How did we get here? Why I became a sleep consultant.

My journey in sleep consulting began in the fall of 2018, when I gave birth to my son Paxton. Everyone had of course made it clear to me that sleep would likely be slim to none in the early days of motherhood, and quite frankly I was annoyed at all the negativity being spewed upon me during what was supposed to be a happy and exciting time in my life! When I first heard of a sleep consultant, I laughed that people were so desperate that they would actually pay someone to help! How hard could it be? I figured I would just lay the kid down in the crib, close the door, and soon he'd be off to dreamland. Naptime and bedtime would be when I wanted them to be! Since you're probably a parent, you can probably already see how naive I was to how much my sleep schedule would be affected. Saying I was naive is being polite... I was CLUELESS. At the time, though, I didn't think I was clueless. "I barely sleep now, anyway" was my comeback whenever someone gave me "the warning". I figured that since I was already waking often during the night for whatever reason, taking care of a newborn baby during those wakes was no biggie. Before anyone else says it: HA HA HA!!! Hilarious that I thought my frequent wakings (which in context now were actually infrequent) would coincide with my baby's. As if the pain of a c-section, severe postpartum anxiety and depression, and my husband only having 2 weeks off to help weren't enough, now I was sleeping approximately 1-3 hours a night, and I WAS STRUGGLING. Before baby, sleep was my THING! I loved to sleep, I looked forward to getting off work and going to bed by 7:30, and some weekends I'd even sleep in until noon like an angsty 16 year old girl, moaning and groaning if anyone dared disturb me before I was ready to get up. Basically, having a baby was not conducive with my prior habits and it was having a major negative impact on my quality of life and mental health. Do not get me wrong, I loved the crap out of my son and I did not ever once regret bringing him into this world, but I had to figure something out so we could both start sleeping long, peaceful stretches. My sanity literally depended on it.

I began by going to the end of the internet researching baby sleep- age appropriate wake windows, sleep associations, ideal sleep environment, you name it, I was scouring article after article. When my son was 4.5 months old, I finally felt brave enough to sleep train. I would plan for a day to start and then chicken out almost every week. Nobody wants to hear their baby cry! But one night when I was completely exhausted and in tears, I decided to bite the bullet. I will admit I did it in an unconventional manner- by retreating to the basement with a bottle of wine and Netflix, and only allowing myself to check the monitor every 20 minutes (Disclaimer: I do not recommend this unless someone else is in the home who is not drinking!) I convinced myself that he would be crying for hours on end and this would never work, ready to accept a life of zero sleep until he was 25. Well, I am glad to report that he stopped crying after 28 minutes! And even during the crying, he had lulls where he just kinda cooed and fussed a bit. The anxiety leading up to sleep training was 1000 times worse than actually going through with it. I was amazed. I was ecstatic. I was READY FOR BED!! The first night he woke up one time and cried very briefly. After that, things just got better. I could not fully comprehend how rewarding sleep training could be until I actually did it and saw extreme success. As the days and months passed, I saw many of my friends, acquaintances, and even strangers begging for help and advice on how to get their child to go the heck to sleep! I decided I was going to make it my life's goal to help families get the sleep they were craving and enrolled in a sleep consultant certification course.

It wasn't cheap or easy, and it took me a lot longer than I had hoped since I had a young toddler at home with me 24/7, but I finally completed the course. I thought I knew a lot about sleep training prior to becoming certified, but I must say that there were things I learned during my certification that never even crossed my mind. I absolutely understand now why people hire sleep consultants to help- we are armed with the information about infant and toddler sleep that most people don't even consider. We spend hours on end analyzing your child's habits, temperament, environment and schedule (among many other things) in order to bring you a completely custom and personalized sleep plan. We become involved with your family to the point where we are fully invested in getting your child on a healthy sleep schedule. I personally can say I will not quit on a client until I know they are completely satisfied with their baby's sleep, even if it means logging extra hours and being in contact all day and all night. I PERSONALLY know the struggle of becoming a mom and kissing my sweet, precious sleep 'goodbye'. It helps me to connect with all of my clients (and their babies!) on an extremely personal level. There is no greater feeling for me than to hear someone say "Thank you, we are all sleeping again!" I don't pretend to know it all but I do know that getting adequate rest is essential for a happy, healthy life- and I look forward every day to helping families get the sleep they deserve!