Hilary and Isobel (20 weeks old)
Hilary and her daughter Isobel live in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Hilary started
sleep training Isobel using The Baby Sleep System when she was 20 weeks old.
Isobel had been a fractious baby from the off and in the first six weeks had cried for
the majority of the day. On top of this she was waking at 4:00am and refusing to go back
to sleep for up to 3 hours. By the time Hilary purchased The Baby Sleep System she was exhausted and desperate.
Getting Started
After corresponding with Hilary through the
Baby Sleep Answers forum we worked out what Isobel's key
issues were. She had nearly doubled in weight since birth, was healthy and had an
excellent day time routine. We quickly established that her day time napping was a
little erratic and that she had become very reliant on her dummy to get herself to
sleep. As Hilary put it:
"If she spits it out she will cry and I go in the room to replace it - this may happen up to 3 or 4 times."
The Strategy
I suggested to Hilary that the first course of action was to stop Isobel's
reliance on her dummy.
We also agreed that the naps needed to be more structured in terms of timing and
length. I gave Hilary a new routine and advised on how best to implement the improvements.
The Result
After two weeks of hard work Isobel was sleeping through the night on a regular basis.
Hilary continued to visit the Forum for ongoing support as Isobel went through her
developmental stages (i.e. weaning). One of her later posts read:
"Well, everything since we last spoke is going brilliantly.
Isobel is now sleeping through the night from her dream feed around 11:00ish until
6:30 - 7:00ish each morning which is fantastic. Dummies are a thing of the past
and Isobel just seems so much happier so thanks for all your help."