Abby is a miracle worker and a LIFESAVER.
First, some quick background. Our 5-month-old baby HAD to be swaddled, rocked, and fed to sleep -- no exceptions. We'd had him in a Snoo bassinet, and not once were we successful in putting him down "drowsy but awake." He also had to be fed every 3-4 hours, which meant both my husband and I were getting up at some point overnight to feed him and rock him back to sleep. As for our evenings? They revolved around our baby -- we'd take turns eating dinner separately, and we'd end up in the nursery with one person rocking our son and the other one sitting on the bench as we watched TV on a small screen mounted above our doorway -- each of us with one earbud in. To "talk" to each other, we'd text back and forth all night. I became convinced this was our life from now on. Simply put, we were merely surviving.
We very briefly attempted to let our son "cry it out" to go to sleep... but that lasted maybe 20 minutes before we couldn't take it anymore. Finally enough was enough, and for both our sake and his, we decided we needed outside help. I reached out to Abby and set up a zoom call for us to chat about her services. She offered several options, and we opted for her to write up a sleep plan for us along with doing in-home support the first three days. Having her "kick start" our sleep training for us (in other words, getting the hardest nights out of the way) would be our best option, since sleep training really is all about consistency -- and I don't really do that well with hearing my baby cry. Not to mention, we both had been feeling so run down and exhausted, that I don't know if we could've handled that first night without caving and reverting back to our usual methods.
Abby gave us two sleep training options, and let us choose which one we felt would be better suited to our baby's temperament. We opted for controlled crying, where we let him figure out how to self-soothe but we set a timer for when he starts really crying, and do timed "check-ins" to comfort him (not picking him up but rubbing his back, patting his bottom, telling him he's OK and that we love him). The first night was understandably a bit rough, but Abby documented every single thing the whole night in a Google doc for us. By night two, he slept from 7 pm to 5 am -- HUGE difference in such a short time. He very quickly figured out how to self-soothe, and now falls asleep within 5-10 minutes of putting him down for the night -- without crying!
Less than a week after starting, we had a trip down to Fort Lauderdale, and Abby generously let us borrow her SlumberPod so we could make sure he slept OK in the hotel room with the pack and play. He did great, despite the huge change in routine. We're now two weeks in and he is pretty much consistently sleeping from 7 pm to 7 am! I didn't think this was possible -- I was convinced my baby was going to be the exception to the rule and never sleep well. I'm quite happy I was wrong!
Of allllllll the things we've thrown money at with our baby (hello, middle of the night Amazon purchases), this was easily the best money we've spent. It's like we have a brand-new baby! He's happier, and we are more rested -- and that is priceless. read more
