Has anyone tried a sleep consultant? Did it work?

[flotsamandjetsam]

Am thinking of this option for my 9mo DS2. BF, wakes 3-4x per night and sleep seems to be getting worse! DS1 was also a bad sleeper and by 18months I was physically and emotionally drained. Would rather get this sorted now, than become depressed with it. I have read various books but think I need more support if I am going to go through with it succesfully. So far, I have considered Millpond but wondered whether anyone had experience of any others?

I was at my wits end at 7months with ds1 and my HV helped sort things out! I read all the books and had tried everything except cc so she came out to do a visit, got us to keep a sleep diary for 2 weeks then wrote a plan for us to follow. She came back 2 weeks later then I think a couple of weeks after that as a final check up. We had a big improvement after around 10 days.

Ds3 is just 12months but went through a tough patch at 9months. He had been in a very good routine and self settles to sleep but was waking up and feeding several times a night. Things settled down by 10months.

Is it a self settling issue?

Am not sure our HV offers this service.. Have heard that 9 months babies regress with sleep but DS has always been pretty poor. He can self settle for a nap in the day but is BF to sleep at 7pm and then throughout the night.

Depends on where you live, but I went to a workshop last week with Andrea Grace in Highgate, north London. She does private 1-2-1 sessions, but about every 6 weeks does a session at the Highgate Childrens Centre for £10 per person. Everyone was able to ask multiple questions about their situation and I got some useful advice although its too soon to say whether her tips will work as my DD is only 7 weeks and we're just starting to implement some of her suggestions. It did enable me to identify that my DD is getting over tired as she stays up quite late. I would go to another of her sessions, as my questions and problems will no doubt change with time.

It's worth asking your H.V. I wasn't expecting a visit or anything when I spoke to her, I just wanted a bit of advice but I really stressed that I was at my wits end so she agreed to do a home visit to discuss it properly
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If baby is hungry overnight then it'll take a few days at least to cut down the milk and get more milk+solids in during the day. Once you know he's not waking up hungry/cold/too hot or anything else then you can work on the self settling overnight. If he self settles for the day time naps then you know he can do it for bedtime too. My ds1 couldn't do it at all so it took 1/2hr at least to settle him every time he needed to fall asleep.