I am so happy I contacted Mary! I wish I had done it sooner. My baby was almost 1 year old when I was so desperate for some guidance. I contacted Mary and I immediately felt like my son and I were in good hands. We spoke on the phone and then set up an appointment for her to come to my house the following week. She spoke with me for an hour or so and hear what sleep training methods I was using already. She was extremely knowledgeable and had me tweak some things with my baby's sleeping routine. Within 2 days my son was going down for two naps in his crib. Naps were tough for him. He had never done that before! He began to reach for his crib to show me he was ready for bed. :) now he sleeps 1-2 hours twice a day. Mary came to my house almost 2 months ago. My son has been a terrific sleeper ever since then. If I could go back in time I would have called Mary so much sooner. read more

We had Mary help us with both our children, and both times she was really a lifesaver! After having so much success with our first child, we called her in to help as soon as the new baby needed some help getting to sleep. I love the in-home consultation she provides. But honestly, I got so much more out of our sleep consultations with Mary than just a good night sleep. I have leveraged her techniques to solve other challenges we were having - e.g. when it was a battle to get my toddler dressed every morning. So not only am I now a well rested mother, I am better equipped to deal with the many challenges of raising tiny humans. read more

I have "been with" Mary for 6 years. She helped with my second daughter at 9 months old, predicated her every behavior, and now she still sleeps 12 hours per night (almost 7 years old). Mary has recently helped with my new baby. We started at 6 months and it took 2 days to get him sleep trained and stop asking for nursing at all hours of the night. She has such a gentle way about her and really listens to our needs. Our baby is 19 months and sleeps 11 hours per night with no issues. She taught us that getting kids to sleep on their own is a learned skill. It might be challenging for a week or two but it's something they'll use for the rest of their life! read more

It's 3am. Your infant child is resisting sleep and the doubts start flowing freely in your mind: was it something we did different tonight? Is it a regression? Is she teething? What can we do to get an hour of sleep? Should we try something new or stay consistent? Should we read another book that tells us we're "doing it wrong?" These are totally normal thoughts as a parent. It can be very straining to handle this level of doubt and stress when trying to teach your child healthy sleep habits - even if you were getting a full night's rest. After months of struggling with a nap and sleep routine, we decided to find a Sleep Coach. Thankfully, we found Mary! She visited our home and got to know us and our children - listening and patiently sharing with us along the way. She made us feel empowered to be good parents without the guilt and was our foundation to remain consistent when things got tough or our children went through a teething or developmental stage that impacted their sleep. A few years later we can now look back and point to that moment we hired Mary as our Sleep Coach as THE turn-around moment for healthy sleep for our entire family. We even hired her again for our second child last year and had even better results. I highly recommend calling her immediately to schedule an appointment - your well-rested child (and you) will look back on that decision fondly! read more

Mary worked wonders on training our 5 month old daughter to sleep better. I was struggling putting her down to sleep and getting her to sleep more than 2 hours at a time. I was so tired and Mary came up with a great plan catered to our daughter's age and personality. I honestly wasn't sure anything would help, but her advice paid off and we're both getting more sleep which has been a life saver. I highly recommend Mary to the sleep deprived parents out there. read more

My husband and I contacted Mary in desperation after 4+ months of our daughter (then 18-months, now 20-months) waking up multiple times in the night, getting up very early, and usually ending up in our bed at 3 am. Our daughter was not getting what she needed in terms of sleep, and I was personally at my wit's end with sleep-deprivation. Most of the books we were turning to dealt with newborns and not the issues of an old infant/toddler that we were suddenly seeing, and we were overwhelmed with information. Enter Mary: She was patient, calm, and caring throughout the entire process, and my husband and I felt that she listened to us and took our daughter's needs and personality into account when creating a sleep plan for us; she didn't just give us a standard one-size-fits-all plan but rather worked with our family's needs. Within 2 nights, our daughter was already sleeping much better, and within 1 1/2-2 weeks, she was sleeping 11 hours through the night and taking a solid nap as well. It was so helpful to have an experienced coach come in and tell us exactly what to do rather than us trying to make sense of all the suggestions in books and on the internet. We cannot thank Mary enough for the support and the results we saw. She was always available for us, and we are so pleased with how quickly our daughter adjusted to Mary's plan. Thank you for giving us back our healthy sleeper! read more

