I just took a sleep school class from Sara at Tulip Grove in Oakland. Even though my daughter is…read moreonly 3 weeks old, I want to avoid all of the common pitfalls that new parents face when transitioning my little girl from a co-sleeper next to my bed into her own room in her crib. Sara outlined all of the best techniques I can implement before she starts going through separation anxiety to reach my sleeping goals. Also high on my list is to get my husband off of the couch and back into our bedroom. All this seems possible after talking with Sara. If I run into ant snags, Sara is always available by phone, text, e-mail, or home visit. A great resource to have!

We seeked Sara's help for sleep issues of our child. The initial "consultation" went ok and she…read moregave us a couple of suggestions which we felt helped steer us in the right direction.We still stick with those suggestions and think they work well. However, the phone support she claims to provide seriously lacks interest/concern on her part. After the first week or so I used to be hesitant to even call her and for the amount of money we paid her; that was not a good thing.

I recently had my 11th child, and had worked with Viv in the past for my 8th, 9th and 10th. I…read morecalled her 1 week postpartum to be sure we were starting off on the right foot. Vivian was great; offered support, guidance and reassurance, which is what I need in the beginning. It's all about baby steps and consistency early on. Developing good habits and a simple schedule. What you do now will pay off later. I've never met Vivian in person, only over the phone. And she already feels like a friend. I look forward to calling her again in the future when we hit some bumps along the way. Thanks, Viv!

Tl;dr: Vivian did not get our baby to sleep through the…read morenight consistently and then proceeded to imply that I lied to her, blamed me for being "anxious" and critiqued our parenting. In depth review: I was referred to Vivian 6 years ago. When I had my 3rd child, I was rocking him to sleep for 45 min to get him to nap for 30 min. My baby was 4 months when I reached out to Vivian. During our first meeting, she was at the house at 7am. My impression was that she was somewhat disorganized, but I trusted her expertise. The first week we saw improvements in our baby's sleep. He learned to sleep on his own without contact for naps, but did not sleep through the night. He would wake up and cry and then go back to sleep. We followed her advice to go in if it's 45 min of hardcore crying or 50 min of wave. However, I found that when we did that, the next day Vivian would be very agitated and said "Tina, don't go in. Should I just tell you not to go in period?". This was very condescending and contradictory to her advice. When we follow it, she questions me whether or not I am sure. In addition, she kept iterating t All the while, Vivian would pepper in unsolicited parenting advice. "Don't talk to your baby. Don't pick up your baby." She was aware enough to know that I felt uncomfortable with her comments that she called back to apologize. She said "I don't want to make you feel bad, but I just see that some parents have it too hard if they give too much attention to their baby." I gave her a pass, but more flags came up. I told her that my older kids cry sometimes and perhaps that affects my baby's bedtime. Her response was "Should I go down there and discipline everyone?". It truly was unpleasant to constantly converse with someone so judgmental. I did not hire her for parenting advice. The straw that broke the camel's back is after 3 weeks of trying, Vivian started blaming me for the sleep plan not working. She said "I don't know if you're really not going in at night. Sometimes you say the baby drinks 2 oz and other times 4 oz.. I don't really know what you're doing, but there's something usually wrong with the parents." Babies are not robots and they drink different amounts on different days. It is beyond insulting to imply that I was lying to her about our actions. I called her and told her that I did not appreciate her questioning and implications. It would be one thing if she owned her part and said "In my years, I have not come across a baby who took this long and I'm not sure why". However, she chose to blame her clients. It's so unprofessional. For 3 weeks, I endured anticipating judgmental comments, mistrust, and blame. She apologized for her words and said she'll be more careful with what she says, but it was really deteriorating my mental health especially with a baby who still does not sleep at night. I told her I needed a break. A week later, I cooled off and was done. I don't need to put up with her anymore. My husband tried to talk to her, but was stonewalled and given critiques of our parenting and house cleanliness. She said I didn't take notes (not true, I took them on my phone in front of her as we talked) and she said that our house was messy (we have 3 children under 6 years old - not sure she's ever worked with parents with 3 kids). At the end of the day, you'll get some results, but it comes at a high cost to your mental health.

