Sleep trainer/night nanny/some sort of help..!!

[Babypythagorus]

Has anyone used a night nanny or sleep trainer to help them sort out all the rods they made for their own back while boobing/rocking/cuddling their baby to sleep?? Did it work??

I have to go back to work in September, when my baby will be 1, and am already panicking about how I'll be able to do it on this little sleep.

I haven't used a sleep trainer or night nanny. But having a 12 month old who needed boobing/rocking to sleep and woke 2 hourly, all whilst I was 7 months pregnant and panicking about having a newborn - well that kind of focused my mind at the time. The rods had to be broken, no matter what it took.

We did a version of CC/CIO. It was awful. I cannot understate how absolutely awful it was at the time. But it was swift. She was self-settling (with a dummy) without screaming within 3 days.

It didn't solve everything I should add. We still had night feeds until she was about 2 1/2 years old. But the night feeds became a simple 5 minute affair of getting her milk and leaving. When you've gone from it taking an hour of ear piecing screaming to get her to sleep, for her to stay asleep for only 2 hours and it started again, then the night feeds seemed easy.

With hindsight I should have night weaned at the same time. But I was so grateful for the screaming stopping that I'd have accepted anything.

So in answer to your question, you could get someone paid to come in and tell you what to do. But honestly you are quite capable of making the decision on what to do yourself if you can be brutal and cope with being consistent.

The benefit I can see of a sleep consultant is that you can 'blame' someone else - "it was this persons idea to cause my baby so much distress so I do not need to carry the guilt for it being my idea." If that has a value to you than it would be worth doing. But I don't think any consultant will tell you anything you don't already know.

I would have it took me ages to sleep train DS but mostly because I was so bloody tired I gave in too easily and kept the cycle going it was when I was going back to work I finally managed it to a point. If I could afforded someone to help I would have had it no question hand holding and advice from someone who knows what the are doing and is not a sleep deprived wreck sounds lovely to me.

Not all sleep "trainers" are the same, there are some who use much gentler methods than CIO/CC. As can parents who decide they need to do something about their child's sleep because it is affecting them.

OP, I'd suggest reading the No Cry Sleep Solution as a good starting point. And don't beat yourself up about creating "rods" - some babies just sleep better than others no matter what you do/don't do.

Have a look at ' Simply Sleeptime', they are a sleep consultant that works with you whole schedule throughout the day to help sleep. They don't advocate leaving baby to cry alone.

The no cry sleep solution is extremely complicated and hard to follow.

We used an excellent sleep consultant, PM me if you want her details

If you can afford a sleep consultant then go for it but I'm inclined to agree with FATEdestiny that you probably already know, or have an idea what need to be done anyway. You'll probably find yourself telling them what you want/need to do. I'm not sure a night nanny would help other than to do the rocking for you, which whilst good for a day or two won't really solve the problems.
For what it's worth op our ds was waking every 90 mins-2 hours for months (7-11.5 months to be exact!) and we night weaned him first then used cc. It was grim for two nights then he slept through. I read Jo Frost's overview of cc and slightly adapted it. It worked for us. With ds I'm not sure any "no cry" methods would have worked, he wailed when not rocked to sleep and I no longer wanted to rock him to sleep, (for 45 sodding minutes at least twice a night) that was the bottom line. My friend was in a similar situation and has tried every "no cry" solution going as she will not leave her baby to cry for even a short time and is still being woken up three times a night 6 months later. Her baby wants mummy and knows that if she cries she gets her so she cries often in the night. So whilst cc might have felt awful at the time the way I see it, two nights of crying is better than 6 months of crying.