Some of you have been blessed with unicorn babies -- those
mythical cherubs I read about who sleep through the night with no issues. Then there are the rest of us moms, who have struggled with the sleep thing. When you get to the point where you
can’t put your baby down without them screaming -- or worse -- waking up throughout the night, no one is getting any sleep. Your family's quality of life drops significantly from sleep deprivation.
Hilary Duff was facing this with her 3-month-old
daughter, Banks. The former Disney star shared her struggle on Instagram: “The poor thing
was running on adrenaline... literally not sleeping unless she had a warm human
to sleep on and even then 30-40 minutes max!”
As a working mom, Duff has a lot going on; she's raising her 7-year-old son, Luca, her Paramount series, “Younger," returns for a sixth season this spring and she just adopted an alpaca named
Ivan. The girl needed sleep and so did her poor baby.
And so, Duff called on Kimberly Von Slomski, founder of Sweet Dreams LA. Von Slomski is a Postpartum Doula, a Newborn
Care Specialist and a Lactation Educator Counselor. By the end of the
weekend, she had baby Banks sleeping 11 hours.
“Babies NEED sleep and our little
girl is the happiest I have ever seen her!” Duff said in her post. Yay Banks
and yay Mama!
But does this mean that Duff put her baby in a room to cry
until she fell asleep (and why on Earth would you need to hire help for that?). Actually, not necessarily. There are many different sleep training methods
besides the old Dr. Ferber “cry-it-out” method. Sweet Dreams LA customizes a plan that works for you and your family.
Though the consultants explain on their FAQ page that “there is no way to
do this without a few tears in the beginning,” the goal is for you and your
baby to be trained to sleep as quickly and gently as possible.
If they could
come to my house and explain the confounding “drowsy, but awake” sleep
technique (in which you put your baby down at the magical moments) that would be a big help.
So what does a miracle solution like this set you back? Options range from three-day in-home or remote solutions ($6,900) to a two-day quickie for seasoned parents ($4,125).
There are also customized plans for toddlers and
an in-home twin program for $10,350. Sweet Dreams is the premier sleep
training solution to the stars though, so depending on where you live, a call
with a consultant at another agency may be as low as $300. For parents at their
wit’s end, that sounds like quite a bargain.
Baby Banks seems to be
doing well. “This was the right choice for
our family! I honestly didn’t remember what good sleep felt like! Pretty delicious!” Duff wrote.
A sleeping baby and a happy mama is worth its weight in gold.