It’s one thing to hear about sleep from a sleep consultant’s perspective and experience, but it’s another to hear about it firsthand from another family who has been through the process and is willing to share about their personal journey!

I’m excited to have a mama I previously worked with, Veronica, on the blog today, sharing about her experience working with me on her sweet toddler’s sleep in December of last year.

On my initial call with Veronica and her husband, I remember him saying he had not had any uninterrupted sleep for 30+ days in six years. I actually wrote that down when I heard it, because I couldn’t wait to turn that reality around!

They also have an older daughter who shares a room with their son, so for the first two weeks of the sleep training process their daughter actually slept on a little bed on the floor of her parents’ room so she could still sleep well and they’d all be able to remain consistent with responding to Hasani-Hill at bedtime and throughout the night.

So putting them back in the same room together was included in our last week together. I’m excited for you to hear about this sweet family’s journey toward sleep!

Tell us a bit about you and your family.

We are a busy family of four. In December, we were still navigating school and work from home demands but we took advantage of fresh air often. Our daughter, at the time was 6.5 and Hasani-Hill was an active all boy 2 year old.

What did sleep look like before working with Lauren?

Sleep was a real “poop” show. At best, Hasani-Hill would go to bed but had trouble staying asleep every night. He would wake between 12am-2am and fuss until we caved and allowed him to just stay in our bed until his normal waking of 6/630am.

I hated this because it often meant that I would have to nurse him again (if he had his way he would nurse all night).

What made you decide to hire a sleep consultant?

We had gone back and forth with our own “bright” ideas about what might work. For my husband, he was willing to leave him in our bed if it meant more rest for everyone.

But that was not “more rest” in my opinion if I’m nursing tossing/turning, or getting kicked in the back every night.

Finally he conceded that we DID NOT have the answers and our marriage deserves better. LOL!

What was the process like?

The process was really easy because I love a darn good plan! Dad had to wrap his mind around the crying and discipline of the program but success was obvious by night 2 or 3.

I knew this would work if we stayed the course!

What was it like bringing your older daughter back into their shared room once Hasani-Hill’s sleep was consolidated?

She was initially worried. Once we communicated the plan to her and assured her that mom and dad would take care of everything, she was on board too.

She is a hard sleeper so it would take a lot to wake her up anyway.

[One tip that I, Lauren, suggested for this family was two use a toddler clock and have two separate light colors to signal when each child could get out of bed. Because Hasani-Hill still napped each day but his older sister, Montana, no longer did, he generally started the day earlier than her.

However, we wanted to try to help her stay in bed and still get the full night of sleep that she needed! So they set their toddler clock to turn one color for Hasani-Hill when it was time for him to wake up, and a separate color for Montana when she could get up. And it worked!

For more information about how to help siblings share a room, read here!]

What does your child’s sleep look like now?

June 2021 looks waaaay different from December 2020! Hasani-Hill is usually happy and concedes to bedtime routines and rituals. He reminds us to “be quiet” and he is very excited to “see you when I wake up!”

He sleeps consecutively from 7:30p-6:30am. No night wakings! It is a sight to behold!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

We are forever grateful for Lauren, her professionalism, her kindness, and patience.

There is no need to suffer in silence. There is no award for the sleepiest parent or sleepiest child.

Lauren’s plan is practical and she adjusted as needed for our family. It is a process and you must be willing to accept the help! I am so glad we did.