Okay, I have actually been dying for an update.
You've been talking earlier in the week about how your smallest daughter, Lola or I fondly call her Lola Derby. You've been talking about her being an absolute nightmare in your bed.
No, nothing's changed. So Lola's four for anyone who's not familiar. So at nighttime she gets into my bed every night. We're at the point now where I say good night to her and I'll be like, see you in the morning's sweetheart, and I give your a little kiss, and she goes na, mummy, see you soon, and she just she gets up at midnight, wanders through the dark, climbs into my bed and then she sleeps horizontally across it. And to the point now where Matt gets out and he goes and sleeps in.
The spare room.
It also sounds so calculated and evil, like see you soon, Like she knows. She's like, I'm not gonna wait for a nightmare or I'm not gonna wait to wake up.
I'm just gonna literally like I'll pretend to go to sleep for ten minutes.
And it's every single night clockwork. My child's body clock is midnight mum's room.
Well, you have been talking about this.
I mean you and I have been friends for a very long time, and this has been an.
Issue from as long as I can remember.
And recently I saw a pediatrician online.
His name is doctor Gollye, and he was going pretty viral for his sleep technique.
He says he's a sleep expert for like unsettled babies and really helping distraught families like yourself.
I'm not restraught, I'm just tired.
So I've got him on the phone because I figure doctor Gollie is going to be able to help you where I can't.
Doctor Gollie, welcome to the pickup.
Thank you so much for having me.
Now you're going viral for this camp out method, can you explain.
What this is?
It's really, to say, not a rip off the band aid method. It's a slow way of getting kids to sleep through the night in their own room. If the issue is they have created a little bit of a shall we say, unhealthy or unwarranted in Laura's case, attachment.
To mum or dad or both, I mean feeling personally victimized here unhealthy also, But okay, how does this work?
Because we've tried.
We've tried a few different things, and like, what do you tried, Laura telling her to stay in her own bed.
Locking her in there the pad lot, She just finds.
A way back.
It doesn't matter where I am, because like, I'll move. I don't always sleep in my own bed. Sometimes I sleep in the spare room. She's just like I find you, and she comes through the night and then I hear a little footsteps down the hallway and there she is, like a dementor, next to the bed in the dark.
I think the really important thing to note is that if it's not a problem for you, it's the problem. You don't want this, But for all your listeners, if it's not a problem, and if you kind of like it, and there a lot of parents you say to me, you know, this is such a short period of time when the kids know they're young, and they're cute and cuddly and their little koalas, and I really want that, I love that. Then there's absolutely nothing I'm healthy about it.
It's not I don't want anyone to feel like they have to make this change if they're really happy with co sleeping or kids coming into your night in the middle of the night. It's absolutely totally fine. It's healthy, not an issue. But if you, Madie, want your own bed, your own space without kids coming in the middle of the night, it is definitely something you can fix.
Yeah, I would say when she was younger, because she used to be a really good sleeper, and so when she was younger, it didn't bother us, like we were quite happy to have her climb in the bed and she'd sleep between us. But now that she's older, she just kind of motors around and so someone ends up getting kicked in the back or kicked in the side.
But this method that you're speaking of, the camp out method, I mean Bridge shown me a little bit about it, and I have my questions because I'm not convinced it's going to work in our household.
What are you doing in the camp out method? Where does Laura start?
So it takes anywhere from one week to four weeks, depending on how quickly you want to actually maneuver this method. But essentially you put Lolly in her bedroom, in her bed where you intend for her to sleep the way you're currently doing it. But then at the same time you go to bed in the same room, so you actually move a single mattress into her room, and you both sleep through the night together in that same room,
but in separate beds. And the summary of the method is that ever so slowly you move that mattress closer and closer to the door, eventually on the other side of the door in the hallway, and then again you inch it every night or two further away until eventually it's in the corridor, and then magically just returned to your own bedroom.
Okay, my fear is that this is an absolute stitch up, and we will both be sleeping in a trundle bed in the hallway. That's what I think it's gonna happen. She will just come, she will just come to me. She'll get out of her bed and walk across the room.
Do you think this is a full proof method, doctor Gollie?
Like, do you think obviously Laura might be at you said two to four weeks, she might be at the full week.
You might edge up the hallway for a month, Laura.
But do you think that this is full proof that any child, any relationship with a parent, this can.
Work for them.
There's no such thing as foolproof when it comes to pediatrics. But the more you set yourself up for success, the more likely you are to succeed. So we have to sort of unpick what it is with all. Is she worried about something in particular? Is there a dog barking? Is something waking her making her home settled? Is it just the temperature change that happens at midnight and that's
why she's waking up? You know, we can use positive reinforcements, so it might be a reward chart that you build up towards a gift or an experience with mum and Dad and Malie, whatever it may be. It's almost like you have to have the stars aligned and then you can implement the camping out method if you need to.
But she's probably just seeking that connection, that reassurance that mummy's close by, the other thing that you know, as a pediatrician, I can't help but think of is especially if you notice when she's coming into your bed at nighttime and she's tossing and turning, do we actually have a sleep problem? Like do we need to explore her sleep and maybe her airway. There's so many different parts to this puzzle.
Have you actually about Laura, Like genuinely.
Have you asked her why she comes in, Like, have you tried to get to the bottom of like if she's hot, is she having nightmares or terrors?
Or does she just want to.
Be with you?
She just says she just wants to be cuddled. She wants to be in bed with us and have a cuddle.
So could you get one of those huge pill like a pregnancy pillow, like one of those ones that wrap surround her or something.
Well, I think that we can give this a go, Laura.
I think you need to put what doctor Gollie has said into practice.
This is for yourself. I'm not doing it for me. I'm not doing it for the content.
I'm doing it purely because I want to help you have a better night sleep and I will.
Be the sacrificial am.
Oh.
Look, we'll report back and see how this works.
You can throw Maddie under the bus, so you can do it.
Nah, she doesn't want a dad, She only wants me. Yeah.
She screams at him get out of my room and time if he goes. So she's definitely got some mad parental preference happenings.
Like you need to make an appointment to come and see.
Me all right.
Well, thank you so much for joining the show. I appreciate the help. I need all of it
Anytime.