“It was frustrating, it made me feel miserable. I felt like there was never an end. There was no hope. I’d lost myself and I didn’t recognise myself anymore.”
New mum Chantelle Angel, 31, was tortured by sleep deprivation for eight months at what should have been one of the happiest times of her life.
During his first few months, the Hampstead mum's son Joshua, now 3, would wake up frequently throughout the night, keeping her from sleeping.
Describing the physical and emotional toll this took on her, she said: “It’s like if you were to go out every night, get back at four, be at work for six, on repeat, for eight months. You would just, you would shut down. Right?
“I'd go to bed every evening with anxiety filled up to the brim. Am I going to get one hour [sleep]? Am I going to get two hours?”
The vicious cycle of tiredness began to take its toll on not only her, but her relationships with those she was closest to.
Chantelle, a former Montessori teacher, said: “I felt that my husband was going out to work every day, and that he needed to sleep. I felt that looking after the baby was my job.
“He was the one that was providing. If I'm sleep deprived, I'm just going to be sleep deprived. We're not relying on me at that point to put a roof over our head. So, I did whatever I could. But, at the same time, I started to feel resentful that he's sleeping, and I'm not.”
Chantelle felt that she could not, physically or mentally, turn to friends for advice.
“I think I isolated myself from a lot of friends, because I didn't have the energy to see or speak to them," she said.
"It was just about survival. That sounds a crazy concept. But, day in, day out this child is feeding off you, needing you, needing everything, and you're so exhausted, and you just have to keep going.”
After trying what felt like every possible measure over the course of eight months to help their son get to sleep, Chantelle and her husband, “scrapped up" money to pay a sleep consultant.
Within two days of the family visiting the sleep trainer, her son began sleeping regularly. “My life just instantly transformed," said Chantelle. "Within a few nights, I was myself again.”
Until visiting a sleep consultant, Chantelle and her husband had no support – a feeling she wants no parent to have.
Drawing inspiration from her struggles, Chantelle is now a Montessori sleep consultant. She helps children between 6 months and 7-years-old develop regular sleeping patterns within two weeks using natural and gentle training.
Her business, Dreaming Angels, was founded out of the desire to help provide parents the support she did not have. Chantelle now works with businesses like Facebook to offer a hand to parents who find themselves in the situation she was three years ago.
She added: “I’ve built my business on unlimited support […and…] I'm not going away until the problem is resolved.”
Visit www.dreamingangels.co.uk for more information.
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