Our son began as an great sleeper, but when he was about 1.5 years old he became sick. Practically overnight we became "accidental co-sleepers." After a year of co-sleeping (actually a year of half sleep!), everyone's sleep cycle centered around our sons. It was time to take control of the situation and we decided to call a sleep coach. We had read every sleep book out there, but with both of us working full time we needed someone who would cater to our family's situation. This is where Mary comes in. Mary came to our home for about an 1.5 hour consultation. She is non judgmental and a great listener. She listened to our concerns, checked out our son's nursery and then offered a plan catered to us. The most invaluable part of this process was not the consultation, but the daily communication with Mary. This is where the magic happens! We would debrief the previous night's events- what went well and what did not and Mary would offer her coaching advice. Her wealth of knowledge and positive feedback encouraged and motivated us to work through this (somewhat challenging) process each day. As our son successfully progressed through this process, as did our confidence. Mary guided us each step of the way. Our son showed success within the first few weeks of the new routine. However, in our case, with consistency in the routine, the best results were seen about six weeks out. Each night it just became easier and more familiar for everyone. Currently, we are at the point that when it's time for bedtime one of us takes him upstairs to his room, gives final hugs and kisses and he goes right into his crib. We say good night, turn off the light and walk out the door. Night night! Worth every single penny we spent. If you are considering a sleep coach for your child, I highly recommend Mary. Give her a call. You will not be disappointed. read more

I contacted Mary when my son was 6 months old. He was waking up every 1-2 hours and would scream bloody murder no matter what we tried to get him to sleep. Mary met with us at home, for two hours. She made an effort to get to know us and our son, and formulated a plan. Once we had the plan emailed to us, I set to work. Mary was was wonderfully supportive, setting up a time every day (in the beginning) to talk about the night before. Now our son sleeps 12 hours a night, no crying, and two good naps a day. My husband raves about how much nicer I am now I actually get sleep!! He just turned one and I can still email Mary whenever I have questions or concerns! She is awesome and I highly recommend her. read more

I hired Mary for a newborn in Home consult in hopes of gaining information to implement strategies for my newborn to avoid the cry it out sleep training down the road. She talked to us for an hour about things that were not helpful in addressing our concerns. She gave us a few pieces of paper with information I have read on every sleep training website out there. I had a few questions in the weeks after since we really got nothing out of the meeting. Mary did not respond for a very long time. After my third email, she didn't respond at all. I would understand more if she responded and said "you need to buy another package", etc. or something but just to ignore me is very unprofessional. I ended up joining a sleep training group on FB and had to sleep train my 5 month old myself since I received 0 help from Mary. Complete waste of a lot of money. read more

We heard about Mary through our pediatrician and feel very lucky to have found her. She visited our home to really get acquainted with our son and his environment. We appreciated the customized routine she came up with after listening to our concerns, and having daily phone calls was invaluable for my wife and I to work through some of our doubts and concerns. She has great patience and it's clear she cares about the kids and families she works with. read more

Working with Mary helped me figure out how to get my little girl to start sleeping 11-12 hours consistently. As a working mom, being able to go to work without dark circles and with focus is a pretty amazing accomplishment. It's also nice to have someone to call and ask questions as my little girl grows and her patterns change. Can't recommend Mary highly enough! read more

I can't say enough good things about Mary and what she has done for our family. Getting our little guy to sleep through the night has been the most emotional and challenging obstacle we have had to face. You can tell right from the get go that she loves children, that they are her passion. She was so helpful and was always keeping in contact with us to check on our process. She is so warm and understanding... which during this stressful time was a huge comfort. I would recommend Mary to anyone looking for help in getting their little ones to sleep at night. And I can't thank Mary enough for what she has done for our family! read more

