Meet: Baby JEDIDIAH

Family members: Mom (Jolyn) and Dad (Jolvin)

When we started working together: 7 months old

Background story:

Jolyn described Jedidiah as a “serial catnapper”, unable to link sleep cycles. Jedidiah has never slept longer than 1 sleep cycle (45 minutes), nor has he ever slept through the night. This has been going on since birth, but progressively worsens over time.

Sleep Issue:

• Inability to nap longer than 45 mins (one sleep cycle)  
• Night wakings
• Jedidiah also often cries a lot before he sleeps (both nap and bedtime).
• Mum is not confident in settling the baby and establishing a routine

Jolyn’s Goals:

• Achieve good sleeping habits for Jedidiah
• Mum is transitioning back to work soon and needs a better night's sleep to be able to function at work.
• Mum expressed the desire to have more baby-free time (when Jedidiah is napping) to be able to do housework and run necessary errands during the day (unable to do so as Jedidiah is not napping well).

Success story & outcome:

• Jedidiah started taking 3 solids naps (2x 1.5hour and one shorter nap) soon after.
• By around 9 months old, he began sleeping through the night (7 pm-7 am).
• Jed has the ability to self-soothe and settle. He knows that it’s sleep time/nap time and would independently go to bed himself.

What Jolyn (and Jolvin) has to say: (How has it been working with Ruth)

I spoke to another mum who suggested speaking to Ruth. At this point, I was open to anything and told Jolvin (my husband) that we can’t go on like this forever (in a sleep-deprived state!). We must be open to professional recommendation and advice to improve Jed’s sleep and ours.

We are really thankful that we had Ruth to help us. She great and had great sensitivity in terms of the support she provided. She knew when to really challenge us and when to leave us with recommendations and for us to decide. Of course, working with Ruth has exceeded our expectations, as it clearly worked for us! Ruth is amazing! Patient, encouraging and she tries to be there even when she’s busy with her kids (and heavily pregnant).

What encouragement or words of wisdom can you give to a parent who can relate to your story?

The earlier you seek help, the better! Don’t be afraid of asking for help and reaching out. In this day and age, we are bombarded by so much information and ‘perfect’ looking photos of young families with newborn / babies but we don’t see the private struggles of parenthood.

I have learned that routine and consistency is so important. Babies like predictability so it was great to see the results when Jed started to get it. Sometimes little things (such as turning off the nightlight and having a pre-sleep routine) can make all that difference!

How would you do things differently if or when you have another baby?

We are having a second baby soon so we’ll be up for another challenge of coordinating naps and wake times between the two. Ruth’s help will be invaluable.

Summary:

• Jedidiah is a case that I (Ruth) initially thought would require some form of formal behavioral sleep training, but after just solely working on foundations and holistic science of sleep, implementing age-appropriate sleep schedule and wake times, Jedidiah organically fell into a great sleep routine and started taking long naps!
• This goes to show that prioritizing and optimizing every aspect of sleep can do wonders, without needing to implement any behavioral method!

Get Your Child to Sleep Through the Night Quickly and Easily Without Fuss, Tears, or Frustration

(From You or Your Child!) 

 

Sleeping On Purpose

By: Ruth Tai