To My Fellow Desperate Mothers,
Words cannot even begin to express how grateful my husband and I are that we found Kris. I thought that my situation was a lost cause. I love my 5 month old son (Lincoln), but I had instilled some very bad habits in him. By the time I realized I was in a very sticky situation, I thought it was too late and those habits could not be reversed. These habits didn’t start out too bad, but as he got older they seemed to get worse.
To start with, our son slept in our bed with us. This was fine when he was a little thing, but he got bigger and longer and started to move a lot more, and seemed to only be able to sleep when pressed up against me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the cuddles, but the kicks to the stomach and punches to the face not so much! As far as naps go, it was a nightmare. My son would only nap in two situations: in the stroller on walks, and if I nursed him to sleep. Once I nursed him to sleep I couldn’t move him. We would try and every time we did he would wake up screaming and we would have to start the process all over again! So, I was stuck while he slept on my lap.
I never really knew how much he was eating either because he always fell asleep while he was eating and he seemed to only eat enough to get him through a cat nap. I was essentially feeding him on and off all day long. As far as him napping during walks, if he were sleeping and we were almost home, I would walk for an extra half hour just so he could get some sleep!! My husband and I started feeding him bottles at night just to make sure he would get enough to eat through the night! We were still feeding him once in the middle of the night (bottle), but he would still need to nurse to go back to sleep. He would wake up for the day anywhere between 4:30am and 6:45 am.
Our nighttime “routine” was also quite draining. After bathing him and feeding him, my husband had to put him in the stroller to push him to sleep (for about 30 minutes) and then bring him up to bed. Since he was sleeping in our bed, I had to go to bed with him. So, I was going to bed at 8:00pm every night. Not that I wasn’t tired enough to go to bed at 8:00, but I would like to not HAVE to go to bed at 8:00 (plus it doesn’t help that I wasn’t getting any sleep).
Lincoln was so tired all day that, when he wasn’t taking 20 minute naps on my lap, he was always fussy. Going out to run errands was like playing Russian Roulette. Would he be alright? Would he be fussy? How long can we stay out before we have to go home and figure out what is wrong with him? At this point I was ready to be done breastfeeding because Lincoln was a comfort nurser. It seemed to be the only thing that calmed him down, hungry or not. He was using me as a human pacifier, because I was letting him. My husband and I were lost and in so deep we couldn’t see a way out. We were terrified of what we had gotten ourselves into!
After working with Kris, my son was a totally different baby. After the first day, he was taking 2 hour naps in his crib, he was on a feeding schedule, he was soothing himself, and he was sleeping in his crib at night. Each night was a little better than the last. I could not believe it. I thought it would take weeks for him to adjust to these drastic changes, but in only a few days he did a total 180, and it is all because of Kris. Every question I had (and there were a lot) she responded to through email or text swiftly and promptly. She gave us our lives back. She is a miracle worker and I don’t know what we would have done without her!! Calling Kris is the best thing you will ever do for yourself and for your baby!
Caroline Dermon (October 2013)
