Berkeley Parents Network: Sleep Specialists & Consultants

Berkeley Parents Network

Sleep Specialists & Consultants

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Sleep > Sleep Specialists & Consultants

Sleep consultant for 6-month-old
Sleep specialist for 15 month old
Feedback on Meg Zwieback?
Sleep specialist for baby
Need help for son who can't sleep through the night
More reviews of sleep consultants

Sleep consultant for 6-month-old

November 2006

Our six month old daughter gets up many times per night and struggles with going back to sleep. We've read many sleep books and tried many methods and nothing seems to work. We are now interested in sleep consultants in the bay area. Does anyone have any new recommendations? sleep deprived

We love Vivian Sonnenberg - she is responsible for many happy sleep filled nights in our home! She truly is the baby whisperer - Her number is 415-383-0560 Good luck!

Sleep deprived,
We waited until our baby was 9 months old, hoping he would sleep on his own, but no luck. We read many books (too) before we called a sleep consultant, Vivian Sonnenberg. She was recommended by a friend, and has been written up in the SF Chronicle. Although her service was a little pricey, she was worth every penny! We are so happy and now everyone in the house is well-rested. Her website is www.viviansonnenberg.com Good Luck! Loving our sleep

Sleep specialist for 15 month old

August 2005

We are looking for a sleep specialist or consultant to help us address our sleep issues with our 15 month old boy. Is there anyone who has used a sleep specialist recently who they would recommend? a very tired mama

Our son is a year old and was a terrible sleeper.

We went to see Meg Zweiback (836-1450) when he was maybe 8 months old because he had to be held for a large part of the night to sleep at all, would wake as often as 20 times, never slept longer than a couple hours at a stretch. We met with her twice (and had daily phone consults in between our meetings) and he got to be a much better sleeper.

Our schedule got really out of wack for 3 weeks and the baby regressed pretty seriously. When he was 11 months old we took him back to Meg and she gave us different advice that also worked. (Initially we tried doing the same thing we did the first time around but it wasn't working. When we went back, she told us he was at a different stage developmentally so we needed to do something different.) Now he is back on track and is sleeping even better than before. He usually wakes up once around 3 or 4 to eat and otherwise sleeps about 8-6:30.

It only took 2-3 nights the first time to get him sleeping well. The second time it took a little more than a week. The process was painful (lots of crying) but well worth it for all of us.

Good luck.

Feedback on Meg Zwieback?

Nov 2004

Has anyone used Meg Zwieback recently for their older child's sleep (lack of) issues? If so, did you find her approach tailored to your family situation/parenting methods? My 5 year old is completely off the old sleep rhythm of his fisrt 4 years (straight through for 10-12 hours - no kidding). We've tried different approaches over the past year, including taking care of his sleep apnea. I'm not ready to do a medical sleep study just yet because it seems his sleep cycle/rhythm just needs to get back on track. Thanks in advance! TJ

Our 18 month old baby has never slept through the night, has a history of ear problems, and has recently escalated waking up from 2-3 times a night to more like 4-8 times a night. Our attempts at ''sleep training'' have yielded 2 hour crying jags and no better sleeping. Our pediatrician recommended pediatric nurse practioner Meg Zwieback for possible consultation, which of course is not covered by our insurance. I have tried all the suggestions from the sleep problem advice posts, to no avail. Anyone have feedback on Ms. Zwieback on sleep issues like this? I know she handles many different behavior problems. I would like to hear about her methods, successes, and whether it is worth the money, probably about $500 out of pocket for three visits at least.... Sleepless and desperate

We saw Meg about 6 months ago for help with our then 5-6 month old baby. I liked Meg a lot and felt her advice was well worth the money- I believe she charged $125. per 1 hour session. Although her advice was similar to what I had read in the Weissbluth (sp?) book, ''Happy Baby, Healthy Sleep Habits'', Meg helped us with a plan based on the specifics of our family- two working parents, older child in same room, nanny, etc. Our son responded well to the structure and Meg was available for phone and email consults for fine tuning along the way.

Basically, Meg's advice was to first, keep a log on our son's sleep and eating habits. Then we had to determine whether he was waking at night (every 3-4 hours) due to hunger or habit. If hungry, Meg said to feed!- this was determined by the number of hours in between feeds based on his age, weight, and feeding patterns, in addition to our family's needs (a sleep deprived mom with post partum depression). Then we established soothing rituals to prepare him for sleep and put him down awake -if he fell asleep nursing, no big deal. If he cried, we would wait a determined period of time and then go in and comfort him. Meg worked with our comfort level to establish all of these criteria- she did not give us a one size fits all formula.

Of course, teething, stress, and develpomental changes demand flexibility. There have been a few bumpy nights along the way, but most nights our son sleeps from about 7:30pm, wakes to nurse at 4-5am, then sleeps again until 7am.

