During the day he would have to be fed and held to sleep, and if transferred to his cot he would wake shortly after. At bedtime he was also fed and held to sleep, and if transferred would wake within 30 minutes so one of his parents would have to bedshare so that he would sleep. Which meant they were never getting any quality time together as one parent was always having to go bed early to ensure their baby was getting the sleep he needed.
But he would still then wake up a few times in the night to be patted or fed back to sleep. He was also experiencing some split nights and would be awake for up to an hour even after a feed.
They had also noticed that he wasn’t taking a huge interest in solids but they hadn’t realised that this was related to his sleep issues.
His parents' goals were to be able to have him fall asleep independently, to be happy to sleep in his cot, and to sleep through the night.
Fiona booked our 7 Day Program the Complete Sleep Support. During our phone consult, I explained the factors that were contributing to their sleep challenges and outlined a plan to get sleep on track over the 7 days. The plan included adjustments to their daily routine, nutrition tweaks, a strategy for gradually reducing nighttime feeds, and a new settling method designed to bolster Austin's confidence in falling asleep more independently, while mum still being there to offer support when needed.
The first bedtime settle took about 40 minutes, and he managed to drift off to sleep in his cot, with mum only needing to pop back in a couple of times to offer comfort. Then – for the very first time in 11 months, he slept through the entire night, getting a solid 11.5 hours of rest!
And here’s mum’s review after we finished working together:
“Before reaching out to Baby Sleep Code, we could not get our 11 month old son to sleep in his own cot. I would feed him to sleep and either hold him for the duration of his naps or co-sleep with him at night. Even then, he’d be waking during the night for feeds.
We booked a 7-day sleep support package with Melissa, who literally changed our lives!
Melissa was very detailed, knowledgeable, and empathetic. She gave us some really good tips and answered all our questions, supporting us through the hurdles. By the end of the week, our son was sleeping independently in his cot and I was no longer having to feed him to sleep or feed overnight.
Melissa also helped us realise that his night feeds were impacting our son’s lack of appetite during the day and with the new routine in place, we were happy to see his appetite had also improved!
We cannot thank Melissa enough for all her support. It’s been such a pleasant change to have a baby who can now sleep independently and we are so grateful to be getting a good night’s rest again!”
Fiona, Melbourne