Working with Callie to "sleep coach" our 5-month-old daughter was one of the best parenting…read moredecisions I've made (I'm only a few months in, but still). I highly recommend her services and think her prices are fair (and worth every penny). Our story: At around 3 months old our daughter went from sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night to waking up every other hour. We started using a pacifier, which quickly became a crutch. She was only napping for 30-40 minutes at a time and I spent most of my day trying to get her to go back to sleep. Enter Callie. After a 15-minute phone consult, it was clear that she would provide guidance and help us navigate the sleep issues. She had us log our daughter's sleep over a few days and then came up with an extensive plan to get her to sleep better: to fall asleep independently and be able to connect her "sleep cycles." She sent over the plan (it was an incredible 8-page document) with a lot of other helpful articles and resources. We decided to do an interval method of sleep coaching that had us going into our daughter's room to soothe her when she'd cry. Our daughter did very well with this method and we never experienced more than 30 minutes of crying - a few nights in, the crying subsided to fussing, and only for a few minutes at bedtime. We moved on to naps and saw similar success - our daughter was napping for 50 min - 1.5 hours after a few days of "nap training" with Callie. I think your success rate will depend largely on the personality of your child, but Callie will customize the plan to fit your baby's needs. The best part of working with Callie was her unlimited texts / phone calls - it seriously kept me sane and made me feel so much more confident about what we were doing throughout the process. We'd literally text Callie before, during, and after nap times and while our daughter was falling asleep at night. Callie responded quickly (ninja fast!) and would guide us through the situation, answer any questions we had, and send messages of encouragement. Our goal wasn't to "sleep through the night" as I was still breastfeeding a few times in the evenings, but now after a month of sleep coaching my daughter has dropped one of the night feeds on her own and generally sleeps well every night. I'm also armed with a ton of information on how to navigate sleep regressions that we'll face in the future due to teething, sickness, growth spurts, etc!

We had our second son and had hired Callie to support us through the sleep teaching/training of our…read morefirst son three years ago. We were toying around with the idea of hiring Callie for our second child, and she took a last minute phone call, and answered all of my questions for my second without charge. She got into the specifics of my second son very quickly and provided direction for how to adapt sleep teaching for him given his needs. I know if the training doesn't go as planned, she will be there for us and if it does go well, we have her to thank!

It's 8:30pm, and I'm able to write this review because my son is ASLEEP! My husband and I had a 50…read moreminute sleep consultation with Noelle Cochran, PsyD at Symbio over the phone last week. Our 3-year-old son's bedtime drama was causing us to be very overtired (ever since he graduated from a crib to a bed around age 2), and we got practical, insightful, and compassionate advice that so far is working well for him and for us. We were referred to Symbio by my sister-in-law and a pediatrician / mom at my son's preschool, both who've had success with the sleep consultations for their own kids. I'd recommend this to any parent who is struggling with sleep issues for their kids - and do it sooner than we did. Symbio offers counseling and classes by two specialists in infant and toddler mental health with backgrounds in child development and family psychology.

I had read all the sleep books, trust me, and I was at my wits end about how to help my son, who…read morewas 18 months at the time, to sleep through the night. The books made it sound so easy and I felt foolish for not being able to coax him into a full nights sleep. At the time we contacted Noelle, my son was waking in the night at 3 am, and staying up sometimes as long as 3 hours before going back to sleep. It seemed like no matter what we did, at 3 am, he was up and ready to play. \I met Noelle in her office and my husband called us and she interviewed us on what the current situation was and what we wanted to achieve. I really appreciated how well she was really listening to me. I told her I wasn't comfortable with the "Cry it Out" philosophy and was hoping she'd have some ideas. She took everything we said into account and came up with a plan, well more specifically for us what our next step would be. We implemented that step and then called her for the next step and so on until we got the final result. I'll add that our son was climbing out of his crib at 16 months so we had to figure out a plan with him not being in a crib, but rather just being in his room for bedtime. I imagine she might work differently with each family, but for me, I needed the step at a time approach. It was so valuable to me to have someone to speak to about each step and to have her support throughout the process. Our son is pretty strong willed, and me, not so much, but sure enough, with her guidance and some patience we have gotten to the point where James is sleeping through the night on his own. So in summary - if the books aren't working and you're at your wits end, consider getting some help. Noelle was so caring and compassionate and helped us get to where we are today, with full nights of sleep, glorious sleep!

