At 6.5 months old, Finn was my smiley sleep thief, waking every couple of hours at night – sometimes for a feed, sometimes just for a cuddle or pat.
He always, without fail, ended up in bed with me. With my first child, although he hadn’t slept through the night at this age, I knew exactly what his issue was (in his case, linking his sleep cycles together) and I was therefore confident that I could solve his problems myself (which I duly did, albeit it took til 10/11 months).
Finn, on the other hand, was a total mystery to me – he had no problem self settling at nap time and most (though not all) evenings, could link his sleep cycles, and was taking 3 good naps a day (for an hour ish in the morning, 1.5-2 hrs at lunch, and a 35-40 minute afternoon nap). He was also eating what I thought were 3 good solid meals a day, plus breast feeds. According to all the books, this was a baby who should be sleeping through.
Nonetheless, every evening and night I was up with him countless times, and sometimes he was having 3 feeds a night.
I was exhausted, and knew I needed an expert to help me figure out what was going on.
didn’t want to use cry it out method if I didn’t have to, and I wanted someone who would be supportive of breastfeeding and not insist on introducing bottles in any form.
I also needed them to appreciate that Finn was a second child, and so his routine needed to fit in with his big brother’s.
Enter Amanda. Right from the start it was clear she was hugely experienced, and her first massive plus points in my eyes came when she stressed the importance of dads (or anyone other than the breastfeeder!) being involved in breaking the milk association at night.
Having my husband do the nights for stage 1 was a total game changer for us (Finn actually slept through, with a 10.30pm dream feed, on night 2!), and we would never have done it without Amanda.
I also really appreciated the detail she goes into with her clients- she cares about every nap, every meal and its contents, and every nappy. I really needed this with Finn – both to share the mental load for a little while, and also because I don’t think anything less would have uncovered his issues.
She realised that, despite his ability to self-settle sometimes, he wasn’t doing it consistently and therefore did need to be taught this skill properly. She also realised that he had longer wake windows than he should have been having, which was aggravating the night sleep situation. Because he is such a happy, chilled out character, this was impossible for me to spot (in contrast to his big brother at this age, whose tiredness signals you couldn’t miss).
She was also willing to listen to my thoughts/Finn’s personality and adjust the programme accordingly, which I really appreciated.
The best example of this was the dummy – she usually suggests its removal at stage 2 (for good reasons!) and we did try that. However, Finn, who is a really gentle, chilled out little soul, just couldn’t deal with it being taken at that point. Given his level of distress at its absence, and the fact that its presence (unusually) wasn’t stopping him sleeping through, she understood why we wanted to continue using it (we are still using it, without issue).
Finally, she encouraged me so much on the food front. I thought I had a good eater when we started with her, and I was nervous about overfeeding him.
With her support, he now eats more than I ever knew a baby could eat!
He is happy, healthy and still tracking the same line on the growth charts as he was before starting the programme… and he sleeps through the night. Every night. He has 2 great naps a day, and self settles. Every time!
To be clear, this took a little while to achieve (I would say we were 90% there at the end of the 2 weeks), and his daytime naps actually got worse before they got better again, exactly as Amanda had told me they would. But we stuck with Amanda’s programme and the progress continued.
To ensure it wasn’t short lived (I am a cynic), I delayed writing this testimonial.
However, he is now 8.5 months old, and he is literally the dream sleeper and eater, and maintained this recently even through a short, disruptive trip away, with long hours of travel and all four of us sharing a room.
Nothing lasts forever but I do feel Finn now has such a good base to work from, that it should be easier to deal with any sleep issues that arise in the future.
I recommend Amanda to everyone!
