Parent Coaching Case Studies

Three months

Brian was a three months old who found it difficult to sleep, he became more unsettled the longer you remained with him.

Our son Brian had not been an easy baby to settle for sleep since birth.  We had initially tried to rock and pat him to sleep, however, this could sometimes take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.  Whilst he was tired, when it was time for sleep, he seemed to find it difficult to unwind and let himself drift off.  It also seemed that sometimes the constant rocking and patting actually annoyed him, and he would really get more upset and overtired.

The settling technique taught to us by our parenting coach has proven far more effective for Brian, and whilst sometimes it still can take some time for him to fall asleep, we no longer have the long stretches of crying which had previously happened.    Penny – Mosman, NSW

Five months

Colin at five month had no routine and poor sleep habits.   His mother had tired various settling techniques and institutions to no avail. 

Colin was always an unsettled baby from the very beginning.  He was sensitive to sound (for example, I couldn’t speak on the phone in the same room, nor take him into the supermarket without him crying) and he needed a quiet daily routine.  In addition, Clive refused to sleep in the day.  Even at the age of five weeks, he could be awake from 10 am to 11 pm.  The only way I found to get him to sleep was to rock him in my arms while standing and swaying.  This seemed okay initially, as Colin slept throughout the night.  I finally managed to get Colin into a routine of sleeping twice in a day.  Up until then it had been very ad-hoc.  However, I still needed to rock him in my arms.  Colin had to be completely asleep before I could put him in his cot, otherwise he would wake and I would have to start the whole process again.  I could spend on average thirty to forty minutes per rocking session, with Colin sometimes only having a twenty-minute sleep.  He was so overtired by the end of the day.  I could spend one to five hours rocking him, but I convinced myself that it was okay and that he would grow out of it by six months of age.

Rather than getting better, it all began to deteriorate.  Colin began waking earlier and earlier in the morning, then at five months he starting to wake three times per nigh.  I fed him briefly each time before he went back to sleep and began to get concerned that he was not getting enough nutrition in the day.   Colin was still fully breastfed and quite a big baby (ninety-seventh percentile).  I decided to ‘top him up’ with formula at night-time.  This did not affect night-waking and I was informed (by Tresillian) that it was a sleeping problem and not a nutrition problem.  ‘Someone please help me!’ was my call.

Although I had attended two day-stays with Tresillian, I did not have much success when returning home.  Little differences had me very confused.  I asked Cradle 2 Kindy to help.  Our parenting coach spent time with me in my home to help Colin learn to fall asleep on his own.  It ended up being a very simple, effective and painless process, because I was given very clear information.  In a nutshell, we used a combination of the clock and Colin’s tired signs to decide when to put him to bed.  He was wrapped, using a method to that allowed arm movement.  The sheet was pulled up and tucked in and the side of the cot was raised, no eye contact.  To my utter amazement after implementing their settling techniques, Colin went to sleep in twenty minutes and stayed asleep for two hours.  However, it was the next sleep which proved interesting, as Colin decided to really protest and has a screaming tantrum in his cot.  It took a little longer for him to fall asleep and much resolve on my part, but consistency paid off.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  Within one day, Colin went to sleep on his own and I had regained several hours to myself in each day.  The same technique also works in the pram, so going out over sleep time is not so much of a stress.  Thanks to these life-saving parenting skills, I now have a new life.  I can barely imagine that I spent so much time trapped in a ‘rocking’ cycle.      Helen – Mosman, NSW

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