Andrea Grace sleep training??

[btheb]

Hi,
I am having major problems with my daughter sleeping in the night. I have read lots of books, tried everything i can think of but nothing works. I am completely exhausted. Does anyone have any experience of seeing a sleep consultant? Has anyone seen Andrea Grace? I can't really understand what help they can offer that is different to the numerous books i have tried and failed with. But i am very desperate. Any advise please!
Thanks!

I saw a sleep consultant with DS when he was 8 months or so and I was at the end of my tether. She didn't really tell me anything I hadn't read in the books, but it really helped having someone write down a plan for me and be reassuring about it. It was essentially a gradual retreat/CC approach as DS needed to learn to self-settle. It was definitely money well spent for us. Good luck, hope things improve soon.

I went to a two hour group session with Andrea. In a nutshell: healthy children don't need to feed at night biologically from about 4/5 months; how baby gets to sleep at beginning of night is key do focus on that; don't feed to sleep, put down awake stay in room in dark untilbaby sleeps, don't pick up but reassure with quiet words and hand on back/tummy. Be willing to stay for up to an hour, it will reduce each night. Do same on night wakes, no feeding or picking up just quiet reassurance. Crying is fine as you are in the room with them. She is nice and reassuring that baby can sleep and that you just need to let them know they can do it.

Hi - thanks for your replies. Twattergy - what did you do if your reassurance just didn't work? I have been trying to resettle her in the cot using various more desperate techniques - sometimes they work but there are times when they just don't and I end up picking her up. Is the idea that under no circumstances do you pick them up (assuming they are not ill etc) so you put up with a level of crying which will get less?
thanks!

We used AG when DS was about 8 months (now 15 months) - it made things much much better but we've learnt to accept he's just not a natural easy sleeper as it's not perfect! I can recommend her book - it outlines her approaches in detail. Pretty much what Twattergy said - cold turkey on night feeds (after 6 months), total consistency in bedtime routine and read the same book each night as a sleep 'cue' before putting in cot, then total consistency with every single night waking (reassure with same words each time). I was reassured that as long as they are clean/fed/healthy, any night time crying is more frustration/tiredness than anything else. Nothing is rocket science but having a professional to guide / answer questions / motivate was well worth it.