Not many 5 month olds sleep soundly through the night. But while you might reasonably expect a few good long stretches at night and during the day, that just wasn’t the case with Arlo.

All through the night, Arlo would wake up every one or two hours. His poor tired Mum would drag herself out of bed each time and feed him back to sleep – an exhausting task by anyone’s measure. By about 2 or 3AM in the morning, Arlo’s Mum would usually give up and carry the little guy into her bed, where she could at least get some shut-eye.

The noise and constant disruptions were too much for Arlo’s Dad, who had to make it through work the next day. He had resorted to sleeping in the guest bedroom just to get enough rest. Despite only being a tender five months old, Arlo was well and truly ruling the roost in his household!

Frustrated, exhausted, ready for a change

Eventually, Arlo’s Mum looked around at options that might help her son to sleep better. Something had to change. She noticed that it wasn’t just her and her husband that were tired; Arlo himself was cranky from a lack of sleep. Arlo wouldn’t even nap much during the day to make up for the restless nights.

Naps tended to be less than 30 minutes at a time, and it was all “utterly frustrating and exhausting.”

At a loss of what to do, Mum called Cara from Baby Sleep Consultant. Cara came in for a two hour daytime consultation to discuss what was happening with Arlo.

Two hours wasn’t really enough time to do everything in, but it was plenty of time to get an understanding of how Arlo and his Mum operated, and to show her what kinds of techniques she could use to help him settle to sleep more independently. Arlo’s Mum was particularly receptive to the idea of the “pick up, put down” technique, as she liked the idea of being able to stay in the room and support him in learning to fall asleep independently.

The rest of the session was spent showing (in a very hands-on way) exactly how to use the technique, which Arlo’s Mum then planned to use later that night.

Immediate improvements

So, just how did the first night go? Unsurprisingly, Arlo still woke up frequently. He had to be picked up and put down five times during the night! But his Mum celebrated a few little victories.

For one thing, Arlo stayed in his cot the whole night. He was also able to settle much quicker than usual. And instead of having to feed him each time, Arlo was only fed twice (instead of the usual six or more times).

It was only good news from there. Cara and Arlo’s Mum saw massive improvements over the week as they worked together. By the end of the week, Arlo had adjusted to waking up only twice during the night, once around 11PM and again around 3AM when his mum would feed him.

Mum was perfectly happy with two feeds – after all, he was only just over the weight we look at dropping to one feed overnight and, at only five months, was not yet having large quantities of solids.

The wake ups never lasted long anyway, so Mum could go back to sleep fairly easily. Arlo learnt to self-settle when he stirred and wasn’t due a feed, so there were no more pick ups and put downs after that. Similarly, during the day, Arlo was now having a lovely long two hour nap at lunchtime, where he used to do 30 minutes at the most.

A whole new Arlo

The effect that it had on the whole family was marvellous. Dad was able to move back into their bedroom, and Mum was incredibly happy with the way that things turned out.

Crucially, Mum reported to Cara that her little one is a very different baby now that he’s getting a proper amount of sleep. “He was quite unsettled and whinged for most of the time he was awake when he wasn’t sleeping well. But that has all changed now and Arlo is a much happier baby!”

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My baby is no longer catnapping for 30 min a day but sleeping for 2 hours straight. He no longer taking up to2-3 hours to fall asleep being rocked in my arms, but self settles in only a few minutes. I have my evenings free for the first time ever and boy have I binged watched some serious Netflix!!

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