Is it worth getting in a sleep consultant?

[bethatasitmay]

Our 11-month old DD has stopped sleeping!

She's dropped a nap recently, which is fine, but it's nigh on impossible to get her down for her naps unless one of us is in bed with her and pinning her to the bed with a bottle in her mouth. She was never that great at napping, though.

The worst thing is that she's now stopped sleeping at night as well! Last night she was up from 2am - 5am, and then woke up properly at 6:30am. She seemed really tired but would scream and climb to her feet every time we tried to leave the room. Leaving her and/or repeatedly putting her back down didn't work, and neither did sitting beside her, holding her hand or patting her chest, but at least she didn't scream when we were in the room. DH suggested a sleep consultant, but they seem so expensive! Has anyone got good results with one?

Absolutely worked a treat for us. I was totally desperate and it wasn't easy but slept through after 3 weeks. We spoke to a few and finally decided on Sian Thomas at www.sleepbabies.co.uk absolutely lovely and so kind.
Best money I have ever spent, important you chose someone you click with though so I would shop around, she just suited us perfectly.

All a sleep consultant will do is give you a sleep training technique and make you stick to it.

All of the many sleep training techniques out there work - all of them do - it's just that they take diligence, perseverance, hard work and lots of patience.

The things you have already tried, the only reason they didn't work was that you didn't carry on doing it for long enough to let it work.

Any sleep solution will work if you pick one and stick to it with rigour until it has worked. Giving up on a method early and chopping and changing to other techniques, that is the problem.

So if hiring a sleep consultant is what you need in order to give yourself the justification to pick a method and stick to it through thick and thin - then use a sleep consultant.

But a sleep consultant has no magic wand and will do nothing that you cannot do yourself.

I haven't used one, but I am considering hiring one. What I would hope/expect from a good sleep consultant is that they take into account age and temperament of the baby and your preferences about the level of crying you are comfortable with, in choosing a method. I think perhaps as new parents it's often hard to be objective bc your exhausted, so attached to your little one and often dealing with a myriad of problems. So a good sleep consultant should be able to put it altogether for you.

I would say if you can afford one, do it. Friends with 6 mths old twins got one in when their boys were 3 months and they felt all over the place. Within a week they had a schedule which included a lunch time nap between 11 and 1 and sleeping through the night and boys are still doing that now. I have a 6 month old who isn't a great sleeper but very easy to settle so a lot of sleep traiming techniques don't quite seem to fit for him. I'm thinking of getting a consultant in so I can try something tailored to him. If it works, then it's worth it for me.

I agree with FATEdestiny, what Sian explained to us was that what she was going to suggest wasn't "rocket science" but she would help us stick to the plan, I was all over the place so needed that support. It is absolutely the consistency that works and if you can do that it will work.

We used millpond sleep clinic. Worth every penny and more.

Can't recommend them enough. Really supportive and caring, daily support with unlimited emails and weekly phone calls.

They can see how to solve your problem when you are too sleep deprived. I newly lost my sanity and marriage with a non sleeping baby.

4 weeks later we had a sleeping baby with regular naps and it was amazing. No crying, but gentle techniques. Most of them I wouldn't have ever thought of.

Really, do it. Sleep is vital. Things won't fix themselves. You need a helping hand.

I second the Sian recommendation. We are ten days into our plan with her and had one awful first night and things have improved steadily since then. We have had sleeping through 3 out of the last 5 nights.