Thanks to Mary I am able to write this in a non-sleep-deprived state! I'm really sensitive to the level of trust and the connection with my baby and the thought of any "sleep training" was very frightening. Mary came to our house and guided my husband and I in a simple and easy to understand method for how to get our baby girl to sleep better and reduce her night wakings all in a VERY gentle way that involved zero crying or abandonment. It's obvious that Mary has years of experience with children and is very sensitive to their needs. I would recommend her highly for anyone else who is walking around like the daytime zombie that I used to be!!! read more

Mary is a true professional. She helped me throughout the whole journey And wAs always there for me with emails. I would definitely recommend Mary to everyone, she is a gem! read more

My daughter had major sleep difficulties from birth. She was always had to get to sleep and was up every 2-3 hours. Her sleep was unpredictable and inconsistent. My husband and I had made sleep a priority from birth, she was our second and we knew how important sleep is for babies. Unfortunately, she fought us on every step of the way and by 6 months old, she was still not sleeping and we had tried everything. When we tried sleep training, she cried for 1-2 hours for each nap and at bedtime, no mater what. After a week, we gave up and I called Mary desperate for help. She came to our house and met my daughter, which is huge to me. Our baby is easy going and independent and I think that's part of the reason sleep training has been so difficult for us. Mary helped me realize that. Mary also taught me that the bedtime routine that I was doing every night was missing a few things. She helped me see that even though I had read all of the blogs, and the books, and followed her doctors 'cry it out' advice that she is an individual and you don't have to do everything exactly according to textbook. Taking to her every day while going through the sleep coaching was also a life saver for me. I've learned so much about my little one and although we have had 2 ear infections and her first 2 teeth during this sleep coaching journey, she's sleeping! As soon as she started feeling better, she started sleeping again all on her own. It's nothing short of a miracle! Thank you so much Mary! read more

We had a great experience with Mary! Our little lady was a bad sleeper since day one. Mary gave us good guidelines and strategies to follow and most of all hope and reassurance to two very tired first time parents. She has also always been available for follow up emails and questions. Highly recommend! read more

If I could give Mary 10 stars I would! Talk about a life saver! Mary was the answer to my severe sleep deprived prayers. The result has felt like a Christmas miracle and certainly was the VERY best Christmas gift this year. My daughter (second child) was just like my first (much to my dismay) in the sleep department. She was waking 8-12 times a night and had to be held for all of her naps. At first it wasn't a problem and actually was lovely to be close but when she turned 3 months she was waking all the time and by 4 months she was fighting the sleep crutches I had come to depend on (rocking and nursing). It was taking up to 3 hours to get her to sleep sometimes only to have her wake an hour later. I was exhausted and angry most of the time. My son was the same and I took him to a sleep clinic TWICE in Australia. They helped me a lot but I did not trust myself to be able to carry out the same type of sleep coaching on my own without support. And my daughter didn't like the same things my son liked in terms of comfort. So long story short I called Mary and even just knowing I had an appointment with her set my mind at ease. She is wonderfully calm, kind, was a montessori teacher, and best of all she knows and incorporates RIE philosophy (look it up - it's awesome). She came to my house, answered all my questions, helped me develop a plan, filled me with confidence, helped me reframe my thinking about my daughter learning to sleep, and supported me every step of the way. Every part of the plan was gentle, kind, and respectful which was my number one priority. I would never do a cry it out method. I started in less than ideal circumstances (my baby was sick, it was the holidays and we were at grandma's house rather than at our familiar home). But I could not take it anymore and neither could she - she was so frustrated and so ready to sleep independently. She was 5 1/2 months old and I knew it was time to trust her. I began on 12/23 in the evening. It took 45 minutes that first night to help her sleep on her own and since then it has been amazing. It took less than a week for her to learn to sleep independently for her naps and night sleeps. She now wakes 1-2 times a night to nurse and has 3 naps a day, usually an hour or more each time. What a blessing for her and for me. I love that I have been able to give my baby the lovely gift of falling asleep peacefully. Another wonderful benefit is that I am now more rested and less snappy and have more time for my wonderful three year old son. I have missed spending time with him so much and now I can again! Mary is so incredible! I have already recommended her to all my very sleep deprived mama friends. Thank you for everything Mary, I cannot thank you enough for helping our family! read more

