NYC Sleep Doctor

Let me get this caveat out of the way first: I did not hire Janet Kennedy, so my rating is not based on her services. I did contact her, and I found her to be pretty rude and unhelpful, so it’s based on that.
I contacted Dr. Kennedy because I wanted to see if she could help my co-​sleeping child learn to get used to the crib without leaving him alone to cry it out. I told her that I was prepared to handle crying, just that I didn’t want to leave him alone to do it. I also said that I was interested in having him start the night in the crib and then come back to the bed with me as and when he needed to nurse. She responded with an extremely terse email saying that in her experience, crying is worse if you stay in the room and that she didn’t think my goal of partial co-​sleeping was realistic. She concluded that she couldn’t help me.
When I contacted her, I was absolutely desperate after several days of being woken up by my then still night-​nursing 10-​month-​old every 20 minutes. I was at the end of my rope; I would never have reached out to a sleep consultant if I hadn’t been. So to be told in such a terse way, at a time when I was feeling super upset and vulnerable, that I couldn’t be helped was kind of a shock and also really kind of demoralizing. I told her that; to be fair to her, she did apologize and explained that she was having a busy day. The whole thing still left a bad taste in my mouth, though, and made me realize that if you have any interest in co-​sleeping and actually getting some sleep, she thinks you can’t be helped.
I am happy to report that she is wrong.
Having done a whole bunch of research on my own – I’ve read pretty much every sleep book there is and tried many different things – it seems like you have a few options: You can leave your kid to scream and cry themselves to sleep with no intervention at all (supposedly effective but I don’t know many people who could actually do this); progressive visits a.k.a. Ferberizing (effective but also very hard; I lasted exactly 4 minutes), leaving your kid to cry in the crib but staying there with them (possibly more crying than the first two methods but also possibly less stressful for the kid) and night-​weaning (Dr. Jay Gordon has a technique for this that he lays out on his website), which involves lots of crying on the part of the child but is done with complete parental presence and comforting and is probably the only viable option for co-​sleeping parents (which I am). I used the Jay Gordon method of night weaning, and got my husband to help, and it made a DRAMATIC improvement in everyone’s sleep and didn’t cost a thing. Plus, I didn’t feel like I was a monster for doing it. Yes, he cried – a lot – but he cried in my husband’s arms.
If you DO decide that you want to try a cry-​it-​out type method, let me save you a ton of cash and recommend that you check out «Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems» by Richard Ferber (the revised edition, from 2006) from your local library, read it cover to cover, and do exactly what he says. Even if you don’t use his progressive visits technique (which is what is know as CIO or «Ferberizing,») – and I didn’t – he still has lots of suggestions and helpful advice about scheduling, plus lots of useful information about the science of sleep.
If you do decide to do progressive visits, he tells you exactly how to do it and includes a lot of important caveats that a lot of so-​called sleep training experts do not tell you about (for example, he does not – contrary to popular belief – advocate leaving your child alone to cry for extended periods of time).
In short, save yourself some money. If you want to do a version of CIO, go with Ferber, who is the foremost researcher on infant sleep in the country. If, like me, you don’t have the stomach for it, check out Jay Gordon’s method. Both seem to be effective, both are free, and you won’t have to deal with someone who makes you feel worse, not better.

I was reluctant to spend the money on a sleep consultant. We have several sleep books and have read/​implemented many of their suggestions. But after 6 months of sleepless nights and sheer exhaustion, I contacted Dr. Janet Kennedy.
She came highly recommended on Park Slope Parent’s website by several moms, so I was hopeful she would be our sleep savior. She was incredibly informative, and gave us a comprehensive plan specific to our sleep issues. She definitely told me things I hadn’t read about in any of the books and/​or conveyed them in a way that finally made sense.
We’ve been implementing her suggestions for the past 6 days and already our lives have vastly improved. Our daughter used to sleep for around 40 – 80 minutes from 5am until 8pm– we would spend pretty much all of our waking hours attempting to get her to sleep, knowing she was overtired the entire day. She would also still wake up 5 – 8 times a night to nurse. As a working mom, I hadn’t slept for more than 2−½ hours in a row for 6 months. Torture.
After using Dr. Kennedy’s plan, our daughter is napping for 3 – 4 hours during the day and only waking 2 times a night to nurse. (We will soon wean those feedings). I have HOURS of my life back on a daily basis, and it feels wonderful. I can enjoy parenting and spending time with her and my husband. Plus, my daughter is SO MUCH HAPPIER now that she is sleeping properly.
I wish we had contacted Dr. Kennedy sooner, but I’m just glad we did. Possibly the best $ 495 we’ve ever spent. As a bonus, our insurance will probably cover at least part of Dr. Kennedy’s fee.

Dr. Kennedy had practical advice that worked instantly for my 5 year-​old daughter who slept, but slept very poorly with frequent waking, extremely early rising and bad dreams.
And, just this winter when my 15 month old nephew stayed with me, her advice on how to get him to sleep through the night for the first time ever worked within 2 nights. And it’s stuck even now that he’s home — he sleeps 12 solid hours a night.
She is personable, professional and good at what she does. And she makes house calls!