Melissa 2½ years old, was breastfed until 15 months after which we switched her to drinking milk from a bottle. This led to her having milk for every nap and every time she woke at night. She was being driven to sleep with her milk bottle for her daytime nap and would go to sleep between 9 and 11pm in the evening. My husband would spend over an hour getting her to sleep and she would have multiple bottles in the lead-up to sleep. A good night would consist of her waking 4 times and having sips from her bottle, a more regular night would be anything between 6 and 10 wakes. Closer to the time of us working with Amanda, Melissa would wake in the middle of the night and refuse to go back to sleep. She would want more and more milk, fall asleep and wake 15 minutes later. She would often wake in the morning looking sleepy and would only be hungry for breakfast a couple of hours after waking.
My husband and I reached a breaking point and I wrote a post on a Facebook group to see if anyone could recommend a sleep consultant; Amanda’s name came up in 11 out of 15 comments. When I spoke with a couple of the mums who had worked with Amanda and a child of a similar age it became apparent that Amanda is gentle, empathetic and supportive; something that we really needed as we had always been against leaving our daughter to cry.
Introductory conversation with Amanda
I had a chat with Amanda over the phone who explained to me how her process looks. I immediately emailed her PA to say that we would like to go for the silver package but a couple of days later I had a change of heart as I thought my clever daughter would outsmart the programme and would be too cynical when it came to some of the methods, such as the magic chair. Amanda also told me that Melissa would be eating a lot more, which I couldn’t believe as I had seen what other children her age eat, and I was convinced this wasn’t possible. However, we then had a couple of really rough nights and I contacted Amanda to say that we actually want to go with the platinum package as we wanted her full support during a difficult process (or so we thought.)
Amanda’s Initial Consultation was very thorough, and she gave my husband and I plenty of time to ask questions and discuss Melissa. We gathered that she had every sleep association possible and needed a proper routine with boundaries, preventing her from becoming over-tired.
We were very excited to start Amanda’s programme and talked to Melissa about how she would be losing her milk bottle once we start it. I think us preparing Melissa by talking with her and making it into a game made a huge difference.
We couldn’t believe how Melissa lost her milk bottle association by night 2. The first night was a little tough, but nothing like we imagined it would be and Amanda was there for us and giving us tips on how to handle the situation.
Melissa took to all of the programme so well and really understood the expectations and boundaries that were set out. She was excited to get her treat of going on her first ever tube ride (Covid times.)
Over the 2½ weeks (Amanda gave us a little more time to ensure we were completely happy before we finished) that we worked with Amanda, we had a morning and evening update with her but she would always happily answer any questions that I had about timings/food choices that I had during the day. She explained the next steps to us very clearly and although Melissa was not really able to communicate with her (language barrier), she was very aware of there being a ‘magic sleep lady’ who was helping us.
The amount of food that Melissa started eating after she lost the milk association is incredible. I have to be so ready these days because within half an hour of waking up she wants her four-course breakfast.
Melissa is thriving in her new routine and so are we! We went out on our first date in 2½ years and now enjoy evenings together. Melissa is waking up feeling rested after a 12-hour sleep. She falls asleep in seconds after her bedtime routine and resettles herself back to sleep if she has a wake at night. She loves having her quiet time in her room and we are still in awe of the change that she’s gone through.
Amanda did say to us initially that working with her will make parenting a lot more fun, which has proven very true. We are now looking forward to working with Amanda with our soon to be 6 month old.
