Natalie and Courtney’s story

Courtney arrived in a hurry at just 39 weeks pregnant Natalie thought she had another week or so to prepare for becoming a mother, but Courtney had other ideas.

Despite being early she Courtney was a healthy size and started feeding immediately following birth, the weeks that followed were a daze of feeding, spilling and crying constantly as Courtney spilled up the majority of her feeds, and was constantly upset from being in pain, tired or hungry.

Natalie was exhausted from constantly feeding, rocking to sleep and holding a screaming newborn baby.

A visit to her Doctor for her 6 weeks check and Courtney was diagnosed with reflux and given some medication to try. This helped dramatically and Courtney’s feeds became a breeze, the spilling eased but the crying didn’t change much and Courtney was still waking 5-6 times a night, taking over and hour to get back to sleep, and her naps we’re largely in mum’s arms or not occurring at all.

A friend suggested Natalie try the newborn sleep program as she had great success for the last 12 months following our sleep program.

Courtney slotted into the newborn nap routine outlined in the guide perfectly, and Natalie felt that staying on the 6 week routine for a few weeks would help Courtney catch up on some lost sleep. Holding her to sleep, she was having great naps, and consequently her evenings suddenly fell into place.

What used to be a 1 hour battle to settle Courtney with every sleep prop known to man, was a simple, feed, bath, feed routine and Courtney was asleep by 6.45pm most nights, leaving mum to get an early night and recover from the last 6 weeks!

With great day time naps, Courtney began to naturally sleep better at night, and mum felt ready by week 8 to try to re-settle her without a feed if she woke before 10pm. This helped Courtney stretch out her feeds, and the re-settling mum learnt from her sleep program helped her to get Courtney back to sleep quickly after a feed at night, everyone was getting more sleep, and was a lot happier!

“I actually don’t know how I was functioning in those first 6 weeks with such broken sleep. We live in Auckland there is no way my husband could stay home, we have a mortgage to pay so he was at work all day, I was left alone with this 6-week-old baby, screaming, crying, and not sleeping. If it wasn’t for the Baby Sleep Consultant Sleep Program I would still be that miserable mum, but everyone is getting the sleep they need now, and that gave me the energy to focus on teaching Courtney to take her naps in her cot.” ~ Natalie

Around week 10 Natalie decided to start teaching Courtney to take her naps in her cot, she started with the morning nap so if it didn’t work well, she had all day to catch up. This gradual and patient process paid off in dividends as by 3 months old Courtney was self soothing for her naps, and sleeping most of the night with just 2 night feeds. It was a 6 week process, but one done with respect, patience and consistency. Natalie made the changes she could, at her own pace, and this is the beauty of the online sleep program.

Our team of sleep consultants are always available to answer your questions no matter how far through the program you are.

Courtney is 6 months old now, and mum has returned to work. Her daycare is so impressed with how easy she is to settle for her naps, and mum is grateful she can work without being a sleep deprived mombie.

“Honestly if I have another baby I won’t hesitate to use the Baby Sleep Consultant Sleep Program, as a first time mum I had no idea what I was doing beyond the birth! Everyone offers you advice based on what worked for them, but no one understands your situation quite like a sleep consultant.

Having someone at the end of an email was like a life line when I was stuck on what to try next, and being able to take my time with the changed meant I felt confident and not rushed. I purchased the 3-8 month program when Courtney turned 3 months old, she was sleeping like a dream, but I wanted to make sure that continued, and this also gave me a plan to drop her down to one night feed by the time I was back at work.

Everyone is always commenting on how easy Courtney is, and how well she sleeps, I’m a better mum with sleep. I love being able to pick her up from daycare and know we have quality time together, she is not over tired and grumpy, our time together is precious with me working full time. This sleep program was the best money we’ve spent since she was born. ” ~ Natalie