CASE STUDY
NAME AND AGE: 18 mth old Boy Girl Twins (parents also have a two-year-old daughter who is also not sleeping who we worked together to resolve her sleep issues too. You can read about her journey HERE)
MEDICAL ISSUES OR OTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:
NONE – Both feeding and eating well.
At the time of the consultation, the whole family had Covid
CURRENT SLEEP SITUATION: At the start of this journey, there was a lot to unpack here.
Both twins had different sleep props to go to sleep. Parents had a challenging bedtime routine with three nonsleepers, but they would do their best to manage a bath bedtime routine.
- Twins generally preferred to only be settled by mum
- Boy twin would have his bottle, then would need to be bounced on a yoga ball to go to sleep at the start of the night and his sister
- Girl twin would not fall asleep while feeding, being bounced or in her cot, so she would fall asleep rolling around on the floor after her feed while a parent was bouncing her brother before being transferred into the cot. During this very long process, their toddler was still up as it would then take even longer to settle her afterwards and then clean up after dinner. And prepare for the next day
- Both babies also had a dummy and comfort blanket for sleeps.
NIGHTTIME WAKES: Both babies were waking up on average 2-4 times EACH overnight. Parents would try replacing the dummy – rubbing back – then milk feed- bouncing back to sleep and co-sleeping as a last resort.
DAYTIME NAPS: Will sleep once a day between 11–1 PM. Both have milk feed on a cushion on the floor -Boy twin rocked to sleep Girl twin falls asleep on the floor on her fluffy blanket, then transferred
HOW LONG?: The twins have never been great sleepers, but neither has their toddler, and many of the family friends’ kids slept similarly, so mum had accepted that this was the season of life they were in and just kept going until one day when one of her fellow tired mum work friends came to work looking not tired any more.
Sarah knew enough was enough after a chat about how her friend had used the Lullababy SOS Reset program to help their little one learn how to sleep better. The sleep deprivation was killing her, and she went home and booked a consultation
PROCESS: We did a zoom consultation and implemented my classic Bodyclock Reset Program (3-5 days of adjusting the routine and settling process to reset their little ones’ sleep routine and settling. We focused on their bedtime routine and how we could streamline it and make it work better for the whole family
We cut out all overnight feeds straight away
Implemented consistent meal times during the day
All settles day and night were in the cots after implementing my bedtime routines and we discussed how to support both babies in settling when they were going to sleep or woke at night. Each day reducing support as the routine became more familiar and babies became more confident.
RESULT:
Night one of implementing the new routine – Mum was able to settle both twins in their cots by herself within 20 minutes – one twin (G) slept through the whole night the other woke once for a resettle but stayed in his cot all night
Night 2 – Dad did the routine, and both twins were asleep within 20 minutes. Dad didn’t even need to touch either twin. He just offered a soothing voice and physical presence and would have done more if needed. They both settled easily and slept through the whole night from 7.15 PM to 6 AM
Ongoing both babies continued to sleep through the night and settle amazingly for both day and night sleep. Parents reported that they seemed happier and eager for bedtime as time went on.
Once the twins were settled into their new routine, mum and dad decided to tackle their toddler’s sleep issues next – Read about that HERE
FEEDBACK FROM MUM
My husband and I reached out to Elaine in a desperate state – our 18-month-old twins hadn’t slept through more than a handful of times and never on the same night. They needed several bottles of milk, bouncing, patting, rocking – just to get to sleep. Then often woke up to repeat this 1-4 times per night. As a nurse and shift worker we were exhausted.
After our first consultation, we felt confident enough to dive right in. The babies had never settled by themselves in their cots – nor have they ever been settled simultaneously by one parent.
Not only was I (me! Alone!) able to get them to sleep at the SAME time, in their own cots without any of our usual patting – one twin slept through!!!! The other woke once – only to be resettled without coming out of his cot.
One consult and we genuinely feel capable and confident enough to stick to Elaine’s practical and gentle methods.
I couldn’t possibly recommend her enough – I cannot believe we didn’t do this 12 months ago. I am now really excited about our new routine.
