TODDLER CASE STUDY
NAME AND AGE : ATHENA 2.5 years
MEDICAL ISSUES: None
CURRENT SITUATION: Athena had no structure to her bedtime routine. Her parents were juggling three under three non-sleepers and Athena was usually the last to go down at night. After a full day at work and long settles with her younger sibling, her parents just did whatever worked to get her to sleep. She is not sleeping in her own bed or through the night. Athena needs a bottle of milk and her parents to lay with her to fall asleep at nighttime.
This often meant it could be as late as 9 PM, getting Anthea to sleep at night.
NIGHT WAKES: She would wake on average twice a night and require a milk bottle and dummy to go back to sleep or refuse to sleep for hours on occasion. Parents would generally try to get her to sleep in her own bed, but she would inevitably end up co-sleeping each night.
DAY NAPS: Had dropped daytime naps a while ago.
PROCESS:
After the success that the parents had with their twins on my programme (read about their progress HERE ), they knew that they wanted to work together again with Anthea’s sleep.
I had a Toddler workshop coming up, so I recommended that they join the event. The event runs from 7 PM-9 PM, and during the event, Anthea was the entertainment; in the back of the zoom meeting, we could see her running a muck and jumping around in the background while mum and dad were participating. She was the poster child of why all the parents were on the session. Mum and dad implemented my classic Taming Toddlers Bedtime Program the very next day.
They followed every step to a T and Anthea was asleep within 20 minutes on the first night. She had two little wakes and returns to bed each time; she went straight back to sleep. The next day she was so excited and proud of herself. It was such a pleasure and relief to see how proud she was to have slept all night in her bed.
RESULT: Two months on, and Athena has slept all night, every night in her own bed since our consultation. She is so much happier during the day and LOVES her bedtime routine. Nights are now a time of Connection for all the kids and a time the whole family enjoys.
FEEDBACK FROM MUM:
After the first night of implementing Athenas program –
Night one – It’s 7.32 pm and we started your routine at 7.00 pm. Athena is fast asleep.
Athena, who has slept in our bed for months, is asleep
She now doesn’t have bottles (as of today, following your advice), and leaves her dummies by her bed in their *sleeping bag*.
My husband and I are sitting on the couch by ourselves. Three children under 3 all asleep.
For reference sake: We haven’t sat alone together at 7:30 pm since I was pregnant with Athena.
I cannot believe how practical and easy to implement your technique was. It felt firm but gentle – she didn’t even require the last step you suggested. She just went off to sleep with the promise of fairy magic in the morning
Thanks to you