We hired Mary when my son was 13months old. He was still waking a couple times a night and not taking naps consistently. My husband and I were exhausted and our baby was exhausted. Mary set us up with a sleep training plan as well as a nap plan. I truly believe her knowledge and guidance is priceless. Mary provided the support I needed to help me understand the process and basically "held my hand" through phone conversations for the first week. Our son slept through the night within the first few days of training and has been ever since. Mary is the BEST!!! read more

Mary was a huge help. We were having trouble getting our baby to sleep through the night. It caused us much stress and anxiety. We reached out to her and she gave us great advice. After a few days, our son was sleeping, which obviously was a huge stress relief for us. Not only was her coaching helpful and effective, she is very kind and caring, which helped give us the confidence we needed to implement these strategies to get our son to sleep through the night. We highly recommend Mary! read more

I'm almost speechless when it comes to how to say how grateful I am for Mary. She helped us get our 6 month old to sleep 7p-7a in his crib! He was previously in our bed and would not be put down b/c wanted to nurse ALL.NIGHT.LONG! this went on for months and I just couldn't do it anymore. Mary was beyond professional and instantly made me feel at ease. I interviewed about 3-4 sleep coaches and I'm so glad my instincts were right. Mary made me feel confident and that I was the one in control. I never felt like the clock was ticking when we talked or that she was marking a check in a box on how many emails or calls were made. It took 2 nights and Gabriel was sleeping IN HIS crib from 7-7. Even if he does wake, I feel totally confident now to know how to deal with the situation. Mary is just so understanding and calming. She just 'gets it"!! She understands babies and children and family dynamics. i could go on and on about her! She comes with my highest of recommendations! read more

Mary Riggs helped us when we needed it most. She provided wonderful in-home counsel and left us with great direction on what to do next for our little one. And when we had questions beyond her visit, she is always happy to provide us with answers. Can't recommend her enough for you tired and weary parents out there! There is some semblance of much-needed shuteye in your future for you and your baby with Mary Riggs in your corner! read more

Being able to sit down, and take the time to write this review is a miracle in itself! We found Mary through our pediatrician, who suggested we try a sleep coach for our daughter. I first called Mary when S was 4 months old. Much to my surprise, Mary did not rush to make an appointment, (which I would have taken immediately), rather she talked to me for a long time, offered suggestions, and gently told me that at 4 moths S was a little young for sleep training. Mary indicated that if at 6 months we were still in need, she would gladly assist us. Six months rolled around and I was co-sleeping and not getting any sleep! Mary came to the house and met with us and together we developed a plan. She was respectful of our needs and very patient with us during the process. I spoke to a number of sleep coaches, none of whom make the initial visit to the home, rather they do the consultation via Skype. For me, it was essential that the sleep coach meet with us, see the room, and have some interaction with the baby. Mary was attentive and responsive, always available via text, email and phone. We were in constant communication for many days, and gradually we tapered off. It was not an easy process, but one that was made manageable thanks to Marys support. I have recommended her to other friends, and thanks to Mary and her knowledge S sleeps from 6p-6a and takes 2 solid naps every day! We are a MUCH happier household now! read more

