Has anyone hired a maternity nurse/nanny/sleep expert to help with a sleep problem?

[thecattleareALOHing]

And did it work? Seriously considering it to help with dd who is 10months and getting worse and worse and worse. Still up now. And last night woke at 4am, wide awake and wanting to play. And she won't nap in her cot or in a bed during the day either. She's a wonderful baby. Sunny, social, physically lively...but the lack of sleep is KILLING me.

Thanks Soapbox. She is staying unnervingly awake with me these days. Yelling 'mama!' and putting her fingers up my nose, then climbing over me...

She's asleep now, and dh is going to try to move her to her cot so we can sleep in our bed without small feet drumming our ribcages.

Mmmm - familiar with that one

Ds(5) is all disorientated because his beloved nana has gone home after staying with us for Christmas, so has visited us in bed at 2am for the last couple of nights!

I've had a crappy cold and been non too impressed when he tries to lie diagonally across the bed all night, refusing to have any bed covers on!

dd also takes up a staggering amount of room for a tiny person.

When I was pg I went to a party and a man I'd never clapped eyes on before asked if I was planning to breastfeed! I was so shocked. I actually wanted to slap him. The cheek! Under what other circumstances would a male stranger think he could talk to a woman about her breasts?
A female friend is quite a different thing, as long as she doesn't feel got at or defensive.

Bum! Meant to post that on the beastfeeding thread! See what sleep deprivation does to you? Dh is - I hope - moving dd so I can go to sleep in my own bed v soon.

melissa sounds good?

sounds good too!

the sleep lady!

link{http://www.familiesonline.co.uk/article/articleview/58\article by andrea grace!}

A few to choose from! If you google angela grace and sleep it comes up with a lot of hits. She may very well be worth contacting

Hope you get a restful night tonight

I can't even use the sleep deprivation excuse! Article by angela grace!

Aloha, weirdly, I thought I'd clicked on the beastfeeding thread and wondered why you were saying you'd posted in the wrong place. How strange!

Soapbox, Melissa sounds v good. £300 would certainly be worth it to get the monster sleeping well.
Thanks for those - will discuss with dh.

Fantastic. Will show these links to dh.

Like a number of Junies, I had a chat with Andrea Grace, I found it very useful in helping us get ds into his cot. Just having someone else draw up a plan for me to follow when I was too knackered and tearful to want to change anything (if you see what I mean) was fabulous.

Andrea Grace 0208 348 6959
Moby 0771 732 4377
email [email protected]

Aloha I really feel for you. What a shame your dd is too young for what I like to call the "chicken shed technique". Some friends of my parents did this with their dd when she was little (about 2) and waking up every night. The dad took her downstairs and said "this has got to stop. If you don't sleep through tomorrow night, I am going to have to put you to sleep in the chicken shed with the chickens". She slept through every night from then on

I also spoke to Andrea Grace on the phone and then had a few email follow ups.

I was also at a very low point when I rang her and found it very helpful just to go through things with someone. She starts the session by asking you various questions about how things are and that in itself is helpful when you have completly lost perspective on the situation (as I had).

After the phone call she emailed me an individual sleep plan for ds. I have to say that I only really followed bits of it and didn't find it the most helpful bit of the exercise.

Sleep has really sorted here, and I think some of the improvement was down to her suggestions. But most of it was just one of those things.

Either way, it cost £45 and made me feel a lot better at a time when members of my close family asking me if I wanted a cup of tea could provoke me to tears or rage.

I'd be happy to e-mail you a copy of the sleep plan we got if you'd like to CAT me. Not sure if it would be much use, as it is tailored to ds, but a lot of it seems to be cut and paste, so maybe of general interest.

It would be a small thank you for introducing the phrase "bit of a Bunter" into our lives.