Vanessa is amazing! She is so patient, caring, and supportive. Her sleep plan was clear, easy to…read morefollow, and full of helpful tips and sleep methods that truly worked for our family. Thanks to her guidance, our baby is now sleeping through the night! She was always responsive and willing to help whenever we needed support. We're so grateful for her help and highly recommend her to any parents looking to improve their baby's sleep.

We would highly recommend Vanessa! Our baby was waking up multiple times a night and needed to be…read morerocked to sleep. Now he is sleeping through the night and it is easy to put him down for naps! Vanessa was very helpful guiding us through the process through calls/texts as well as providing a lot of resources that were in depth and that we could reference later. We would highly recommend her if you are looking to get better sleep for your baby (and your whole family).

With Michelle's help, our family is now sleeping through the night!…read more Just last night we put our 6 month old down per the guidance and support Michelle has given us and he slept from 7:30pm straight through to 6:30am with zero fussing and a big smile on his face when I picked him up to start the day. She is knowledgeable, helpful, flexible and empathetic to each family's needs and preferences - what more could you need from a sleep consultant?! Her background in nursing and experience as a mom of three also helped to reassure us that her methodology was sound and we were in great hands. I cannot recommend her enough!

We hired Michelle to help our 5 month old who was waking 3-6 times every night to eat. By night one…read moreshe had us down to 2 feedings and just a few nights later we were down to just 1 feeding! She also helped us with naps and gave us a schedule to follow which we love! I don't know what I'll do once we outgrow this last schedule, it's saved our lives!

We have reached out to Adele twice now, once when our boy was about 1.5 years, and once more…read morerecently when he was 2 - both at times when he was going through some kind of sleep regression. Adele was such a great listener and support to us sleep-deprived and desperate parents, and both times she felt we were on the right track (she was right) and very kindly did not charge or offer her services as she did not think we needed them. She has great integrity and truly cares about helping people rather than trying to force a program. We will be keeping her in mind in the future should we face other sleep issues - she's great!

Adele was a godsend to me from the second we had our first phone call, even before I decided to…read moremove forward with her program. My 2.5 year old toddler, who previously slept for a solid 12 hours in his crib, suddenly began jumping out of his crib, unable to sleep independently, waking several times a night and waking up for the day from 4-5 AM for weeks. She immediately reassured me that my 2.5 year old son's sleep changes were normal and that there could be a return to his previous independent sleep. Adele took the time to understand my son's sleep history before the regression and helped me understand what might be at the root of his changes. She came up with an amazing plan that helped me hold boundaries with my son without leaving me feeling guilty. If my son did not respond as anticipated or there was a particularly rough night in the process, Adele was readily available to me to help calm my nerves and adapt the plan to pivot according to my son's needs and responses. I really felt so supported throughout the whole journey. Within about 3 weeks, my son was sleeping through the night again in his toddler bed and waking up at or after 6:30 AM. The best part of all is that my son was really proud of himself by the end of it. Adele is such a warm, knowledgable and wonderful person and I've recommended her to so many of my friends with sleep struggles. Any parent would be lucky to work with her!

If your child isn't sleep trained, contact Connie's Sleepy Munchkins now! Don't fear the harsh, old…read morefashioned sleep training "method." Connie is not only well versed in infant and child sleep protocols, but is also gentle and kind. She truly loves children. Connie helped me sleep train my child at four months old. After traveling and a sleep regression at 15 months , Connie came to the rescue and we were back on track after one night. Connie makes sure that the entire family can get a good night's sleep and that is more precious than gold!

I have two daughters, a four year old and a one year old, both of which are incredible sleepers…read morebecause of Connie. I didn't believe in the cry it out method and had a hard time doing traditional sleep training with my girls. Connie was so knowledgeable, understanding, kind, empathetic and a true miracle worker!!! She listened to me, guided me, and gave the best tips. My husband and I both work full time and sleep is super important to us. I'm so grateful for Connie's help because we are all sleeping well after working with her. I couldn't recommend her services more highly.