Sleep consultant for infant - video or phone consultation
Hello,
We have a 5-month-old baby who used to sleep through the night (6.5-7 hours) and suddenly can’t stay asleep longer than 2 hours (sometimes as few as 20 minutes) without being held. We don’t know if it’s the sudden change from being in daycare to being sheltered in place, or just a normal developmental thing, but as two working parents trying to figure out life in the corona virus-era, we’ve come to the place where we are looking for help. Thought I’d post here to see if any parents have recommendations for sleep consultants (or things to look for/avoid).
If you’ve worked with someone before and liked them, who did you work with and what did you like about them? How long did you have to work with them before seeing results? Also, guidance on the going rate for sleep consultants?
Any help is appreciated. At this point, we’re looking for someone who will do video and/or phone consultations.
Thanks!
Parent Replies
Sounds to me like the 4-month sleep regression came slightly later. Keep with your good bedtime sleep routines, and if you’re open to sleep training (ask your peds first), you can start thinking about sleep training. We chose not to sleep train (CIO) but rather stuck to our routines, putting down drowsy, and rode out the 3ish weeks (it was painful but for us worth it). Usually with some gentle sleep coaching and good bedtime routines, this regression rides itself out.
This sounds like a 4 month sleep regression. In theory, if they learn to fall asleep by themselves in the place where they will sleep for the whole night then they should improve at getting themselves back to sleep when they wake up. I have used the resources on www.babysleepscience.com and have called them for a consultation (on a different sleep issue). It's not cheap but it was virtual, efficient, helpful, and they also answered lots of follow up questions for no additional charge. See their blog on the 4 month sleep regression at: https://www.babysleepscience.com/single-post/2014/03/12/The-Four-Month-…
We were just finishing our sleep training with Anne Del Valle of weesleep and it's been great. She is in the bay area, but everything was done via video or phone.
We used Sleep Well Specialists (Shannon Glenn) for both of our kids. Their prices are reasonable but not sure how much they are for new clients as we were returning clients and so the price was reduced. We started at 4 months for both kids and our 1st it took much longer then our 2nd.... 1st took about 4 weeks for night time sleep and 6 for naps, and our 2nd it took much shorter time because we already knew what we were doing. It's all done through phone calls, logging information that you send them and daily feedback using an app. The results are really up to the parents and how how dedicated you are in following the guidelines and following through. They also will tailor the training based on your preferences and situation (for example my son's nap time needed to start right when I had to drop off my daughter at school - so we made some adjustments to the nap schedule, learned some tricks, etc.) If interested, here is their site and they will set up a 15 min free consultation - https://www.sleepwellsleepspecialists.com
We hired a sleep consultant to help sleep train our daughter when she turned 3 months old, and our only regret is that we didn't get help from a professional sooner! We used Sleep Wise Consulting and worked with Darrah Torres. HIGHLY recommended. Worth every penny. Our daughter, now 8 months, has slept 12 hours a night (7pm-7am) with few problems since she was 3 months old thanks to them! https://sleepwiseconsulting.com/
I know this is not exactly the question you asked, but I wanted to share that the Respectful Sleep Training Facebook Group is an incredibly helpful resource, both the people in the group and several of the files. My almost 6 month old went through something similar when he was 5 months. We had already sleep trained him at 12 weeks so it was a real shocker. After 4 nights of terrible sleep for all of us, we did 2 nights letting him CIO (one of which he cried for about an hour, and the other 30 minutes) and then he went back to his old ways and even better, is now going 12 hours at night without a feeding. Good luck to you!
Hmmm. Sounds to me like the whole CoVid crisis is being felt by baby. These are really crazy times! If it were me, I would just hold baby as much as you can so baby feels comfort. Sounds to me like that’s what baby needs. I co-slept so I could get more sleep myself. All other mammals co-sleep.