I did the math. When my daughter Sophia was 13 weeks old, it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes of constant crying to put her down for a 15 minute nap.  With 3-4 naps per day, I ended up spending 5-7 hours of my day rocking her to sleep, nursing her to sleep, or cuddling her to sleep.  The situation was unsustainable.  What’s worse, my daughter was developing poor sleep habits and experiencing poor quality sleep.  The duration of her naps was getting shorter and, after several weeks of sleeping through the night, she had begun night waking.  Her temperament was changing too.  Once a happy, alert, and interactive baby, she was cranky, irritable, and unable to focus during the day and inconsolable at night. I knew that if I allowed things to continue as they were, the situation would only get worse. I had read all the books.  I had researched and tried all the methods: “controlled crying” (with which I wasn’t comfortable), “check and console” (which didn’t seem to work)! and the like.  Deborah visited our home and watched me put Sophia down for a nap.  She suggested a method that I hadn’t found in the literature or considered intuitively.  And she told me to expect some progress after 4 days.  Instead, I saw progress after 3 naps!  Without the trauma of abandonment, and instead with my constant presence and reassurance and my consistent naptime and bedtime behavior, Sophia learned when it was time to go to sleep and how to settle herself.  The time it took to put her down for a nap quickly collapsed from 1 hour and 45 minutes to just 20 minutes. Within 2 days, she started sleeping through the night again.  It is now two weeks later, and Sophia is thriving.  She is taking longer naps, sleeping through the night, and settling or re-settling herself within 10 minutes. She is happier and more alert.  And I have regained 4.5 to 6 hours per day of productive time for myself.  There is no doubt about it, Deborah and The Sleep Clinic at Annerley are worth their weight in gold.   Gina Hertel, Asia Regional Director, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, Mother to Sophia, Age 3 months, August 2007