Cian went through the 4 month sleep pro-gression early, was only having short naps during the day and was waking hourly overnight.
To fall asleep and for every wake mum was having to rock or feed him back to sleep. Mum was understandably exhausted and had started reluctantly bedsharing to try and get some sleep.
After speaking with Pip, I set out a holistic sleep plan just for Cian with realistic goals in mind. Included advice on setting up a sleep inducing environment, adding healthy sleep cues, a nap and feeding routine, and how to introduce a consistent and gentle settling method that would still give Cian the opportunity to learn how to fall asleep more independently, and get him comfortable with sleeping in his cot without needing to leave his side.
Within a couple of night of following my sleep plan, Cian was sleeping through the night waking only for a feed. When we wrapped after 14 days, Cian was self settling with no tears for naps and bedtime, and had just started to link his own sleep cycles.
Mum had also noticed huge improvements in his mood, and evenings were no longer stressful they were actually sweet and enjoyable!
And here's Pip's review:
"We came to Melissa for help with our 3 month old’s sleep. There were a few things we wanted to change and didn’t know where to start. Apart from the sleep knowledge, I also felt I needed a supporter and someone to keep me accountable as I know that at 2am I find it really hard not to take the ‘easier’ option.
We were co-sleeping (something I didn’t want to be doing), rocking or feeding to sleep, and had a dummy. We were well and truly in the 4 month sleep regression with hourly wakes overnight. In the days I was constantly stressed not knowing when I should nap him and he was cat napping sometimes for 10 minutes.
Melissa took the time to understand my son’s temperament, us as parents including our values and how we’d like to approach helping Cian sleep. We wanted to be hands on and because we had so many changes it was Melissa who suggested the most gentle method. After a tough couple of nights Cian was settling well and sleeping in his crib all night with the exception of a feed or two.
We honestly could not believe it. The hardest part of sleep training was our emotions but Melissa was so understanding and helpful and apart from her intuition and knowledge of all things temperament and sleep, this was her biggest asset in helping us improve the sleep. In two short weeks our son is self settling, only waking for feeds and linking day sleep cycles.
Not only that, his feeding has vastly improved and so has his mood. I didn’t realise that by napping him all over the place he was constantly jetlagged, our evenings used to be so hard with an overtired bub and now they’re pleasant.
I would never have believed the improvements in sleep possible, when you hire Melissa, believe everything she says. I cannot recommend Melissa enough to help you with any sleep needs." Pip, S. Melbourne
