Sleep School...Who's Been?

[tears_of_joy]

Well DS and I will be off to sleep school, we are booked in for 24th January 08!

For anyone who has been can you please give me a bit of insight to what goes on?

I will hopefully recieve all the paper work before christmas, but i really want to be prepared.

TIA

[Je$$_84]

Hi sorry have no experience with sleep school but just wanted to wish you luck.....

[Willow]

We took DD to Tresillian here in NSW (I think Ngala is your equivalent?) for a few day stay visits when she was a baby, initially for b'feeding support but later on for sleeping issues.

We didn't do a residential stay so I'm not sure what happens with those, probably the same but more intensive.

Basically we would put DD to sleep and they would help me and give me tips to help settle her, talk about what was working, what wasn't, go through our routine etc etc. I found that even though a lot of the things we were doing were right, it helped to talk to someone and get some reassurance.

Tresillian have a bit of a bad rep with some people who have misconceptions that they leave babies in cots to control cry etc etc but that is NOT true of our experience at all.

I went to a sleep and settling session with DS at Tresillian just a few weeks ago and their approach now is even more gentle than what it was 2.5 years ago. They talked to us about the recent studies into controlled crying and the harm it can do and pretty much the first thing they told us was that they do not advocate allowing babies to cry.

Good luck, I hope you find it helps you get back on track with DS's sleeping. It can be such a stressful situation for both of you.

[Jodie259]

I went to QEC in Melbourne. Best thing I ever did !!!!!!

We went for a 'day stay' originally as my son wouldn't sleep at all during the day - and would be overtired and scream for hours in the evening.
Day stay helped... but not enough...

So we went back for residential stay just before he was six months old.
At that point he was still not having decent day sleeps - so that was the first thing they taught us. Within 1-2 days my DS was happilly going down for 2 hour naps every 2 hours! Talk about a different child!!! There was no screaming or tantrums in the evenings either.

Admitably - we didn't get to resolve his night sleeping problems. At that time he would wake every 2-4 hours. Now, at 18 months - he usuall wakes every 4 hours. He self-settles himself at midnight - but at 4am he usually gets out of bed and comes into our bed.

QEC is fantastic. It's like a hotel. You have your own room (double bed) and your own bathroom. The baby has a seperate room too. There is a buzzer... so when your baby cried... you press the buzzer and the nurse would come to attend. Most of the time you would be expected to get up too... but the nurses were great and would sometimes insist I rested and they would deal with my DS.
During the day we would usually have one seminar and the rest of the time was free. I took my laptop to the residential stay - but there was no internet access
I also lived in the next suburb... so when my DH would come over - I would pop home and check emails etc (I have an online business). My DH stayed the whole 4 nights... and would go to work during the day. All our meals were cooked for us... and he could have even had a special kosher meal bought in for him.

Its tough to start with.
If you are used to picking your child up every time it cries - it's hard to break that habit.
Sleep schools do NOT do the "controlled crying" any more. People who claim that either haven't been or haven't been in recent years. There is no "time" where you leave your child to cry. But they try to teach you to stay with your child and settle them whilst they are in the cot... rather then removing them & hugging them. I'm not an emotional person - but the first time I did it - I cried. There was another woman who couldn't handle it at all - and she left on the 2nd day. But the rest of us stayed on - and all had great success within days.

My advice: be prepared for a tough time in the first 24-48 hours. But persist and hopefully your child will learn new sleeping habits and sleep like a little angel before the end of the week.

If you are going for a day stay... ask as many questions as you can...

Good luck - and hope you have great success.

[Beach Mama]

I went to QEC too for a day stay as well so won't repeat what Jodie has said. Once we got home it took us about 2 weeks to decide to give it a go, it is hard not to pick up your baby when they cry if you aren't used to it so we had to make sure we were ready to do it. I agree with Jodie - prepare yourself for a rough time and support each other.
For us it took one night one week ago and for the last week she has only been waking 1-2 and settling really well. I would add that the key is CONSISTENCY!! Once we started we told ourselves to be prepared to give it a go for a week minimum before we would re-assess different solutions.
Good luck and let us know how you go!!

[Jodie259]

yep.. agree with what Tan says...

Consistancy & support each other.

If your partner doesn't go along (which they recommend they do) - make sure you go through the whole process with him, and ensure that he supports you. My DH hated the idea of Shaun crying... but he would never get up in the middle of the night to attend to him. So it was me that was suffering.

It was harder on DH then me when we went to sleep school... but the nurse sat down and explained it to DH and since then - he's been totally committed.

And as Tan says... you need consistancy. No matter what "method" you try - you should do it consistantly for two weeks before saying "this doesn't work".

[tears_of_joy]

Thanks Ladies

Yes its called Ngala and for now we are going for a day stay as the lady said we needed a bit more help and support than what she could give over the phone.

Dh will be coming along and hopefully it may open his eyes a little as he works away 2 weeks at a time and when he is home he leaves "bed time" up to me and once he's in bed he doesn't hear a thing!

Ngala is 4 hrs drive away from where i live so i would like to get the most i can out of it.

[littlelara]

Hi, Bethany and I went straight into a 3 night stint at tweddle (think the chick on the phone could hear the edge of hysteria in my voice, because we actually ended up on a standby list and were in within 2 weeks), and for us it was the best thing we ever did, but it was also a lot of hard work.
The best thing about staying is that this is all you need to concern yourself with while you're there - no dinner, no dishes, no washing, just you and your baby.
The other thing was that because everything is new, the babies tend to ark up maybe more than they would at home because not only are you behaving in a way that they don't like or understand and that isn't familiar, but everything looks, feels and smells different too.
So at least by the time you come home the only difference is the things that you learnt while you were away, and they do eventually get it (some in as little as 3 weeks, it took us 6) - so yeah, you do have to persist, and it's hard, but it pays off.
Bethany screamed so hard and for so long while we were there that she actually lost her voice and it broke my heart, but she did eventually go to sleep and it does get better.
Best of luck

[Beach Mama]

I would also say take a little notebook and make notes to yourself throughout the day because things may come up that you forget about when you get home. I took all the info sheets that they had there but I should have written a few things down that our nurse went through with me.
HtH!

[tears_of_joy]

Thanks Tan thats a great idea! I will have to remember that