My husband and I hired Kris when my son Jack was 3 months old. At that point, he had milk protein colitis, severe colic and his reflux was significant enough he was on Prevacid and needed to sleep on a significant incline. He was sleeping in a rock n play as he desperately needed the incline due to the reflux. While his night sleep was great with only 1 over night feeding, his day sleep was TERRIBLE. Jack was accustomed to being rocked to sleep and we were use to doing it because of his pain. We would do about anything for him to be able to sleep (car rides, rocking, you name it). Jack was a terrible napper. Not only was it was a struggle to get him to sleep but then he would wake up 35 minutes into a nap screaming. You could literally set your clock by it every time. We would have to hold him for naps and that didn’t work consistently.
We were exhausted, stressed and really not sure how to help Jack become a better day sleeper. In addition he was starting to get a flat head from the rock n play and we knew we needed to transition him to his own room and his crib. However, we didn’t know how to elevate the crib without him ending up in the bottom of it. We tried a few naps in the crib with a slight elevation and a rolled receiving blanket – but it was going badly. At this same time, Jack was starting to break out of swaddles. We literally owned every swaddle out there.
Kris came to the house during Jack’s bedtime routine. She helped with products that made things a lot easier (the 1 swaddle we didn’t actually own & baby stay asleep for the crib incline) and transitioned him from the infant tub to the bathtub, which he LOVED. Luckily we had a good bedtime routine in place and she helped make a few adjustments, we put Jack down for the night in his own room and went downstairs to talk.
There were several HUGE lessons for me out of the time spent with Kris. She was able to help me with what a “typical” day should look like …how much Jack should be sleeping, eating and ultimately how to start to teach him to self sooth. I was clearly waiting too long to put him down for a nap. By the time I thought he was tired he was very overtired and therefore much harder to get to sleep. Kris helped me understand how their sleep cycles work, how to identify these sleepy signs sooner and how to increase nap success. I had NO idea he needed as much daytime sleep as she recommended.
One of the many things I really appreciated was this was not a one size fits all approach. While she had typical day suggestions, she had also worked with other reflux babies and helped tweak these approaches unique to Jack. Instead of expecting him to self sooth immediately, she helped work out a plan to set incremental goals by not rocking him as long and putting him down a little sooner each week until we were truly able to lay him down drowsy but awake. She’s also helped me understand what to expect going forward and how he will transition his sleep in the coming months.
Nothing happens overnight and I will say it’s hard work. You and your significant other need to be committed. There were times I just wanted to run back in and scoop him up. I had a lot of tears. Kris’ ongoing support was wonderful as her package includes support through their first birthday. Sometimes I would just need to hear I’m trying the right things…. and occasionally we needed to tweak the approach a bit.
If anyone would have told me I could have a baby that I can put in his Zippy, spend less than 2 minutes in his room and put him in his bed fully awake and he’d go to sleep every time on his own I would have laughed. Kris taught us how to make this happen.
We now have a very happy little boy who sleeps amazingly well and soothes to sleep. He actually enjoys his bed and is so comfortable, he just hangs out there when he wakes up waiting for someone to come get him. We’ve received several compliments and questions as to why he is now SO GOOD about sleep! Kris taught us what we needed to do and how to help Jack. It is such a relief to no longer spend the day in tears with a baby who is trying to spend the entire day catching up on sleep! Thank you THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Warmest Regards, Jodi, Curt & Jack Klus (Oct 2016)