If you are seeking a gentle sleep coach, I highly recommend Mary. My husband and I have 2 sons: 2.5 years old and 9 months old. I laid down with my 2.5 year old son to put him to sleep. My husband used a different technique - he would sit next to his bed. My 9 month old would wake up multiple times during the night and I would nurse him to sleep. Mary came to our home to observe the conditions in which the boys slept and played. Mary also had a long consultation with us. Mary created a schedule which was tailored to our particular situation. After the session with Mary, we are now able to put our 9 month old (now 10 month old) to sleep in the crib while awake. He still takes ~30-45 minutes to fall asleep while we are in the room. We are working on gradually leaving the room. When he wakes up at night, we are able to pat him back to sleep rather than nurse him. Surprisingly, while watching us sleep train our younger son, our older son got sleep trained as well. It hardly took any effort on our part. He saw and clearly understood what we were trying to achieve with our younger son, and in a few days, our older son laid in bed and closed his eyes after we read him his books. This was truly unexpected. With our younger son, we are still trying to have him fall asleep on his own. Our biggest obstacle is that the boys share a room so it makes it very challenging for both boys to go to sleep at the same time. Furthermore, we have a nanny. Though one can communicate the method to the nanny, it is very difficult to have the nanny employ the exact same techniques that we employ. This makes it more challenging for our boys to be sleep trained, especially the younger boy. Though we do not have the textbook perfect sleeping boys, we made great improvements and are happy with the direction we are going in. Mary provided us with the tools and knowledge. Despite our challenges and obstacles, Mary was very supportive. She was traveling during our training sessions and yet, she remained available through email and phone. In sum, if you are seeking a gentle sleep coach who will assess your needs on an individual basis (not cookie cutter) and be understanding of, and work with, your challenges, Mary is an excellent choice. The outcome is based upon many factors. We do not have the perfect sleeping boys, yet we are happy with the end product. Once we understood Mary's techniques, we opted to modify Mary's techniques as we saw fit. read more

We hired Mary to help us sleep coach our little 6 month old baby. Mary was simply terrific. She came to our home and advised us on how to set up the nursery best for sleep, and walked us through the process. When we started, Mary offered us step-by-step guidance as to how to start sleep coaching our baby, provided us support every day as we discussed the previous night's events, and offered us a plan for the next night. It has been transformative! Our baby used to wake up every 1-3 hours and it would take just as long to get her back to sleep...we were so exhausted and our little one wasn't getting enough sleep either. The first night we started sleep coaching her with Mary's guidance, our baby slept all night....OMG! how transformative. She now either sleeps all night or wakes up once to feed as she is growing so fast, but goes back to sleep within a minute or so after we finish feeding her. Thank you Mary. We will call you again as our baby keeps developing and changes in her sleeping might occur. We can't recommend Mary enough! Sandra and Jeff read more

This review is long overdue! Last year my 3 year old son decided to give up his binkies. Before this, he was a good sleeper. After this decision, he would not sleep or take the binkies back. Thanks to Mary we were able to use a technique called "Fading". She came to our house and spent a good amount of time with us before decided which technique would beat suit out situation. She also coached us through this and gave us moral support. She made herself available for follow up calls as well. Mary is an expert in her field and is such a sweet compassionate person! We highly recommend her. read more

I can not say enough about Mary, she gave us our lives back. Our daughter was never the best sleeper, she would usually go down around 8:30 wake up about 4 have a bottle then sleep until 7. Naps were inconsistent and short when they happened at all, we had to trick her into them. We were surviving hoping she would grow out of it until our daughter got sick around 13 months. We were in the hospital for 3 weeks with constant sleep interruptions. When we finally got to come home she wouldn't sleep at all. She had to be able to see us, and after two completely sleepless nights ended up sleeping in our bed. We did this for about a week, but I was still not getting any sleep, concerned about her rolling off the bed, or me rolling on top of her. Finally we called Mary. Mary came to our house discussed what was happening now, what the previous normal was and offered up suggestions to help. The results were amazing, not instantaneous, it takes a few days to really kick in then another week or so of consistency to become the new normal. But it works, the best part is Mary is there via phone to discuss the previous night, she knows all the tricks these little ones try to pull and how to keep you on the path to sleep - real sleep. I am happy to say that our daughter sleeps 11+ hours at night and takes two 90 minute naps a day. She knows when she is tired, she walks towards her room and says bye while pointing to her crib. Its not a game of luck anymore to get her to sleep. I highly recommend Mary, if you are even considering a sleep coach you probably need it more than you think. We are all a lot happier and better rested now. Thank you Mary!!! read more