Hope this helps. grateful for Meg's help

Sleep specialist for baby

March 2004

Hi -- I'm considering consulting with a specialist about my baby's sleep issues. He seems to be having more difficulty than is ordinary (he's certainly having more difficulty than my daughter did), and the situation is not good for him or for the rest of the family. Despite our efforts at sleep training and other methods, he is incapable of organizing his sleep. He has a great deal of trouble going to sleep and staying asleep, waking every ten minutes or so during naps and every hour or so at night. I know that Stanford has a sleep clinic that includes pediatrics. I'm wondering -- has anyone ever used the Stanford clinic? Or has anyone used a specialist closer to home and gotten good results? I'm not even sure what sort of specialist we need -- medical doctor, nurse practitioner, alternative medicine -- so any recommendations are welcome. Thanks so much. Sleep Deprived in Oakland

I have had similar sleep patterns with my 3month old dauther in the day time. Night time is getting better. We have been seeing an osteopath regularly since her birth and this is helped tremendously. The one I have been seeing is moving and I am looking for another currently. I can't say enough about the benefits of osteopathy, especially for newborns and children. It has done wonders for her digestive issues and sleep. Monica

Need help for son who can't sleep through the night

2001

We're looking for someone who can help us deal with our son's sleep issues. We've received conflicting advice from our pediatrician and other professionals, but it doesn't seem to matter anyway since he still has a tough time sleeping through the night, and he seems unable to put himself back to sleep by himself (and sometimes with our help). Does anyone have recommendations for anyone who specializes in sleep disorders? (And yes, we've read four books and tried everything from attachment style to Ferber and beyond - with no success.) Thanks in advance.

There is a sleep disorders clinic at Stanford you might contact. You could also talk to a developmental pediatrician if you haven't already. Good luck! Melissa

We engaged Meg Zweiback both when my son was a wakeful baby and for dealing with "big boy bed" freedom. She is great -- analyzes the issue and provides a "prescription" that worked well for us in both cases. I strongly recommend her. Her number is 836-1450. Kathleen

The sleep consultant we worked with is Rachel Biale. She works only by phone, which actually turned out to be preferable. She likes to work with both parents, and working by phone makes it much easier to coordinate. Her method of sleep training is similar to Ferber, except that you stay with the baby. It's helpful for those of us who just can't close the door and not go in, and the baby is not alone. But it is just heartbraking to stay with your baby while he screams, and NOT pick him up. Rachel individualizes her approach for each family, so I can only speak to what she had us do. We let Eli cry in his crib for 10 min without touching him, just talking to calm him. Then we tried patting and touching to soothe him, without picking him up, for another 10 min. If he was still crying (which he always was), then we picked him up and soothed him, and when he was calm, we put him down and started all over again. Also, my partner and I took turns. Even though this didn't ultimately work for us, we did find it helpful. Rachel worked with us within our limits, instead of saying that the method demands certain procedures, like most of the books out there do. In the end, we decided that we weren't making enough progress quickly enough to be able to continue. But this is a procedure that has worked well for many parents.

My daughter had bad sleeping problems, and in the end, I found I had to rely on my own maternal instinct. I talked to many professionals, I tried almost all suggestions and read every book I could get my hands on. My best contact was the UCSF Sleep Program. Unfortunately, no one can give you just the right answer and no particular method is guaranteed to work. After years of trying to follow other's ideas of dealing with short sleep cycles, movement and sound sensitivity I stopped listening and followed my own instincts. I have tried to make sleep/night a safe and secure place. A time of security and a positive experience. It is important to remember that the current ideas of what I child should sleep like is not only a generalization but is the "in" trend of thinking for our times. When you look back in history, or at other cultures, you can see that the ideas of how children should sleep and how the parents handle it vary greatly. It is also helpful to hear what other parents experience with their children. The longer I dealt with the problem the more commonly I heard about other's problem situations. You must also remember that every family has different limits on what they will handle. Some keep their children up late, others want the child asleep early. Some parents get up and sit with the child, others bring the child into their bed.Everyone sleeps differently. Some fall asleep quickly, others take time. Some people are 'light' sleepers, other's heavy. I suggest you look at your sleep style and see if it matches your child's in any way. My situation has still not completely resolved itself but it is much better. Ndevent

More reviews of sleep consultants

July 2002

RE: 8 month old standing in crib, exhausted
We worked with a very intuitive baby coach named Sarah Swales, 652-0774. If you want to get away from the one-size-fits-all formulas, I highly recommend inviting Sarah over to meet you and your child. She picked up on things about my son's sleep style that I wouldn't have noticed, and she offered me and my husband great support. We had major sleep challenges (including standing in the crib), and we've worked through them all in gentle baby steps with Sarah's help. We met with her 3 times and spent a few hundred dollars in the process. Totally worth it. Other people in my moms' group have consulted with Sarah, so I know for a fact that she is not giving us all the same solutions. EM

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