Baby Whisperer

i replied to this earlier but it doesn't seem to have come up - annoying!

i have 2 friends who have used Sharlene. One got Sharlene in for a day for her 4 mo old at that time. He wasn't settling well and she some great advice and techniques. They had a really dramatic improvement within a few days. I think she also had her her out for her first baby too actually.

Another friend had the email thing for her 6 mo and had some great results with her advice there too. It was pretty detailed and was more of routine tweaking at that age.

I have been to her settling course at The Parenting Place in Auckland ($10). She is great, is just so loving and gentle with the babies even the screamers like my ds2. Seemed to just get him in a way that none else had and in such a positive way.   

Personally i'd happily the pay the $400 or whatever for having her out if it means your baby can settle happily in his/her own bed, cos that's a skill they'll have for life, otherwise you could still be facing the same probs in another year or so. Or maybe not, they often do grow put of sleep habits.

Sharlene Poole is also on Good Morning every week, I think it's Tuesday...and they often have emails and phone calls. You could try sending/calling into the show, although I guess it could be quite hard to get through...

Hi Brad,

I can highly recommend Samantha Ferrerais. She came to my house (think the cost was 90 per hour?, she was with us for 2 hours) when I was having all sorts of issues with day and night sleep, early wakings and night wakings. She gave me a routine that has worked really well for us. She has 2 daughters and loads of experience.

www.maternaltouch.co.nz

Hey Brad,

I found the plunket center good, once they took me seriously. I phoned a few times and they poo poo me as a first time mum, blah blah. So in the end I went there first thing in the morning and refused to leave til it was sorted. Ended up staying the whole day.

Sometimes it pays to be a bit emotional! I think they thought I had PND, cause they were so concerned about me!

In saying it was helpful. DS is still a lousy day sleeper! I've resigned to the fact its his genes!

I decided to ask for help from a baby whisperer when I was having trouble with sleeping for my little boy.

On recommendation from a friend I got in touch with Dorothy Waide at Baby Within - see www.babyhelp.co.nz

Getting Dorothy to come and help was by far the best money I have spent in relation to baby stuff. She has given me heaps of practical advice on parenting - especially on breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, starting solids, naps and especially on sleeping.

She does give email advice which is very reasonable and she also does day visits or overnights. My baby was waking four or five times a night and very hard to sleep during day unless in the car or pram. After just one night with Dorothy he was sleeping 7 to 7 each night and three 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps each day. And he hasn't missed a day of that for the last 6 weeks!!

People ask "so what did she do". I think its hard to describe exactly. Its not really just one thing - its just the fact that when you get someone to help you who really knows their stuff (in this case babies and what makes them tick and especially what makes them sleep) then you get results.

When you think about it - getting help from an expert makes complete sense - most of us don't know that much about babies initially so why do we struggle to read books and buy gizmos to get them asleep or whatever. Its like a car: you would ask a mechanic for advice if it had any issues rather than try to fix it yourself.
www.babyhelp.co.nzwww.babyhelp.co.nz

Edited by lawyergirl2.0

I used Sharlene Poole with my son who was (and is) a terrible sleeper. To be honest, she didn't come up with any miracle ideas or really "fix" his sleeping at all. She is great with babies, but I personally think it was not worth the money. However I do know she has many recommendations and she is always fully booked so there must be something in it