I don't write reviews very often but I had to share how happy I am with Mary. She was so calm and supportive throughout our 3 week adventure in sleep training. We tried a few different methods before we had any success and Mary was there every step of the way. She helped us with a nap schedule and how to sleep through the night. You have to think of her services as an investment. I spent 8 months not sleeping more than 2 hour in a row, you can't put a price tag on rest and sweet dreams. read more

When you find yourself desperate to get sleep but not wanting to just shut the door and let your kid cry it out - Mary is truly the best resource out there! My daughter was 8 months old and I had just gone back to work and was a walking zombie. She was taking hours to get to sleep, only to wake all night long, nursing constantly and nothing I seemed to do made a difference. Enter Mary :) After coming to our home to meet our daughter she created a detailed plan that kept my sensitivities to doing this as gentle as possible in mind. If I'm being honest, I really didn't think this was going to work. My girl is HARD and can outlast me any day or night and I figured there was no way I was going to be able to teach her how to sleep on her own with minimal crying. I was so wrong. The first night was tough, but it truly just got easier and easier. After night 3 my daughter went down in her crib without so much as a fuss and slept hours on her own. Within two weeks she was sleeping through the night with no more night nursings and minimal, if any, wakings. We've gone through many sleep regressions and developmental milestones over the last year since we started training, but through it all as long as we stayed true to the routine and guidelines that Mary set for us, sleep has been night and day different in our house! I highly recommend Mary to anyone that is truly looking to teach their child how to sleep and set up a good sleep routine in your home. The coaching, resources and best of all, support, she provides are truly priceless read more

Wow! I can't recommend Mary enough. We first spoke with her when our daughter was around 4.5 months old. We weren't sleeping at all and needed help. Mary recommended we wait until she was around 6 months old so that the sleep training would work the best. She helped get over a number of hurdles: getting the baby out of the swaddle, teaching her to fall asleep on her own, cutting out night feedings, and eventually getting her to sleep all through the night. Mary was always reassuring and helped us feel confident in our decisions. She met with us at our home to go over all our daughter's details and then we spoke on the phone every morning to discuss the previous night. I found the phone calls to be extremely helpful since I needed the reassurance that we were on the right track and that our baby was not doing anything out of the ordinary. Overall, I would hire Mary again in a heartbeat. Our daughter has been sleeping through the night for over 2 months now and we couldn't be happier. Thank you again Mary!! read more

This review is for Mary Riggs. As our son was approaching 9 months of age, he would wake up several times, and when I went in to comfort him, it would escalate the situation. When he did calm down, the whole process would start all over again when I tried to put him back in his crib. When I told this to our pediatrician, he told me to stop going in, and that he needed to learn to "self-soothe." I was extremely uncomfortable with this advice. I knew there was nothing medically wrong with my son, but the thought of ignoring him at night did not sound like a sound solution to me. I decided to contact Mary Riggs, and I am so glad I did! She does not promise a change in 3 days, like some of the cry it out techniques, but her techniques are extremely effective, and involve responding to your child in a consistent manner. I was also still breastfeeding at night, and the wonderful thing is that her sleep coach method helped him sleep, while allowing him to still feed once at night. She tailors her plan to meet the specific needs of your family. Mary is a true expert, and she continues to respond to me by e-mail if I have any questions regarding my sons sleep as he grows. I am so grateful for Mary and for the way she has helped our family. read more