Antoinette - Beckenham Kent - My five month old baby has had trouble napping during the day and has often woken up cranky, clearly needing more sleep. After spending hours reading baby books, surfing the net and taking professional advice, I decided to try controlled crying. This left my baby distressed and me completely stressed out. I was at my wits end, desperately wanting to do what was right for my baby but totally confused by all the conflicting advice. So I contacted Sleep Nannies!

"My consultation with The Sleep Nanny was a breath of fresh air. She took the time to listen to what I was saying and sympathise with the situation. She then offered practical advice on what to do, explained how my baby was likely to respond and gave me an idea of how long it would take for things to get better. I was amazed to see an improvement in three days and can now say that my baby is sleeping much better, waking up happy, refreshed and ready to play. The Sleep Nanny's main strengths are her experience and her calm approach: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for advice on caring for their babies"

Sarah - London - A is, generally, a very happy baby. She has been in a routine (Gina Ford) from about 8 weeks and she seems to enjoy it. She rarely cries during the day, she feeds well and puts on approximately 7oz a week (she is partially breast fed and partially formula fed). Our issue is bed time. We have a bed time routine, including a bath, dim lights, soft music and a breast feed. But when we put her in her cot at 6.45/7pm she does not want to sleep. We have been trying to get her to go down at this time for over 4 weeks now and I think we have managed 4 or 5 times. We cannot work out why it works some days and doesn't work on others. We have tried leaving her to cry for 10 minutes at a time and then going to check on her, reassure her and then leave. She just cries more. We have tried rocking / cuddling her to sleep (it only works for one sleep cycle and after 30 minutes she s awake again and crying).

She has (without exception in 12 weeks) taken a formula feed at 10.30-11pm and gone down in her cot and gone to sleep. 9 times out of 10 she is awake when we put her down and she puts herself to sleep. When she wakes in the night (now usually about 5/5.30am) she has a breast feed and goes straight back to sleep. I don t think we have had a problem with her going to sleep after these feeds since she was 1 or 2 weeks old. We can hear her at other times during the night when she wakes but she puts herself back to sleep.

A' s daytime naps are in or around the same time each day (9am, 12pm and 4/4.30 pm). The 9am nap is easy, she goes in her cot, sleeps for 30/45 minutes and wakes up happy and smiling and talking to her cot toys. The 12pm nap is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes she can sleep for 30 minutes, wake up for an hour and then sleep for another 45 minutes. In general she falls asleep on one of us and cries and cries if I try to put her in the cot for this nap (I gave up trying about 6 weeks ago as I wanted her to sleep more than I cared about the location of the sleep). She will happily sleep in her car seat or pram for this nap. If I am out and about she may sleep for the whole 2 hours (because of the movement of the car or pram). The afternoon nap is about 30 minutes and is almost always on one of us (though once she is asleep it is possible to transfer her).

We would really like advice to understand where we are going wrong. We have obviously got something right at 10.30pm and the 9am nap but now need to find a way to extend those good habits to her other naps and (most importantly) an evening bed time.

"I called The Sleep Nanny out of desperation. One conversation with The Sleep Nanny and that evening my daughter went to sleep at bedtime and stayed asleep. After a dream feed she slept until 7am the following morning. Its now a week later and she has done the same thing every night for a week (and without any fuss or crying). She will now go to bed awake and put herself to sleep for naps and at night.

I really liked The Sleep Nanny's approach, she didn't judge us for having done anything wrong in the past. All of her recommendations made clear, logical sense and she didn't tell me I had to leave my baby to cry it out (something I was totally against). I am so pleased that we called. We've benefited and so has our baby, she now sleeps properly in the evenings, at night and for naps which means the time she is awake she is a happy, smiley baby who is bundles of fun. Thank you again for all your help"

Dr M F - East London - Our baby is nearly 4 months old and still not sleeping through the night. He has his last feed at 10pm and then wakes at 2am and every hour after that until 5am, each time he wakes he cannot settle himself back to sleep unless lifted out of bed and cuddled, or if we use a dummy. We would like him to be able to sleep through the night (he no longer feeds after 10pm) or at least be able to settle himself back to sleep each time he wakes up, as neither of us has had an uninterrupted nights sleep since he was born!

