I used to survive on coffee and cat naps. I would wade through my life as a mother of two and a full-time working parent completely exhausted, like a zombie (or ‘mombie’, a mom zombie). My son, 10 months old, was a terrible sleeper. Since birth, he had never slept well – always needing to be rocked and shushed and patted and fed to sleep – only to wake 2 hours later for the whole ordeal to repeat again. I was tired. He was tired. My husband was tired. And my daughter – his older sister who shares a room with him – was tired. She’d often wake up in the night to say, “he’s crying again!” and it would take every ounce of my self control not to cry along with them both.
Because I had successfully sleep trained my daughter myself when she was 5 months old, I assumed I could do the same with my son. But as it turns out, different babies are different (who knew?!) and in my sleep deprived fog I’d actually forgotten a lot of what I previously knew. I also realised there was a lot I didn’t know about baby sleep, and I had no idea how to change my son’s habits to better his sleep. I was clueless and going crazy. It was time for professional intervention.
Enter Zoe – the Supernanny, aka a life-changing magic person.
I can’t rave enough about her. Upon meeting me, she showed me her knowledge around the science of sleep and provided me with some very simple changes I could make to my son’s daily structure and routine to help set him up for success. After the first night (which only involved two wake ups!) my son has successfully slept through the night every night. *CUE THE CHOIR OF SINGING ANGELS*. It’s incredibly easy to get him to sleep now, and he learned quickly that he was able to self-settle when he did wake up. He’s now a rested and happy baby – with rested and happy parents!
As a fellow former sleep deprived parent, I want to let other parents out there know that help is available – don’t wait 10 months for it like I did. All you’ll achieve from waiting around is an extra set of eye bags and a caffeine addiction.
Thank you so much for your help, Zoe. You’re a living legend.
Rebecca, former ‘Mombie’ (Mom zombie)
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