The Via Graces pediatric sleep coach team is growing, and I’m so excited for you to meet our newest consultant, Samantha Gomella.

In this interview, you’ll hear Samantha’s sleep story with her son, and how working together finally gave her confidence with his sleep. You’ll also learn how much more confident she felt about her daughter’s sleep when she was born, and how her goal is to now help other families reach that same confidence.

Introduce Yourself and Your Family

I’m Samantha Gomella and I’m the newest member of the Via Graces sleep coach team! My husband Patrick and I live outside of Philadelphia with our two children, Adam (6) and Lillian (almost 3).

What did Adam’s sleep look like before we worked together?

You saved my life! We started working together when Adam was almost two.

And before I worked with you, his sleep was just always terrible. And it was a combination of us doing everything we “shouldn’t do,” as well as us just not understanding things like wake windows and schedules.

We probably did too much research and were therefore kind of piecemealing different things we learned from multiple well-known companies big companies and it was just a disaster.

So when Adam turned five months old, we decided we really needed professional help, and we unfortunately hired two sleep consultants before you.

We did the Ferber Method with Adam, and while the method “worked,” the sleep consultant had us put him on a two-nap schedule, and that did not work well. (Now, as a certified sleep coach, I cringe thinking about my five month old on a two-nap schedule!).

So we got stuck with 5 am wake-ups and that persisted for a long time.

We then reached out to another sleep consultant for a quick phone call. She introduced me to the idea of an early bedtime to help with early morning wakings, which I had never heard of before.

And we did that for a while, but then we just couldn’t get out of this early to bed, early to wake cycle. So that’s when we reached out to you and we got rid of the pacifier, you got us on the right schedule, and Adam’s sleep has been a dream ever since.

What did Adam’s sleep look like after working together?

After just four days, Adam woke up at 6 am and I remember my husband and I thought we were on vacation because we had spent 18 months waking up at 5 am; it was driving us insane.

I’m very good at following directions, I just needed someone to give them to me; I just needed the cheat codes. You helped us get him on the right schedule, a consistent routine, and his sleep has been great since took away a lot of anxiety that I had approaching sleep and it gave me more confidence. Especially with scheduling, because the schedules you give families at Via Graces are so specific.

And then you just inspired me, so here we are!

What was Lilly’s sleep journey like?

With Lilly, sleep was a total 180.

I was a little anxious, because my husband is a physician and has long work days, so I was solo with a newborn and toddler a lot, and for most bedtimes.

So before she was born, I went through Newborn Sleep from A to Z and did refreshers on schedules on appropriate schedules and the newborn routines that help lay a solid sleep foundation for when we would eventually sleep train.

Wondering what newborn routines you can set up? Get our free newborn routine guide!

So once Lilly was born, I just took a deep breath from the start. We got through the newborn phase, I used the carrier a lot for naps so I could chase Adam around, and then we never really had to formally sleep train her! I kept following the appropriate wake windows and followed your suggestions for nap transitions.

Having such solid routines and knowing she was a great sleeper gave me so much confidence to make her sleep a priority, yet also be out and about and not feel stuck at home.   

I was even able to breastfeed her throughout her whole first year!

Sleep really wasn’t stressful like it was the first time around. We had days here and there that were off, but it was such a different experience than with our first.

What does Adam and Lilly’s sleep look like now?

Their bedtimes are typically the same, which is helpful because I am usually solo during bedtime. We usually start bath time around 7 pm, and both kids are in bed with lights out by 8 pm!

Adam has recently started reading for a bit before bed, as he wasn’t as tired. So he’s been falling asleep closer to 8:30.

And everybody is up by 7, especially on school days, because Adam has to be at school at 7:55. So we race through breakfast, our morning routine, and drop-offs. Lilly goes to preschool school Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, so her drop-offs are every other day.

And Lilly still takes a nap! She’s almost three and is close to dropping the nap, so we’ll see how long that lasts. On days she doesn’t nap, however, we just do an early bedtime and Adam enjoys his one-on-one time with me!

I know schedules aren’t for everybody, but for us, having a general framework of how every day is going to look is so much less stressful for our family,.

Why did you choose to become a pediatric sleep consultant?

I am so excited; I feel like this has been such a long time coming. You planted this bug in my ear and I’ve wanted to be a sleep coach since working with you. And then a light switch just went off, so when I reached out to you letting you know I was interested, you kind of laid the path for what I needed to do.

I’m so passionate about sleep. Anybody in my family will tell you how much I care about sleep. My evenings after bedtime are sacred to me!

We had our sleep struggles with Adam, and I’m just really excited to work with other families to help them through that journey and hopefully avoid what I went through. It’s tough to be working parents with no sleep, or to just do every day family life with no sleep.

I really want to get the word out there that you don’t have to struggle. We are here to help! We have specific strategies and advice for every individualized family. And I’m just really excited to start working with families.

To learn more about what it would look like to work together, book a free discovery call with me, I’d love to chat!

With Grace,

Samantha