Let me introduce you to Chester and his sleepy story
At just 12 months he started sleeping through the night for the first time, and his tired parents, Sophie and Brendan, achieved the restful nights they were longing for.
"Through the whole process, we felt supported, learnt a lot, and never felt guilt, judgement or a power imbalance that Kat knew best as such. It sounds so strange to count maybe that as a positive, but going through the process before that was very much a component of our last experience."
Chester’s sleep had always been unpredictable, but after battling sickness and moving to a new place at 10 months, his sleep took a nosedive. Naps became a struggle, and he was waking every 1-2 hours throughout the night, making it a nightly party.
Sophie, Chester’s mother, reached out for help when Chester was just about to turn 12 months. His sleep was unmanageable, and he constantly woke 30 – 45 minutes after being put to bed every night, never sleeping for more than 2 hours and having to be breastfed or rocked back to sleep. Sophie and her husband, Brendan, had resorted to taking shifts of about 3 hours each to try and get any sort of sleep at night.
Sophie, already juggling another older toddler and almost a full-time job, was at her wits’ end. The endless cycle of nighttime adventures with Chester left her drained, exhausted and longing for some much-needed shut-eye.
Time to take action
Finally, at her wit's end, Sophie reached out to me for guidance, desperate to find a solution for Chester's nighttime wakes and shared with me, "We just can't go on like this anymore."
The results of working together
Together, we assessed Chester’s sleep habits and needs, pinpointing areas needing tweaking.
After an assessment, we discovered Chester’s awake time before his first nap was too short, leading to his nap refusal at the start of the day. Yet, he would become overtired from resisting sleep. We assessed his sleep environment and found it was too stimulating, hindering his ability to wind down. And lastly, we adjusted his daytime feeding routine to ensure he stayed satisfied and reduced his need for nighttime feeds.
Sophie and Brendan had previously used a sleep consultant for her other son and had mixed results, so it took them a long time to try again working on sleep and ‘getting through’ with different excuses for Chester’s sleep struggles like “its a regression or it’s his teeth.”
The previous sleep training attempts Sophie and Brendan had tried had mixed results because the sleep foundations and changes needed to match their child’s unique temperament and sleep needs. Before making significant sleep changes, it’s essential to establish the ideal conditions for sleep and understand your baby’s specific sleep needs.
Sophie and Brendan joined my sleep support program to help Chester improve his sleep. They had set their goals to have at least 3-4 hours of sleep and to wean him from feeding to sleep. To their surprise, Chester bid farewell to his nighttime wake-ups within just five days. It was an incredible breakthrough for Sophie, witnessing her little one sleep through the night for the first time ever!
Often, nighttime wakings are closely tied to a baby’s daytime routine—whether it’s too much or too little sleep, naps happening at the wrong times, or lasting too long. When tackling night wakes, addressing daytime naps is essential. You can’t fix the nights until you tackle the naps.
After two weeks on the sleep program, Chester’s napping schedule aligned perfectly with his age. He received just the right amount of awake time to banish those pesky nighttime wakings and embrace all of his naps without refusing them.
Sophie was amazed at the quick progress made by making simple adjustments that suited their family dynamic. Sophie shared, “I was initially anxious about starting as he had so many things we needed to change…I was bracing myself.”
“But the plan when we got it was a relief – options to choose from with the routine so we could choose what suited our family and around our other toddler, a method that allowed us to be near him and reassuring him and not timed crying, which we had done before. It definitely allowed flexibility to accommodate everybody in the family.”
The best part is now this family is sleeping through the night. Now the two kids’ bedtime is the same, so both parents are getting time together in the evening without Chester waking up after 45 minutes.
With the right steps, Sophie was able to go from feeling desperate and overwhelmed to sleeping through the night and her family being so much more relaxed and less exhausted – more than worth it!!
You can’t be the cOoL pArEnTs if you’re constantly feeling burnt out & asleep on your feet
With the right steps, education and gentle methods to get your baby to sleep, a set of realistic expectations, and the support (and pep talks) you need to actually trust your parenting-gut, you’ll finally get the sleep you and your baby deserve, and feel like a fully-functioning human-snack maker again (#goals).