"Dear Sleep Nannies I would like to thank you all for the very professional service that you have provided to me. The administrator has always listened empathetically to my calls and acted swiftly and efficiently to try and help. He is a great introduction to the service and immediately inspires confidence. Our sleep consultant has been fantastic. She has made me feel that the service she provides is much more than a job to her and i am much more than a client. She has given me an ear to talk to - empathy - and above all advise that i can act on - that is tailor made to my baby and situation. She has spoken to me much longer than needed to outside her designated hours and for that I am so grateful. She even called me once when she was ill, as she realised I needed her support. And also sent me some NUK dummies (that have proved very useful) gratis.

If we all did our jobs as well and took as much pride in our work as The Sleep Nanny then the world would be a very different place. Things have gotten so much better and I hope will continue to improve for the three of us, though i do feel human again. The fact that I can write this email is proof enough that things have changed for me!! Thanks to you all for your professionalism and help"

Mrs K.S.J. from Berkshire Our baby wakes around 4am every morning and won't settle back to sleep. 

"I was very happy with the telephone service I received from you and impressed with the very quick response. I found The Baby Sleep Training Consultant easy to talk to and I felt confident that the advice she was offering would work for me. She was also happy to listen to my point of view too rather than giving me a standard solution to my problems. I particularly appreciated the fact that I was able to have a couple of follow up calls with her; it was great to get some encouragement and to check that I was on the right path. I would have no hesitation in recommending The Baby Sleep Training Consultant or your website to any of my friends"

Donna from Bath We have 3 main concerns:  She is very clingy with me. She is still swaddled (someone suggested it when she was 6 weeks old and we have never been able to get her out of it). She is still fed to sleep, and fed back to sleep when she wakes during the night (up to 3 times). Ultimately I would like to get to the stage where I can give up breastfeeding (in the next month or so), and E can stay overnight with other family members occasionally.  I also need to sort out her daytime naps, which although they are fairly regular, she still needs to be rocked/sung to sleep.

"If I seem ecstatic when I write this then it is because for the first time in 13 months my daughter Emma has not only managed to sleep from 7.30pm - 5.30 am without waking, but she has managed to do it for a week now. 5:30 is still early, but it's better than the 3 or 4 hours of broken sleep I was getting up until now! The sleep nanny we had was fantastic! I can't praise her enough! She gave us the confidence to help Emma sleep at night, without resorting to letting her cry, on her own for hours on end (something we were contemplating before I found out about the service). We also had the advice and support we needed even when Emma was not well half way through the consultation. The way it was done also means that we have the skills to cope in the future if sleepless nights become a problem again. I cannot believe it was as easy as it was when we finally did it! During the consultations, she also boosted my confidence as a parent, which can only lead to a happier household! Thanks again to everyone"

Caroline from Harrow - Our daughter E has difficulty settling herself to sleep and is becoming increasingly dummy dependent. She ends up sleeping with mum for second half of night. We would also like assistance getting her to take more food in the day.

"Admittedly I was a little nervous of having a stranger come into my house but it was the best thing I could have done. Before the sleep nannies  visit I was sleeping in E's bedroom and for the second half of the night I had E in the bed with me. E was also using the dummy to go to sleep so I was up and down throughout the night putting it back in her mouth. Ever since our sleep nanny arrived (5 days ago) E has not had the dummy to go to sleep or during the day, she takes her night feeds quickly and goes down straight after in her cot - even when she wakes at 6.00am she just lies there babbling away. I have not had to endure night time crying, but the Consultant taught me how to allow E to cry for her daytime naps so I am well prepared. She only cried for 1 min going down for her nap this morning! I know it won't always be like that but I feel strong enough to deal with the longer spells of crying now. I really enjoyed having our sleep consultant here and she helped me gain confidence to lead E rather then the other way round. She gave me lots of advice and I will be forever grateful to her for helping me get back in control. Many thanks Caroline"

Nicola - Ipswich E takes more than an hour to settle at night and still wakes 2 or 3 times but only takes an ounce or so at each feed in the night. She is unable to settle herself and needs to be cuddled or stroked. We are concerned that she is becoming dummy dependent. She suffers badly from wind so we would appreciate any advice on bottle feeding techniques (she is bottle fed). But night time is the issue as my husband and I are very tired and he is away on exercise for 3 weeks in May and I am concerned about how I will manage without his support. Our overall objective is to help us set our daughter towards the goal of sleeping through and being able to settle herself.

