Sarah was so tired, she was struggling to cope with the work/home life balance. Two year old Ben was waking 5 times a night. A work colleague recommended she contact Millpond.

Read her story…

“We can’t thank Millpond enough for all the support, advice and understanding they have shown us over the last few months.

Ben’s sleep problems were horrendous and at nearly two years he was waking up to 5 times a night and sometimes for up to 2.5 hours at a time.

We were desperate, but scared to try any form of sleep training for fear that we would fail and then have endured a lot of screaming for no result.

Sarah was worried about what sleep technique she would use…

A colleague recommended Millpond and initially we were hesitant – was it going to involve leaving him to scream? Was it going to go against our parenting style? Was it unfair on him to change his routine so much? Was it going to be worth investing that much time and money? We also felt that Ben was incurable!! However, eventually we decided that it was worth a try – Ben’s behaviour was suffering due to his lack of sleep and we realised that the current situation was as unfair on him as it was on us.

Ben’s sleep programme was gentle…

Right from our first consultation with Mandy our sleep consultant, we knew we had made the right decision! She’d seen it all before and gave us confidence that Ben’s sleep would improve. The programme was SO unique to Ben and incredibly gradual and gentle on him and us. We didn’t want to do controlled crying and Mandy confirmed that, for Ben, this would not be the right approach.

Each step felt like the right thing to be doing and Ben responded positively from day one. It took some weeks to see an improvement in his sleep. However, we always felt that we were moving forward and never doubted that it would work. Within a couple of weeks we were no longer picking him up out of the cot and rocking him for hours on end…things were slowly beginning to improve. Mandy was so patient and kind and gave us the confidence to stick to the new regime to the letter. As a result as the weeks went by we began to see an improvement to his night time waking. Now Ben asks to go in his cot at night!! He settles himself and chats away happily when he goes to sleep at night and when he wakes in the morning. We can’t believe that we have a child who ‘sleeps through the night’!!

Wish we had contacted Millpond sooner…

We would highly recommend Millpond to anyone who is suffering from lack of sleep. The change to my work/life balanc, and to Ben’s life has been unbelievable. We only wish we had contacted Mandy sooner!! We cannot thank and recommend Millpond highly enough.” Sarah

Anxiety at Bedtime – Henry was scared of bears

Henry’s mum tells his story:

Three year old Henry was scared of bears. His anxiety about bears was waking him up multiple times in the middle of the night and he was also taking a considerable time to go back to sleep.

I have never tolerated disturbances at night so responded by doing the controlled crying technique, which has always been successful in the past. On this occasion it made his anxiety so much worse and we got to a stage where he could not be in a separate room from me during the day. We were all tired and cranky during as a result.

Mandy was hugely supportive at getting me to use the gradual retreat approach and helped me create a sleep fairy for Henry with realistic goals that he could achieve. The anxiety gradually disappeared.

Now if he wakes in the night he goes back to sleep immediately!

So much better!

Does lack of sleep affect your work?