Waking every 2 hours at night, Sabel (6 months) was giving her mum a run for her money when it came to surviving on little to no sleep.

While it is biologically normal to wake this frequently at night, it isn't ideal, and certainly doesn't have to mean mum is waking every 2 hours to attempt to settle back to sleep.

The key to better sleep here is working on teaching your baby to use those self settling skills, so when babe wakes up, and they're not hungry they can go back to sleep on their own.

Working with Averil and her family it was clear to me this was a family who had put in the hard work to try to establish better sleep habits, but they had miss read Sabel's temperament.

Success with change

Mum had attempted a super gentle approach to fix Sabel's frequent night wake ups, and hold and feed to sleep association, but after 2 weeks she was no closer to better sleep, and getting more tired by the day.

Sabel was a very persistent and spirited baby, she didn't like to naturally play independently which was a sign of how tired she was. She relied on the breast to comfort feed frequently, and kicked and pushed off mum when she tired and frustrated.

These insights led me to make the decision to swap settling approaches for Sabel and her family.

I also recommended that while Sabel was only just 6 months, Mum and Dad needed to get out of her room for a bit. She was absolutely holding on to mums attention at night, and not sleeping due to the room sharing situation. This is a common problem with some babies and extended room sharing, consider moving into the lounge for a few nights while you sort out night wake ups, then move back in.

We gave Sabel her own space and saw an immediate improvement!

Sabel was having problems with her nights and naps, and mum was exhausted (see her comments below). When the sleep problem feels bigger than life itself, staggering the plan and creating small stages is the best move forward.

We worked on Sabels nights in stage one, this gave mum the confidence to know that 1. The plan will work 2. She was getting more sleep herself and 3. The confidence to see the hardest part through to success. 

Sabel actually surprised both Averil and myself with how quickly she sorted her nights out. She clearly was ready for the consolidated night sleep.

Stage two

Her naps took a bit more work, but mum was willing to follow my lead, she changed her pre-sleep rituals, her day routine, her solids, her play activities and even changed Sabel's bedding for me.

But after a couple of weeks, Sabel had a predictable routine, and took her 2 hour lunch nap in her cot most days.

Mum's comments

"I cant recommend Emma from Baby Sleep Consultant enough. She has been an angel and has literally changed our lives!

Sabel - our 6 month old has never been a great night sleeper.

From around 4 months old things began to rapidly decline to the point where she was waking every 2 or so hours.

I had tried every sleep training method I could, and more often than not, most evenings I would be in tears an hour into rocking or feeding her to sleep. I was so sleep deprived and frustrated, feeling like a total failure not even being able to do the basics thing.. getting my baby to sleep.