this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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We’ve just had the baby sleep consultant come by. I didn’t have high hopes, in my mind it was just a starting point as it’s the free council service and the advice we got from our maternal child health nurse did not work for us at all.
But I have been pleasantly surprised! She was really nice and the approach she has suggested sounds a lot more suitable for us. It’s going to be a hard 3+ week journey to change baby’s sleep habits. Really hoping at the end of it we will see some better sleep!! I am so tired!!
Getting close to needing something like this ourselves. He ONLY wants to sleep on mum, and whilst he usually stays down once he finally goes down at 11-12ish its a long time to get him there. What were some things they suggested out of curiosity?
Mine was just like that too! He got a tiny bit more independent as he got older but nowhere near enough. How old is yours now? If it’s not much better by 4-5 months I’d definitely recommend it. It will be a bit harder for us as he’s older and the sleep habits are more set in stone. So the earlier the better!
We are transitioning to cot in his own room so it was suggested we basically work in 15 min increments. Put him down when he first starts showing tired signs (before he’s melting down and grumpy) and give him a chance to fall asleep on his own. If he fusses can try adding one thing at a time, like shushing or song, then patting the mattress, then patting him etc. If that doesn’t work, all good, just go back to what works and try again at the next sleep.
Also having a rock solid routine before sleep and keeping the sleep conditions exactly the same: so always have white noise, always do bed time routine in the same order etc. And consistency. So even if it doesn’t seem like it’s working, sticking with it for every single sleep. “Success” at the beginning may just be laying there without crying for a few mins.
Ours is only 2.5 months. I was told not to even bother trying a routine till 4 months ish.
@TinyBreak @stardustingss agree, it's way too early for routine.
Have you tried swaddling? My daughter was great in a swaddle up until about 4 months when she started rolling and had to change everything. I found a great swaddling technique on YouTube that was inescapable and she settled down real well with that (she was a bit of a Houdini even quite early).
He HATES a swaddle. Loves to throw his arms around in his sleep. Remove his ability to do so and he cracks it. But good tip.
@TinyBreak bugger! good luck, I hope you find a solution.
Yeah that young I think you basically have to roll with it. Their bed times do eventually shift earlier! Basically you want to get on the other side of the 4 month regression then see what you’re dealing with.
thank god. Apparently he should be sleeping like 13-15 hours or something, I reckon we'd be lucky to get 8 or 9.
Mine had a phase of not going to sleep until 1am for a while then randomly just switched to 9-10pm. Then gradually kept moving back and now he goes to bed at 7.30!
The sleep hour numbers can drive you crazy. Like a few months ago we were told he wasn’t getting enough day sleep so I worked super hard to increase it. Now he sleeps too much 🙃
Good luck.
It wasn’t until I had kids that I understood just how effective sleep deprivation is as a method of torture.
I hope you have a support network you can rely on to help.