Does anyone have any experience with a sleep consultant??

[jadericho]

I've been a crying, irritable mess for the last week or so now. It's all getting on top of me and I feel like I'm not coping and I'm horrified to admit that I even feel like snapping at my little one when I'm up with him for the millionth time in the night and just wanna scream just fucking go to sleep but of course it comes out in the form of me hysterically crying. Then when he does finally go to sleep I just can't drift back off because I can't relax for not knowing if I'm gonna be up again in 5 minutes or 5 hours. So I'm at the point now where I'm considering paying for a sleep specialist. I am desperate, I'd go fucking bankrupt if it just meant I could have a decent sleep. My other half isn't much help through no fault of his own, I've always breastfed him to sleep so he's never been able to help with the night shift but tonight I've just told him fuck this you're giving him a bottle and I'm on the sofa tonight with earplugs. Let's see how that one pans out. But I digress. My point of this actually is, does anyone have any experience in using a sleep consultant??? I've tried sshh patting and it had good success for the first two nights (4 nights ago now) but has since gone to shit. Tried just letting him cry it out for a bit yesterday, didn't work plus I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. If you can't already tell, I'm literally on the brink of insanity. Please please help

You poor love - I understand entirely. We were at our wits end when DD was 2.5 and her sleeping was so bad in the night I was up constantly, we couldn’t see the wood for the trees and any plan we made went right out of the window by 3am

I used a sleep consultant remotely, I’m based in the US and she was in a different state working in a sleep clinic attached to a hospital, so I never met her.

We had an initial phone consultation where she asked various questions. She then asked me to keep a sleep diary for 2 weeks, detailing everything in it. She looked it over then on the phone told me the plan - she asked me not to make notes, just to listen and she talked to me for about 2hours. She then emailed the plan in great detail and as part of the payment was available by phone for a week (maybe a fortnight?) and email for a month.

Honestly it was amazing, DD was sleeping though by the 3rd/4th night. Nothing the consultant said was drastically different to things we’d tried before (except DH had to do all the sleep training, DD had to think I wasn’t even there and in fact DS and I stayed over with a friend the first night), but the consistency was absolutely key and really recognising her cries for what they meant differently and therefore how to respond appropriately. Have to say probably paying someone to come up with the plan probably helped us stick to it!

She’s only gone through sleepless phases since when sick or in a nightmare phase but is otherwise a great sleeper nd gets herself back on track easily. My only regret is not doing t sooner.

DD is 7 now, very happy to share the consultants details, she was amazing and it cost $150

Yes we used a sleep consultant called Fern Bishop. She was worth her weight in gold! We couldn't afford much and definitely couldn't afford her overnight although I think i'd have used credit cards I was so desperate but she seemed sure she could help without it. She was right and he now sleeps all night long, I honestly didn't think it was possible!

I hope things get better for you soon OP.

I've used one. really didn't want to go down that route but when we reached breaking point i decided I needed help to change things. I was initially put off by the cost (amongst other things) but having been through it I don't at all regret it. sleep training was hard hard work but my ds is so good with his sleep now it was worth every penny and actually we saw signifanct change pretty quickly. I couldn't have done it alone. i was too tired and emotional and needed someone to guide me through it all and let me know it was ok. I really hope you have some success soon. sleep deprivation is truely horrible.

What age is your LO?