. The progression was very natural. He would go longer and longer at night sleeping as I fed him closer to every 4 hours during the day. My feedings (I'm breastfeeding) went from being every 11-13 minutes every 2-3 hours, to 20-25 minutes every 4 hours. Her list of tools work. She even has had success with parents of multiples. Even now my son will sometimes wake up early from his nap (during the day b/c I have to transfer him in his car seat someplace b/c I have older kids) but I can still tell he's tired. I'm not a momma who lets her baby's cry. So I feed him when he's hungry, & this has taught me when he's not hungry, but tired. Highly recommend.. !!!

The positives: this sleep training method, in theory, makes total sense. I love the idea of providing structure for your little one, with a scheduled feeding time, napping time, bed time, etc. Children absolutely benefit from structure and routines in order to feel more safe and secure. The negatives: I believe the title is very misleading because it is not physically possible to feed a 3 month old baby 6-8 oz in one sitting without them vomiting everything. Their stomachs are way too small and underdeveloped at this age to hold that much liquid. The scheduled feeding is a great idea (i.e. feed baby 6-8 oz every 4 hours, so a feeding at 8 am, 12 pm, 4 pm, 8 pm) and I do believe this works GREAT for older babies, perhaps around 5 or 6 months. But it is physically impossible for a 3 month old to eat that much in one sitting because their digestive tract is still so sensitive and their stomach is so small. I do not think this author should encourage new parents to think their babies can handle this much liquid. At this young age, you really just need to read your baby’s hunger cues. If they’re not hungry, they just won’t eat. If they are, they’ll let you know, and once they’re done eating, you cannot just force them to eat more or else they’ll get sick. I think the book is worth purchasing IF you use these ideas and apply them to an older baby. But I think it’s reckless of the author to suggest that 6-8 oz is remotely realistic to feed such a young infant.

Backstory: We had a fire in our building when our baby was 3 weeks old. We ran for our lives and we were in temporary accommodation for almost 5 months. All this turmoil really affected our baby, in addition to her tummy cramps and colic issues that kept her awake and crying from 6pm to 6am most nights in her first 8 weeks. With the fire etc., we got a lot of new night sleep problems, resulting in her refusing to sleep anywhere else but on me. Not next to me. On me 😳 The book: All this has gotten really exhausting and we were looking for solutions so a colleague recommended this 12h sleep by 12 weeks book. She has 4 kids, 2 of them are twins and she said it worked for all of them and it was a life saver. I ordered the book, got it and forgot about it… until after a couple of weeks of no sleep at night and my back being completely broken, I started reading it as an act of sheer desparation. After reading it, I was sure it will not work but at that point, we were willing to try anything. The method: We started when our daughter turned 8 weeks old. She is exclusively bottle fed from the start as I had no milk. I imagine the method is much harder for breastfed babies but the author offers some solutions. We only ever did step 1 - feeding every 4 hours during daytime and bedtime routine (it's nothing complicated or much different from before, she just goes to sleep at approximately the same time, dark and quiet room etc...). All this is really not a problem because it's a normal rhythm for her so half an hour up/down is not a big deal. At night, she already ate only once, very rarely twice at 8 weeks of age, so that part wasn’t a challenge either. We did not have a nursery in our temporary apartment so she sleept with me in one of the bedrooms. She still doesn't sleep in her crib and we mostly bed share but that’s fine. We never even tried the step where the baby falls asleep on her own in the crib with the door closed etc., because leaving a child to cry for 3-5 minutes seems too Spartan for us and we’re against any type of cry-it-out methods. The results: After almost two weeks of using only the step 1 from the method, the results already seemed incredible to me! Every night she slept at least 6 hours in one stretch before the first(and often last)night feeding which was only a dream before. No more crying the whole night, no more sleeping on me. By the age of 3 months she was sleeping through the night. We chose an interval from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., so before starting with solids at about 6 months, she ate during the day at around 8 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m., and we only had to wake her up once, otherwise it's all natural to her and we don't complicate things if she eats 15-30 min earlier/later. When she started solids, we started giving her the bottle as soon as she woke up and before going to bed. We also added some snacks but mostly kept the structure of the established routine. We took everything in the book with a grain of salt and adjust it to our needs but we still got the desired results. All in all, we expected this method to be much harder and that it will take much longer to have any results but we were thrilled after two weeks already. Our baby is 11 months old now, she mostly sleeps through the night and wakes up sometimes once to feed but goes back to sleep right away(when healthy and not teething, of course). We realized that the routine is super helpful for her and for us. It’s also(non-intentionally)very alligned with the routine that she will have in the Kindergarten that she starts in 2 months. All in all, we deem this book and method(or at least step 1)a miracle as it really helped our baby with her sleeping in a natural and non-forced way so I recommend it to every new parent. It definitely saved our lives in especially dire circumstances.

Easy and a quick read

It was well written and insightful I took away a couple of things, however it’s not in my personality to parent/sleep train in this style. It’s worth a read and take some points from it

Tengo dos bebés de casi 4 meses , cómo todos los padres al principio que puedan dormir es un reto pero aplique lo que el libro dice y si funciona, adicional que lo puedes leer rápido y muy sencillo de entender

Best book ever for making my baby sleep, nothing worked but this book. And there is nothing better than helping our babies by teaching them a routine and discipline. Thank youuuu!! He is happy qhen he wakes up and I get to sleep after a year of horrible nights hehe