Has Anyone Tried a Sleep Consultant?

My twins are 5 weeks old and I am really struggling here. One has reflux and the other is colicky. Neither sleeps more than 1.5 - 2 hrs at a time, waking to eat 1.5oz-3oz at a time. It's horrible. It's all on-demand and I can't figure out how to get them on a schedule. I hate to hear them cry, so I feed them when they're hungry - I can't imagine making them cry that out to get them on the same schedule, as some books suggest.

They are sleeping in the living room in their swings. It's more convenient than running up to the nursery every hour to feed someone, as they don't feed at the same time, normally. (which works for us, because each one takes SO LONG to soothe back down after waking/feeding.)

I am at my wits end here. I'm looking into hiring an infant sleep consultant because I'm going back to work soon and can't deal with this.

Does anyone have any experience with an infant sleep consultant?

thanks

 

I don't have any experience....but I wanted to let you know that it gets better! There IS a light at the end of the tunnel.

My friend did hire a woman who was featured on Oprah and she is a sleep doctor for infants and she LOVED her! She was about $250 for the plan that she provides (over the internet - she lives in BC) and then she was given an opportunity to ask multipul questions. My friend is VERY high stressed and she couldn't take 1 child crying.....and like I said, she LOVED her that she got another plan for her second.

Good luck....and hang in there hun!

 

First of all, (((((Hugs))))))!!!!!

I haven't used a sleep consultant, but I did read the Weisblutth book for twins "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins". Our first nanny who started working for us when the girls were just around 3 months old had worked for a family that did BabyWise and was very into baby sleep scheduling. We let her take the lead on it, and she did a wonderful job with getting our girls to self-soothe and be on a schedule. That being said, they were much older than your little ones by the time they were on any sort of schedule. It's totally normal to have them sleeping in swings at this age (ours slept in their bouncies for the first couple of months!) and having them sleep upright especially when they are colicky or have reflux is exactly the right thing to do. At 5 weeks old, you just need to do whatever you need to do to survive. (Our refluxy baby need zantac and Alimentum as well as gas drops and a good burping routine before we got much of any sleep out of her!) We were also feeding on demand at that age, but did try to do it at the same time - whichever baby woke first to feed established when the next feeding would be. And yes, there was a lot of holding and rocking back to sleep at that age too.

I have a good friend, though, who is a baby sleep consultant. Here's her website: Baby Sleep Site She does online and phone consultations in addition to having a lot of published material. I'm not sure if she specifically has twin-related material, though.

It will get better! And know that you're probably doing a better job than you feel like you are! Hang in there!

 

here's the gal we used. absolutely loved her! she's also in BC & we worked via phone & email. we hired her when our girls were older as well (3.5 months), but she does work with newborns as well. i was hanging on by a thread, so we chose to do a modified CIO at that point to get them sleeping in their cribs (not through the night though as they were still too small & too young). i have zero regrets & actually feel like i gained a ton of confidence in my parenting ability by going through the process with her.

 

Hi there,
I'm sorry you are having such a tough time. We didn't want to use CIO, but we could never get ours on a good sleep schedule. We ended up going to see a sleep specialist at one year. I wish we had done it earlier. 5 weeks is still really young, but you could probably be working towards a schedule for them.

Here is who we used http://www.sleepyplanet.com/

They are located in LA, but also do phone consultations. I looked on their website and they have a book and a dvd. It was very helpful for us and they were great! Our twins are 2 now, but we still use everything we learned from our sleep consultation to keep them on a good sleep and nap schedule.

take care, Beth

 

I'm sorry you're having a tough time. I second "The Baby Sleep Site." There is another online sleep consultant I am familiar with named Dana Obleman.

Your babies are very young, so I wouldn't expect them to be on anything close to a schedule at that age. It sounds very normal that they are eating on demand and sleeping as they please. I don't think we had a sleep "schedule" until around 5 months. Even after that I didn't really have a feeding schedule as I continued to nurse on demand. We become a bit more scheduled when they started solids at 6 months or so.

 

I think sleep consultants are worthwhile when you're struggling. They will not be able to get 5 week olds STTN yet, but it will probably help you get into a good routine and you'll learn a lot about how to respond to their sleep needs. From what I understand most will offer ongoing support until you're in a good place with sleeping. I certainly don't think it could hurt! Good luck!

 

this is exactly it - with such young babies, a sleep consultant is mostly going to help you set the ground work for good sleep habits & coach you through the upcoming sleep transitions. they'll also help you establish a solid routine, although like others have said, a strict schedule at this age isn't really realistic. but establishing good sleep habits early on is only going to make everyone's life better.

 

I am about to try one so I can let you know how it goes. We hired someone to come see us a week from tomorrow (not a moment too soon, if you ask me!) because DH and I are both back to work and our kids are up every hour on the hour basically from 2-7am. We also dream feed them around 11pm so...3 hours of sleep for us (and them) and then broken sleep for the next 5 hours. I'm totally and completely exhausted. Frankly, I would give any amount of money right now for some help.
FWIW, both my babies have reflux (now controlled with medication) and they also slept in our living room in bouncy chairs for the first 12 weeks! It was what worked for us as well so don't even worry about that. Now they are in their cribs which was a shockingly easy transition and they go right to sleep at 7pm. That would be great if *I* went to bed at 7pm but I don't so we're calling in the reinforcements. But it's hope for you! When you get your evenings back, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
I know how it can seem like it's never, ever going to get better (and you're in the thick of the worst time, fyi) but it really does. I hope a sleep person can help you--at the very least he/she will likely be able to help your babies understand day from night. I'm banking on our person helping us!!