Case Study - 5 month old Ben (tricky transitions)

When Whitney contacted me, Ben had just starting to roll but was still swaddled in a Love to Dream arms ups swaddle and sleeping in a Snoo bassinet. Whitney knew she had to make the transition out of the swaddle and make the move to the cot but wasn’t sure how to approach these changes.

Ben was waking most mornings to start the day before 6am and this was after waking several more times throughout the night. He was also a serial catnapper and was stuck on 4 naps a day. Mum and Dad were “exhausted” and finding it “impossible to get anything done during the day”.

We decided to do one swift transition, making several changes simultaneously instead of dragging out the process by doing one thing at a time. We created a settling strategy specifically for Ben to support and ease him through the transition out of the swaddle whilst also moving him into his cot. We made sure the strategy evolved as he adjusted to the changes. We followed an age appropriate routine and used our new settling strategy both overnight and during naps.

Within a few days Ben began settling to sleep independently in his cot. This resulted in his midday nap consolidating to 2 hours and he was able to drop down to three predictable naps a day. Ben was also able to resettle himself overnight for the majority of his wakes and was mostly sleeping through the night, but still occasionally waking once to feed which was to be expected for his young age. This feed was starting to naturally drop away so we just continued to follow Ben’s lead.

During our two weeks working together, Ben also started his solids journey. I was able to guide Whitney with the timing of meals and suggested foods which would support Ben’s sleep. Turns out Ben LOVES his food and was well on his way to having two established meals.

In addition, this family’s support was due to finish up a few days before the end of daylight savings. With a little guidance, Ben’s parents were able to successfully shift his entire routine whilst also implementing all the other changes, so when the clocks changed they were right back on schedule, starting their days at 7am.

Such amazing results for a family who were lost and felt they had already tried it all. Here’s what Whitney had to say.

“I would highly recommend hiring Caroline. We reached out to her when our son was 5 months old. He was catnapping during the day and waking up multiple times overnight. We were getting so confused with all the conflicting information you read online. Caroline worked with us on a plan and gave us the confidence to stick to it. Within the two weeks of working with her, our son was following a perfect nap schedule and getting a long restorative nap in daily, and he mostly sleeps through the night. Thank you so much for helping us enjoy being new parents!” - Whitney