"Our sleep nanny came to us at a time when we seemed to be taking a step forward and two steps back with our 11-week-old daughter. She would only sleep on us in the day and getting her to sleep in her cot at night was a three-hour battle. Needless to say we were exhausted and my husband was due to go away with work for three weeks which left me panic stricken as to how I would cope. She came to stay at my parents house and so had a tired and emotional mother and worried grandparents to deal with as well as a ‘difficult’ baby but she fitted in wonderfully an instantly put us all at ease. My Mum and Dad loved her and were able to see an almost immediate effect on both E and on me. On the first night, Our consultant  noted that E would wake herself up screaming when almost completely asleep which is something I had been told was common and just a sign of a baby who would rather be cuddled. The sleep nanny suggested however that it might be reflux and so we saw a Doctor who prescribed baby gaviscon and she suggested changing the formula we were using.

Almost immediately we saw an effect and although E is still not ‘perfect’ she is almost a different child and will now sleep on her own in the day and sleep far better at night settling within half an hour of a late night feed rather then taking two further hours of rocking and pacing. It also turns out that E often isn’t any worse than any other baby but she is exceptionally loud and so our sleep nanny was able to reassure me that although she sounds as though she is being tortured, that’s just her normal volume and we shouldn’t let it stress us so much as this was causing us to rush things and tense up which only served to wind E up further. In summary, Our sleep nanny was fabulous and gave us a bit of a break, a lot more confidence and a far happier baby. I only wish we’d picked up the phone earlier! She has also been fantastic in helping us carry on settling E into a routine which is invaluable. Thanks for helping us to begin to actually enjoy our baby! By SMS The night after she  left. E is asleep! It took a while but she didn't put up too much of a fight .... And no dummy! Fingers crossed for a good night. Speak soon, thanks again. Getting better and better. Day sleeps are still a bit erratic but last night she slept until 0615! She also had nearly 30oz yesterday. ...We have turned a corner thanks to you. Speak soon, N x"

Caroline - London D has had colic, which has subsided, but a stomach virus and a bad cold followed and so she is not sleeping during the night.  She is waking up to 5 times a night and taking a long time to settle. Her milk intake is unpredictable and she has just started taking a little baby rice, which we suspect has also thrown her.

Hi there. Result! She slept through till 6.10am She woke at 5 to have a poo!. Chatted and then went back to sleep. I stayed silent and probably wouldn't have woken but was already awake wondering what was going on! ! I know she can do it! Thank you so so much. We'll keep you posted"

Natasha  - Hampshire - Our 11 month old son has never slept through the night - overcoming this would be our ideal goal. Currently he not only awakes on multiple occasions but can be awake for up to 2 hours during the night. His current routine is, Bed at 7pm normally with no fuss. He will sleep without stirring until between 10.30-11.30pm when he will awake, at this point we normally feed him (has been breast fed but for the last 2 weeks we have been giving formula where he has taken anything from 4-8oz). More often than not he will settle back to sleep at this time. He will then wake at some other point in the night (used to be fed) but even before we dropped this feed he was starting to not settle to sleep and has been left to cry in the past for up to 2 hours. He will be quiet if you remain in the room (not necessarily touching him) as soon as you try to leave no matter how sly you are being in making your escape he starts crying. He will sleep in the day between 1 and 2 hours, a shorter snooze in the morning followed by a slightly longer one in the afternoon (normally after 1pm). It can sometimes take some time to get him to sleep during the day. When he has slept well at night he tends to be a much happier little boy which we would like him to be all the time!

"I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Sleep Nannies to anyone and everyone who has a child with sleeping problems. I was amazed at how quickly and sympathetically she was able to understand and help our situation. After having read all the books, I never felt comfortable or confident enough to implement the regimens laid out. The Sleep Nanny however helped us put something in place that was easy to follow and did not involve any distressing tactics. The changes were so quick it was as if someone had waved a magic wand. Within 3 nights our son, bar a 30 second stirring, had not only slept through the night for the first time in almost 12 months but also without a dummy which we had used since birth. Although as expected with any young child we have some nights which aren't quite as smooth as others, we are thankful that we can finally say that these are in the minority and we are beginning to catch up on the much needed sleep we have so much missed over the last year. Thank you"