Sleeping Baby, Happy Parents
An Interview with “The Baby Coach”

I recently sat down to chat with “The Baby Coach” Suzy Giordano and her writing partner and former client, Lisa Abidin. With 5 grown children of her own (including twins!) and over 12 years of professional experience, Suzy’s pediatrician-endorsed secrets to helping babies sleep 12 hours a night will be music – or maybe I should say “lullaby” – to any parent’s ears!

Suzy, I have twins of my own and just reading of your experience as a young mother in Brazil exhausted me! Would you mind sharing a bit about what motivated you to develop your sleep system?

Suzy: Sheer desperation! After using different methods with my other 3 children, I decided not to listen to anybody else and do my own thing with the last of my 5 children, my twin boys. Having older kids that needed my attention and love were definitely my biggest motivator. What I did not realize was how much the system would benefit the whole family. It was absolutely the best thing I ever did for my babies and my family.

Why do you think sleep training is so difficult and daunting for parents?

Suzy: Parents often underestimate how much impact they actually have on their baby's sleeping abilities. Without this understanding you can start bad habits that undermine your baby's opportunity to develop a great habit that can impact his whole life and make parenting a more joyful experience.

The methods in our book show that although it takes work, things can be different. You do not have to live on 4 hours of sleep a night for 3 years. You do not have to lie still for 2-3 hours each and every day because your baby is only able to nap while lying on your chest. You can and should take the time to teach your baby how to fall asleep on her own and self-soothe herself back to sleep when she wakes and cries.

Lisa: I agree. I think people are afraid of letting a child cry for any amount of time. Perhaps today's parents are weary of how their parents raised them and believe their parents were too strict or too harsh and do not want to repeat that with their own children. But it is so important to strike a healthy balance so that your child can learn essential skills like self-soothing and learning to fall asleep on his own. I truly believe our book helps you find that balance.

I also think today's parents are so busy, often with both parents working. If you know you have to wake up at 6am and have an important client presentation that day, you will do anything to get your child to go back to sleep ASAP. You may opt for the quick fix of feeding the baby and bringing her in to sleep with you. This may work well in the short term, but in the long term, if you do it several nights in a row, you are training your baby to wake up, expect a nighttime snack and change sleeping spaces.