Jules 10 months old
Started solids at seven months and has some food intolerances that are well managed
Night wakes:
7- 10 times a night up until recently, he was able to self-settle at the beginning of the night but would still wake every 2-3 hours and require a feed to go back to sleep. Recently he regressed in self-settling at the beginning of the night, too needing to be fully fed to sleep.
Day naps:
He completely self-settles consistently to sleep and usually sleeps 2 hours in the morning and 30 minutes to 1 hour in the afternoon.
Sleep Associations: Breastfeeding
Our Consultation:
We did a 1-hour zoom consultation, and I discussed the fact that Jules did know how to go to sleep and link sleep cycles but that he had learnt that there was one thing that he needed to do during the day and that he had different expectations at night time. We discussed how both mums could support Jules in learning that his bed was his bed but only one parent at a time and that he needed to fall asleep in his bed. At no point were his parents expected to leave Jules to self-settle by himself. The settling approach was 100% hands-on, but this would quickly reduce as he gained confidence in settling. I explained to his parents that I expected that Jules would fight hard on the first night but that he would learn fast.
Feedback from mum
After an hours consult, we felt nervous but totally prepped and ready for the night ahead with all the tools (hopefully) to sort Jules out.
We were tired but honestly more concerned about his little body not getting the rest he needed to develop. The first settle of the night was the longest (55 minutes), but we worked our way through all the techniques and advice Elaine offered, and it worked!!!! The same night we settled him three more times, each time within 7 minutes.
Night two – He slept through from 6 pm – 6 am!!! We actually couldn’t believe it.. We may have even checked on him several times 😉 ! We had gone from a baby that had not slept longer than 3 hours at once ever in 11 months, to sleeping through! The advice was so clear, made complete sense and clearly, it works!
The past week, Jules has started clapping, pointing, making more sounds and starting to show signs of walking.. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or if he has literally caught up on sleep and is catching up on milestones!!! We are so glad we engage Elaine, so we were both prepared and educated before going into something that can be super daunting, overwhelming and easy to just give up on and think you’ll try another night again!
We now have a baby that sleeps through the night or if he wakes, he settles back off to sleep within 2 minutes! AMAZING!!
THANK YOU, XXX
A note on these milestones- Did you know that your baby consolidates information that they learn every day through the REM Sleep Cycle. The REM Sleep Cycle is also the sleep cycle that they find most difficult to transition through when they have external sleep associations, and therefore developmental leaps can take longer to achieve when your baby is not getting the sleep that they need. I regularly get feedback from clients like the above that say that once that baby starts sleeping well, they seem to have a surge of development. I call this – The spring cleaning-Once your baby learns how to sleep better, their brain and body get the rest that they need to process and consolidate the information they are learning and put this learning to use.
