I sleep trained my first child alright: to fall asleep while breastfeeding. It wasn’t sustainable, as baby Mirae would wake up wailing as soon as I attempted to place her in her crib.
Mirae was having no part of the cry-it-out method, nor my slow backpedal out of the room after laying her down, so after five sleepless nights, I gave up. The child didn’t sleep well until she was 18 months old. Meanwhile, a good friend enjoyed sleep-filled nights just two months into motherhood. To say I was jealous would be an understatement. I should’ve asked her to stay over and teach me how to teach my child to sleep, but what new mom asks a friend to do that?
That’s the job of companies such as Sweet Dreams LA. Founder and Redondo Beach resident Kimberly Von Slomski is a lifelong lover of kids who’s turned her passion into restful sleep for her parent-clients and their little bundles of joy.
WATCH: Sleep Training Tips from Dr. Harvey Karp
“Babies thrive on a routine where they are getting great rest and they know what to expect next. Sleep training is a way for babies to feel their best while helping them to understand the flow of their day,” says Von Slomski, whose career in family care started at age 11 when she began babysitting on weekends. By high school, she was a weekend nanny and college saw her serving the Stiller family (as in Emmy Award-winning actor Ben Stiller). After becoming a certified postpartum doula, Von Slomski learned that sleep training was her clients’ number-one concern.
Sweet Dreams LA is unique in that its services are personalized to each family and include an initial consultation and two to three full days of support. “Our sleep trainers will come into your home and provide emotional and practical support with either a 48- or 72-hour program,” Von Slomski says. “We also provide three follow-up calls and one month of unlimited phone, text and email support to help coach you and your baby through any milestones or developmental shifts that may occur.”
With training as newborn care specialists and lactation educator counselors, Von Slomski and her team are busy expanding their services with ladoulacare.com, specializing in doula services, and stork-box.com, a luxury baby-box subscription service. Recent clients include Ali Fedotowsky from Season 6 of “The Bachelorette.”
For more information, pricing and sleep-training tips, visit sweetdreamsla.com.