We went through Mitcham and found it really helpful when DS was 8 mths old. From what I understand it is now a four night stay (it was 5 when I went) where you get to sleep the first 2 nights and then you settle the other two. If you need to they can let you stay longer. They use different plans depending on the age of the baby.

Depending on the age of the baby they either roomed in with you or had their own room which the nurses could watch via a tv screen what sleep behaviours they were engaging in so for example DS couldn't stay still and needed to learn how to stop to go to sleep. All the nurses were fantastic and it was wonderful having the support of someone else making suggestions of what you could try next no matter whether it was day or the middle of night. I don't feel like I was pushed into doing anything I wasn't happy with. I was concerned with leaving DS to cry as it wasn't the approach I wanted to take. I wouldn't say they use cry it out methods the way I understand cry it out to be. It was all about providing minimal intervention so the baby has a chance to learn how to go to sleep on their own. But each time you go in stepping up what you do so teaching them the skills to eventually do it on their own. A nurse will stand outside the door with you and help you decide what to do next. A range of techniques from verbal cues, music, patting, rocking, and wrapping are used. You do leave the room to give them the chance to go off to sleep on their own so there will be crying but the nurses were helpful in helping me hear the differences in cries and when to go back in vs when it sounded like they were just winding down.

I'd love to say when we left there everything was fixed but it wasn't. However we had some big improvements like getting an earlier bedtime from 10pm to 7pm, getting regular day sleeps going which meant I got some more breaks, stopping overnight feeding, getting into a good daily routine and he was a less cranky baby due to getting more sleep. It was also great to get some sleep behind me to give me the energy to continue on when we got home. I think there is also just a developmental component to sleeping as DS didn't start sleeping through regularly until 18mths. However the other gains were worth the sleep school stay. I know sleep school isn't for everyone but were really struggling as a family and this really helped us get out of the hole we were in.