New Product: Behaviour and Sleep Support Guide for ages 20 months to 6 years

Behaviour and Sleep Support Guide 20 Months to 6 years

I’m so excited this week. Ever since I launched the Build your own Sleep Plan range online,  I have been planning to add a programme covering the ages from 20 months to 6 years to the range.

The gap between the courses has been much longer than I expected, due to having to homeschool my eldest daughter, and the arrival of my second daughter Alyssia at the start of lockdown in 2020. But I’m pleased to announce the Behaviour and Sleep Support Guide is finally here and it will be available to purchase on my site from Friday 15th October!

If you have bought one of my programmes before, you will notice that the delivery of the video lessons has improved – I’ve learned to use some new technology! I will be upgrading my other courses soon too, but I  want to get this course out there first and also publish my guide to the newborn to six months stage.

This new course is very similar to the Build your own Sleep plan range, as it does talk and focus on ways of helping your child sleep, but there is a lot of other stuff added as well, bringing the total video length to over three hours (spaced out into bitesize chunks!) When children get to this stage of development there is a lot going on with them. In order to stand the best chance of getting their sleep sorted, it’s a good idea to take a look at some behaviour patterns that can emerge during the daytime as well.

I gave Claire, one of my longstanding customers, a sneak preview of the video course, and this is what she had to say about it:

I first contacted Nicole in May 2020. My little boy was 5 months old and I was struggling due to the lack of sleep (his and mine!) He had been sleeping reasonably well at night albeit he was still waking for feeds, but during the day I was lucky if he napped for 2 x 20 mins. My husband and I were exhausted and so was he.

I contacted Nicole and purchased the 6-9 month plan. After a bit of a false start my husband and I followed the plan carefully and had amazing results. Harris started to sleep through, settle himself to sleep without our help and nap consistently throughout the day. It was without a doubt the best money I have spent since he was born.

Since then I have contacted Nicole a couple of times when we have been going through a blip, or what actually turns out to be a leap. Within a few days or weeks and with Nicole’s advice we have been able to resolve any issues.

Fast forward to Harris being 18 months. He started to wake around 2am every night. He was wide awake and would stand up shaking the side of his cot violently. He wasn’t distressed but he was ready to take the day on. Needless to say my husband and I weren’t! On a good night he would go back to sleep after about an hour of shouting and shaking the cot. On a bad night it could be 2 or 3 hours. We were exhausted and after about 6 weeks we were at breaking point.

I contacted Nicole again and asked for her help. She asked me to try her new 20 months to 6 years programme. It consisted of 19 videos covering a whole range of topics from tantrums, emotion coaching, boundaries to pre-bedtime routines and sleep strategies. I watched them all. A lot weren’t relevant – for now (I will come back to that shortly) but I quickly realised that although his sleep was disrupted, it was actually a huge developmental leap that was entirely normal for his age. His speech and vocabulary were developing daily and he was also pushing boundaries on an almost hourly basis!

So much of the programme wasn’t just about sleep. It was about how to cope with all the other challenges that come with a toddler. It was about looking at things from a different angle and learning to support our little boy as he transitions through his new range of skills.

We have made some changes, ironically mostly to our daytime routine but it has made a difference to the nights. We are not completely there yet, it is very much a work in progress but we’ve gone from being up in the middle of the night to early wakings. These are a lot easier to handle and we can counteract these with a few early nights of our own! By using the Facebook support group I know that I can talk through the tweaks that are necessary with Nicole, and she will help us to fine tune our routine until Harris is sleeping through to a more manageable time (who knew before children that 7am would ever feel like a lie in!)

That leads me to what I was saying above. A lot of the videos weren’t really relevant for us just now. Harris goes down well at night and doesn’t need our help, but I am not naive enough to think that means we won’t ever have issues at bedtime. That’s the beauty of this programme. It covers everything! It’s like a giant toolkit of tips and skills to deal with all the challenges you face as a parent of a little person.

You quickly realise that your child’s early years are made up of phases. Each phase usually passes relatively quickly but that doesn’t mean to say it’s not bloody hard when you are going through it. I know that having the programme means I can dip in and out and watch the relevant videos when needed. The beauty of the videos is that you can listen to them anywhere. I have listened to them in the car on the way to work or whilst out for a walk. It’s rarely an overnight fix, but watching/listening to the videos reminds you what you need to do to cope with each situation. Nicole is now a voice in my head reminding me of what I need to say or do when Harris is pushing me to the limit! I don’t always gets it right but I’m getting there!

If you are struggling with your little one’s sleep or just the challenge of raising a toddler in general then try the programme.

The videos are great to watch back and the beauty of them being broken down is that you can pick and mix which ones are relevant for you at any given time. In addition the support group lets you tailor a bespoke programme that meets your individual needs. The beauty of Nicole is that first and foremost she is a mum. She gets it! She’s gets that it’s hard, and frustrating and the mum guilt can be overwhelming but she also has studied all things sleep and behaviour related and has a wealth of knowledge that can help you find a way to deal with almost any situation.

A lot of it seems like common sense when she explains it to you but when you are sleep deprived and at breaking point it is not always easy to think logically. Nicole is there to provide support and advice so that you can reap the benefits of being a parent and enjoy watching your little person progress through their early years. I can’t thank Nicole enough for all her help and support and for saving my sanity!

Thank you very much Claire for your lovely review and I hope that this will give some other parents confidence to give my methods a try.

The Behaviour and Sleep Support Guide is available here, either as a standalone product or with the addition of 1-6 months of support given via a private Facebook group. If you’re reading this before Friday 15th October, then join the waiting list here, and you will receive a 20% discount code off the price of the course on Friday morning.