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

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.

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.

BUY IT!!! First time mom here! This was recommended and omgggggg.. I’m so glad I got it!! Literally helped me out so much with his sleep. Not just with sleep, but in general it’s provides great helpful tips. I didn’t see results immediately, but remember it takes time! Be consistent. After sleep regression for 2-3weeks, he started sleeping 10-12hrs for sure every night at 3mo. He is now 4mo and sleeps from 7pm-7am. He naps great too! Something we were struggling. Can’t recommend it enough!!

This book was recommended to me by a colleague, who swore by the author's method. She had 3 months off for maternity leave from her counseling job, and by the time she returned, her daughter was sleeping 12 hours per night per the training regimen presented. I started Suzy's regimen later than recommended with my son, but to be sure, it is working, despite the colic and indigestion he acquired around 8 weeks of age. Now in our 4th week of training, my son is down to 1 feeding per night from 3 feedings, and is on his way to sleeping 12 hours, as the book promises. My only complaint is with the customer service side. The author offers to reply with assistance via email; however, though I emailed her over 3 weeks ago, she has yet to reply. As the training is designed to move quickly, she and her assistants have been zero help to me in this process. They should not offer help if they cannot provide it in a timely fashion. Otherwise, the book is well worth the investment and an easy read and guide to follow for sleep training with infants.

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.

I am an orthopaedic surgeon and used this book in order to sleep train my daughter, which was mandatory for me given my work schedule. I also highly value breastfeeding and was able to exclusively breastfeed my daughter (either nursing in the morning/evening or with pumped milk during the day given via bottle by my mother) until she transferred to whole milk at one year of age. Not once did I ever have to substitute formula for breast milk due to supply issues. I would breastfeed and then pump immediately afterwards in order to freeze the extra breast milk. Additionally at work, I would make time in my schedule in order to pump at the same time that my daughter would normally be nursing. This technique maintained my milk supply, and kept the frozen breast milk stock maintained that my mother needed for the daytime feedings. Using the techniques in this book, my daughter was sleeping 10 hours through the night at 6 weeks of age. She would take a two-hour morning and two-hour afternoon nap during the day. When we phased out the morning nap around 15 months of age, she extended her nights to about 11-11.5 hours. She is now almost two years old, and her sleep schedule is so engrained that she starts asking for her blanket around 7:30pm in anticipation of her bedtime routine. Even as a physician myself, I would never assume that I know what is best for every mother-child-family-schedule situation. This book worked very well for me and our family (my husband is a Cardiologist) because we needed a sleep schedule that worked in a timely manner. I was also extremely dedicated to breastfeeding and made nursing/pumping a daily priority in my schedule as well. I just wanted to let other mothers know that the techniques/schedule in this book can be used while maintaining a healthy, breastfeeding relationship with your baby. Additionally, I do agree with the OB Nurse who posted that some of the sleep tools proposed in this book are not currently recommended by the AAP. I placed my swaddled daughter on her back with a pacifier on a firm mattress covered by a fitted sheet with absolutely nothing else in or attached to the crib. This technique, which is recommended by AAP, has helped to reduce the risk of SIDS up to 50% according to recent studies. I have attached the link to a great powerpoint that goes through all the currently recommended techniques for safe sleep. I highly encourage all mothers to review the current guidelines. [...]

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.

This is the only baby book I read cover to cover and I’m so lucky it was this book! Everything she said is true and makes perfect sense. By 3.5 months our baby only ate once at night. It took a long time to get rid of that single night feeding—partially because I wasn’t being super disciplined and I think that’s ok as long as you’re ok with slower results. At 4.5 months I reread this book and found new motivation and by 5 months our baby slept through the night!!! All 12 hours!!!! From 7pm to 7am!!!!!! That is insane!!!!!!! I praise the author for her work. THANK YOU SO MUCH. If you’re reading this review just buy the dang book. I’m saving my copy to give to my kids when they’re all grown up, if they want to have kids, because this advice must never be forgotten. GOLD.