I once went as far as contacting the millpond sleep clinic. They seemed highly efficient but I can't tell you anything more about the service because I decided I knew what to do really and just needed to do it (but wasn't having anything like as difficult a time as you). I'm sure you would find it helpful to get in some expert support. Don't think the millpond would provide someone to actually come and stay with you, but they'd provide support through a sleep training programme. Good luck.

have you got an nhs sleep clinic anywhere near you aloha? i know people who've used them very succesfully.

whispers aloha, when my ds was the same age he did the same thing - dd2 was also up about 6 times a night at that point and dh was working 200 miles away, I just felt like killing myself and the children - my sympathetic GP prescribed hydroxyzine which is a sedating antihistamine suitable for babies over 6 months, for 10 days. Completely sorted ds out. He'd still wake up but only cry for 5 minutes before going back to sleep, and wake fresh as a daisy in the morning, and carried on like this once we'd finished the course. He's 2 now and has been a pretty good sleeper ever since (total nightmare all the time before).

Poor u thecattle! Haven't read all thread but I really feel for you. DD2 was like this and didn't sleep through until she was 3 years old (sorry you probably didn't want to hear that!) And we tried literally EVERYTHING. Had all the HVs holding up their hands in defeat! Apparently some very few children are just like this. I blamed it on DH. He doesn't need much sleep at all and will stay up til 1/2 am most nights and up for work at 7 am the next day no probs. Often works all night too and then all day with no problem whatsoever.

DD2 will still wake in the night (now nearly 6) but I have taught her to entertain herself!

Wouldn't that be great though. I wouldv'e paid someone to come and do the night shifts if I had the money. I was completely exhausted!

NIGHT NANNIES COVER SE LONDON AND KENT AND THEY ARE LOVELY[I`M BIASED AS I WORKED FOR THEM FOR A WHILE] THEY CHARGE £60 PER NIGHT PLUS A CHARGE TO THE AGENCY BUT SOMEONE EXPERIENCED WILL COME AND COVER FROM9 PM-7 AM.. AND WILL HELP WITH ALL AGES ..THEY ALSO HAVE PEOPLE THAT SPECIFICALLY PROBLEM SOLVE.. SOUND ANY GOOD .. I WILL TRY AND GIVE SOME ADVICE LATER WHEN WE COME BACK

aloha I left dd2 to cry herself to sleep at about 7 months or so

it was hellish but I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown

it took her 1.5 hours to go to sleep on the first night

and another 45 on the next night

then she slept through and it changed my life.

but it was HORRIBLE - I was in our bedroom crying and screaming (quietly) at poor dh for some reason. It felt like the most unnatural thing I have ever done in my life BUT it worked...don't know whether I will have the guts to do it again though.

After reading Bambi's post Oooo Thecattle if you can afford it, do it.

ALOHA, I really sympathise. DS has never been a good sleeper and is particularly bad when he's teething or has been vaccinated. When he started to walk it was awful for over a month (teething and vax coincided). He would be up every hour, really upset, sometimes talking in his sleep or crawling around his cot. He was often wide awake for anywhere between 2 and 7 hours after midnight. I was physically sick one morning with exhaustion

DS has always slept in his cot but at this point I moved him into our bed. Although his sleep didn't improve for a few weeks, at least I didn't have to get up in a cold house. Also, it made DH's sleep more unsettled - I don't think he knew how bad it was for me.

My neighbour's DD went through exactly the same thing when she started to crawl.

DS has really settled down now of his own accord. He still wakes, but 70% of the time before 12pm, he settles himself.

I really don't know what to say, but I hope you get somehting to work for you

Thanks everyone. How lovely you all are!
Bambi, Night Nannies sound very affordable and possible. I wonder if they send someone who can help during the day as well - feel I need to start from scratch.
Enid, I'm really not opposed to letting babies cry - had to do it with ds, it's just that dd's distress is so much more than ds's - hysteria, and she wakes in exactly the same state she went to sleep in, only 20mins or an hour later. Appalling!

CAN WE SHARE ONE!?!?!?

Ah! A fellow sufferer?