Julia Redmond

Contacting Julia to help with our son's sleep was, quite frankly, one of the best decisions we have ever made, as at almost a year old, our son had never slept through the night!

We have been on what can only be described as a very turbulent journey with our son's sleep. From around ten weeks old, we started co-sleeping as he completely refused to sleep on his own and could not be settled any other way. He was unable to self-settle unless breastfed to sleep or in the car! For a while, co-sleeping worked for us and enabled us all to get some sleep. But as he grew older, got bigger and started crawling it became a real problem. We worked really hard to get him to sleep in his cot, but even then, he would last around 3-4 hours before waking and screaming and crying and ending back up in bed with us. This also meant Daddy was asleep in the spare room most nights! Initially we thought that his sleep would improve as he got older, but the opposite was happening. I was feeding him to sleep for every nap and every night. He slept on me for both naps each day (yes at 11 months old!!) and would start off asleep in his cot at bedtime but end up in bed with me at some point every single night. We were all exhausted, grumpy and unsure of what to do next! 

It was then that we heard about Julia through a friend of ours. We had looked into Sleep Consultants before, but honestly didn't believe that they could solve our problems that easily. We were reluctant to spend quite a lot of money on something that might not even work. However, we decided to go for it out of desperation. I was due to return to work and barely functioning because of the lack of sleep. Our son was also due to start nursery and I worried that he wouldn't be able to sleep there without being breastfed or held. 

We met Julia over Zoom and talked through our situation. Julia was lovely and not phased by anything we said - although I have to admit I wasn't completely convinced what she was telling us to do would work! However, we followed what she said to the letter and by night two, our son slept through the night. We both woke up in a bit of a daze and couldn't quite believe it! Julia stayed in contact with us every day for two weeks, adjusting and tweaking the timings of his naps where needed. We now have a child who sleeps for a solid two hours in the middle of the day (at home and nursery), goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps through until 6:30am. He can now self-settle and doesn't need to be fed to sleep. He wakes up happy, babbling to himself in the morning instead of crying. Julia also left us with the tools to manage things such as illness and teething as well as what to do if he doesn't nap properly in the daytime. There has been the odd occasion where we have had to use these tools and they have all worked without fail!

It's been almost four months since we reached out to Julia and things are so much better. We have a very happy little boy who is well rested and able to self-settle with no fuss (he is slowly becoming a child who is able to close his eyes and sleep just about anywhere now too, which I never thought I would see...). We have also noticed things such as him eating far better at mealtimes and drinking more water rather than relying on Mummy! The transformation has been incredible. I expected (hoped!) to see some improvement in his sleep, but did not expect it to be quite successful as this. 

I would not hesitate to use Julia again in the future and highly recommend her as a Sleep Consultant (although I truly believe she is some sort of magician!). It might sound extreme, but it's really improved our lives. You truly realise the importance of sleep when you aren't getting any! Julia, we cannot thank you enough!

Emma Howe – Mother to Thomas aged 11 months

Before we were introduced to Julia, I fell firmly into the ‘It’s really not that bad and I’m totally coping’ category of self-delusion. To be honest, in my mind it wasn’t that bad- I had a baby that fell asleep pretty easily and slept for most of the night. However, that ‘easy’ falling asleep meant being breastfed to sleep in her room, then coming downstairs to spend the evening being held in my arms and then taken up into my bed to co-sleep and fed back to sleep up to five times a night. This being my second baby, I was convinced that there was no way that I could get her to do anything else, as I was so worried about her disrupting my five year old’s sleep if she cried in the night. 

From the first call with Julia, I felt better. She was so calm and convinced that she would be able to help us, but I must admit that I did feel doubtful that it was going to work with us. Sure, she had helped people before, but never my baby, who had known nothing but cosleeping and breastfeeding pretty much since she was born. We’d tried some other methods before, and nothing really seemed to make much difference, and I was also anxious about making Bea unhappy or scared of being in her bed with more traditional ‘Cry it Out’ methods.

Without question, Julia has changed my family’s life. From the very first night, I haven’t had to go into Bea’s room once and she has successfully slept for around 12 hours for the last two weeks all by herself! I still can’t quite believe it, particularly as none of it seemed especially hard. The method was clear and easy to follow, and importantly to me, did not involve Bea being left to cry by herself for long periods of time. We are now able to put her down to sleep, leave the room, and she settles down within a few minutes. Both my husband and I have followed the plan together, meaning that bedtime is no longer solely my domain, as she is also no longer breastfed to sleep, nor is she feeding in the night at all.

As I said, I didn’t truly believe that this was going to work for us, but I can say it has. Whilst we still have some work to do with Bea’s naps, the bedtimes are a revelation. They are not stressful, or upsetting for anyone and I recently stayed at my mum’s house, where Bea has never slept before. We followed the same routine that we do at home, and once again, she slept for 12 hours! 

If you are considering using Julia’s services, then I can wholeheartedly recommend them. She made us feel comfortable, never judged any slip ups, and has a totally realistic approach that actually works!!! We now have a set bedtime routine, our evenings back, and more importantly two beautiful little girls who are sleeping independently and happily. Thank you Julia

Suzi Robertson – Mother to Bea aged 12 months

We contacted Julia when our previously sleepy newborn hit the 4 month sleep regression. The sleep regression hit us hard as our baby pretty much slept through from 6 weeks only to suddenly not want to sleep at all from around 4 months. Julia gave us great professional advice and not only told us what to do, she told us why we were doing it, which was really helpful and made us realise that all our hard work would pay off!

Julia was always on hand to answer any questions to make sure we stayed on track and as quickly as our baby turned from a good sleeper to a bad, Julia helped us create a routine that meant that our baby is now sleeping through again! We cannot thank Julia enough for her professional help and also incredibly kind words throughout. We would highly recommend her to help you with any baby sleep queries she really is a sleep wizard!  

Kimberley Downes– Mother to Harrison aged 4.5 months

Oliver was being breastfed to sleep at night, waking at 5/5:30am each morning and refusing daytime naps (after a hopeless 40mins spent shushing and rocking him to sleep).

After completing the initial questionnaire I messaged Julia to apologise for all mu contradictory answers and the fact that there was no clear pattern to Oliver’s sleep habits because no two days were ever the same – some days he did sleep well!

She was so quick to reply that nothing I had written in the questionnaire phased her and it all sounded very familiar for his age and I was instantly put at ease.

Julia was very confident that the plan would work for Oliver, although we trusted her it felt so hard to believe that in less that two weeks we would have a baby that slept 7-7 and even more so that we would just lie him in his cot and he would self-settle to sleep.  So although we felt confident in Julia’s abilities we still had an element of doubt that our feisty little baby would comply!

The daily check-ins on our progress were great, it really felt like she was going through this with us and reassured us that we were doing things right.

We have an almost 1 year old who now sleeps 7-7 with 2 x naps during the day and self-settles himself.

We’re thrilled!  It has actually changed our days, I’m now able to plan so much better, Oliver no longer disturbs my older son in the mornings and everyone feels well rested

Georgina Monelle – Mother to Oliver 11 months.