Roman 6 months Bottle-fed and on solids two meal a day.
Night wake:
Romans overnight wakes have progressively gotten worse and he is now waking up about four times
Daytime sleeps:
Roman is a cat napper and it can often take longer to get him to go to sleep then he will sleep for usually he will sleep for approximately 30 minutes but will occasionally sleep longer if he’s in the car.
Sleep Associations:
Needs the dummy to go to sleep and mummy also needs to rock cuddle or bounce on the fitball to get him to go to sleep this can sometimes take up to an hour throughout the night and around 20 minutes during the day he generally Co-sleeps overnight but this has been the path of least resistance and not something that his parents want to continue as they are struggling to sleep with him in the bed with them. Even with co-sleeping mum still needs to get out of bed and feed / rock him again help him transition through sleep cycles. Roman wakes on average of 4 times a night for feeds and needs help getting back to sleep. Over time resettling him through the night and day has gotten harder and he is becoming more difficult for anyone else other than mum to settle him. Things got a lot worse with Romans sleep at 4 months when he started rolling and his parents had to unswaddle him.
Our consultation:
We did a bath and bedtime consultation with Roman and after making some changes to his bath and bedtime routine mom placed Roman into the cot wide awake without his dummy. For the first 10 minutes Roman lay there awake but content after approximately 10 minutes he started drizzling from there we gently assisted him with hands gently patting and soothing to support him in self-settling as he got a little more worked up we layered the assistance a little more with some gentle rubbing singing and talking to him. Roman seemed to get more agitated the more that we tried to help him so we pulled back a little and just make sure to stay in contact with him the whole. For the last 10 minutes, Roman was asleep on his back but would startle strongly as he was drifting off to sleep this kept waking him up, eventually, he rolled over it onto his front and fell asleep and stayed asleep.
Once roman had done this mom and I both left the bedroom. One of the biggest observations I notice with roman is that he had a much stronger starter reflex than your average 6-month-old. Once we had left the room Roman continued to startle but as he was now asleep on his tummy his startle was less dramatic and he continued to sleep. (Note: SIDS recommendations: If your baby can roll in both directions unaided – that is they are able to roll onto their side/front and then back onto their back themselves, then it is ok to put baby to sleep on their back and let them find their own natural sleeping position) Roman is able to roll both directions.
We discussed my observations with Romans settling and discussed in new settling plan end routine for mom to follow over the coming days.
On the first night after I left Rome and slept 6 1/2 hours straight before waking for a feed. Mum followed my recommendations for feeding overnight and then placed him back in his cot on his back awake he was a little grizzly so mum sang one verse of a lullaby and he was out. He then rolled onto his tummy and slept for another 5 1/2 hours before waking happy and chatting to start his day.
For his first day of daytime naps, he only did three 30 minute naps.
Night two- Mum followed the same recommendations and he fell asleep within 14 minutes and slept 13 hours straight.
Day 2 on his naps
Nap one took 20 minutes to settle him and he slept for 1 1/2 hours
Nap 2- He took five minutes to settle and slept for two hours
Night 3 and he slept another 13 hours straight
A week on and Roman is continuing to sleep through the night self-settling to go to sleep and link through sleep cycles both during the day and at night all in the comfort of his cot he is happy going to bed and overall happy during the day. The new routine has helped Roman know when bedtime is coming and he is responding to his bedtime routine positively.
The whole family is now benefiting from quality sleep for both Roman and his parents.
This is mums Review of the Settling plan
If you’re even considering hiring Elaine, 100% do it!
I thought holding my baby and watching him fall asleep in the comfort of my arms was the best thing I could be doing for him. When he was younger this was beautiful but at 6 months he was getting bigger heavier and taking longer to fall asleep. He now needed to be rocked, walked, sung to, bounced- basically anything and everything to bring on sleep. This was breaking my back and I was becoming increasingly frustrated. He was needing to fall asleep in my arms every single time and taking over to fall asleep in our bed. It took one day and night of hard work and sticking to Elaine’s routine, in his own room and in his cot to have him sleeping 13 hrs straight through the night without one single peep. This after months of multiple wakes a night.
I couldn’t believe that by day two of following Elaine’s tips, tricks he had learnt how to self-sooth. Prior to consulting with Elaine I was losing myself, my mind & had no time or motivation to do anything – now my son SLEEPS. He takes long naps and I finally have the time to do things for myself and get a decent sleep at night too.
Happy mum, happy baby and happy family.
Thank you Elaine for fixing our lives so much.
My only regret is putting up with it for so long and not hiring Elaine sooner.
