Client Wins:
Nikita & Elena
28 Months Old
Nikita initially came to us when little Elena was only 18 months old. She used a Quick Chat - 30min to get them on track, which I assume now looking back, was most likely due to the 15 to 18 month regression.
One year later Nikita reached out to us again, this time little Elena was 2.5 years old, and Nikita was struggling with very frequent waking. Elena was waking from 11:00PM every single night and as often as every one to two hours. Mum was exhausted!
Nikita is a Sleep Consultant herself, but as I always say your own child is your worst client. That's because you don't look at them from the eyes of a rational sleep consultant. You look at them from the eyes of a mum and sometimes all we need is someone that isn't so close to look at the situation and guide us with the information we already know.
I was so excited to work with Nikita, and work towards her biggest goal which was less wake ups overnight.
Elena's routine didn't change at all - her sleep was supporting the changes we were making towards independent sleep but the biggest issue itself was how mum was getting Elena back to sleep every 1-2 hours overnight, which was very assisted and in the form of a bottle.
This bottle was the sole catalyst for the frequency of the wakes - at this age babies don't NEED that feed, but if it does exist it can become very habitual which can cause much disruption to sleep itself.
To achieve the results, Elena had to be weaned off the bottle and mum happily obliged. The chosen settling technique was spaced soothing and within the Phone Consult + One Week Support, little miss was sleeping through the night!
Nikita & Elena - Victoria, Australia
Cassandra & Sabrina
20 Months Old
Cassandra initially booked Eva for little miss Sabrina who was 20 months old at the time for a Quick Chat - 15min. Once we actually started talking about everything that was happening, I quickly realised that it was a little bit more complex than what the intake form came across to be.
Ah, the beauty of actually talking to someone and getting all the information!
With that, we shifted to the Phone Consult + One Week Support so I could be there to help Cassandra through the process, especially as she also had a newborn.
The biggest thing that Cassandra was struggling with was that for the better part of 3-4 months, Sabrina was consistently fighting or skipping her one and only nap and it was starting to cause Cassandra a lot of stress, especially with the newborn to also look after.
In addition, Sabrina was very set in her ways when it came to feeding, of course as all toddlers are, but that wasn't supporting her sleep especially as she also had some early morning rising at play.
To ensure that Sabrina slept and wasn't overtired, Cassandra was resorting to assisted sleep where possible in the form of pram or car drives, but again with the 7-week-old newborn this was just not a sustainable way to go.
The first thing that we looked at was the actual routine itself during the day, the timing of that nap and the length of the nap to make sure that little miss was ready for sleep, The first couple of days I made sure that Cassandra was giving me a play by play of what was happening to make sure that we found the sweet spot for Sabrina.
Guess what? We started to see some naps happening!
We also made some simple changes to the pre nap and pre bedtime routine to ensure that it did not hinder the falling asleep process.
By the end of our Phone Consult + One Week Support, little miss was consistently taking consolidated naps in her cot, sleeping through the night and no longer fighting nap times!
Cassandra & Sabrina - Melbourne, Victoria
Multiple exhaustion.... from frequent waking twins to...
Zara reached out for support after realising what was happening had no end in sight, and was not sustainable for their family. Each little one was rocked to sleep in a bouncer, or if really upset would be rocked with vigorous motion in arms. This process sometimes took an hour before they were sleeping. If that wasn’t exhausting enough, they’d only remain sleeping in their cot for 30-40 minutes and from there would wake up numerous times before 11pm. Mum and dad had resorted to co-sleeping so that they could settle them back to sleep when they woke up through the night. Nights weren’t the only struggle for this family, they also would get only 30 minute naps from each bub unless mum took the nap with them and remained co-sleeping for 1.5 hours.
Understandably, mum was exhausted and felt like she was doing nothing except getting these boys to sleep so she booked in the Phone Consult + One Week Support.
We had a lot of things to navigate as we worked on improving their sleep. Not only did the twins have quite different temperaments, they were currently residing in a studio-type apartment where the bedroom was only separated with a partition wall and a curtain, and all four of them were in that same room. This meant it was very close quarters and extremely hard to limit noise and light to give the boys an ideal sleep environment.
After a wonderful chat with Zara & Asad, we tweaked their routine a touch and we decided to proceed with Spaced Soothing, but opted to use Gradual Withdrawal for re-settles. Of course, we went into this hybrid approach very mindful to ensure it was working and the boys responded very well seeing a steady track of improvement!
We had some trial and error with their schedule, as we initially began on a one nap routine similar to what they were already implementing. We quickly realized they were overtired and it was impacting their ability to achieve good naps. We added back in a small morning sleep for a couple days to help them adjust and once we dropped the morning nap again, they were taking amazing 1.5-2hr naps!
Within only a couple nights, bedtime became a breeze, the false starts ceased and Zara and Asad enjoyed the best sleep they’ve had in 15 months! Being able to help exhausted parents (especially the extra tired parents of multiples) enjoy a full night sleep after such an extended time of exhaustion is the best, most fulfilling feeling. On top of that, Zara no longer had to spend hours of her day ensuring these boys were able to take a decent nap and instead spend some time taking care of herself.
All of these huge steps forward, with only a one week support package!
“Kyndra helped us more than we could have imagined. Our twin boys would have false starts, contact nap, lots of input for naps and bedtime sleep. Never sleep through till morning. After day 2 we saw a huge improvement. We have been given our night times back and feel much more human after more sleep. Thank you!”
Zara & The Twinnies - London, England
Waking every 45min overnight for a comfort feed.
Odette - 7 months old was catnapping 10-20min during the day and waking every 45-60min overnight for a comfort feed while co sleeping.
Paige had previously received advice to not worry too much about short naps and try to extend those awake windows during the day by offering a very late bedtime, this would in turn help create the sleep pressure to reduce the overnight waking.
Unfortunately this method did not suit Odette, in fact it worsened the situation.
Paige and Nick came to me exhausted, they needed help now. They booked in the Phone Consult + Two Week Support and we got busy.
The first step I took was to introduce a routine that was age appropriate for Odette and ensure that she had the sleep she needed during the day, even if initially this sleep was completely supported.
Once Odette was rested, Paige and Nick started to introduce a settling technique that suited Odette's temperament. Within one week Odette was consolidating her sleep during the day (up to 2hrs!) and alsol sleeping up to 6.5hrs overnight!
To say I am proud of these guys is an understatement, the results speak volumes for this family and I was so grateful to be on their journey.
After our two week support, what do Paige and Nick have to say?
"We are eternally grateful to Eva and her two weeks of help with Odette’s sleep. We had gotten ourselves into a situation where there was no light at the end of the tunnel and no idea of how to get out.
We cannot believe how our sleep and thus lives have been transformed in such a short amount of time! Eva held our hand through the whole process, and her support and guidance throughout was invaluable.
Thank you for giving us our sleep back!"
Paige, Nick and Odette, Australia
