Vivian Sonnenberg

Words cannot adequately express what an amazing impact Vivian has had on my and my families life! My son was diagnosed with acid reflux at about 3 weeks of age and put on extremely strong medication and in a special «bed» to help. After 3 months of him waking every 50 – 90 minutes around the clock I thought I was going insane. My son rarely smiled, mostly cried and was not gaining weight/​eating well. My great sleeper of a 3 year old was now waking multiple times a night and my husband and I were beyond exhausted. Desperate, I called Vivian. Vivian supported me through the entire process and was there for me around the clock. She truly loves babies. Within 2 days he was sleeping 12 hours (yes, 12 hours!) at night and no longer in his special «bed». Within a week he was off all medication and eating 3x more each feeding. He is now a happy and thriving little baby who smiles and loves to eat and sleep. Bedtime is my favorite part of the day because of how happy he is now when he goes to sleep. At 3 months of age he will happily lay in his crib and when he is ready, go to sleep. When I come in 12 hours later to get him I am met with the most beautiful little smile from my well rested and happy little baby.
Vivian was the best money I have ever spent and my only mistake was not calling her sooner.

I remember reading these Unilocal reviews and thinking to myself, «That’s great that it worked for THEM but it probably won’t work for me». «My „spirited“ baby would be too challenging and it would probably take months too see any changes».
I would be up with my 3 month old baby girl every 1 ½ hours during the night and I was E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D
I could not put her down during the day for even a moment or else she would start crying. I didn’t have time to shower, didn’t have to time to eat, and I was holding her ALL THE TIME.
I was an angry exhausted grump every day and something just HAD to change.
:Enter Vivian:
On the 2^nd day in working with Vivian my daughter slept 11 straight hours. True story.
I remember waking my husband up at 4 am that night and was like, «omg I think she might sleep through the night»! I seriously couldn’t believe it. I thought I was dreaming.
Before Vivian came into our lives, I was seriously on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I was completely drained. I would get so jealous when I would talk to other moms whose babies were sleeping through the night and taking naps during the day. I thought I was doing everything wrong and I didn’t feel in control.
It hasn’t even been 2 full weeks yet and the changes that we have seen are incredible.
Below are the changes that we’ve had in these 2 short weeks! :
1) No.More.BINKIE. I seriously didn’t think that was possible. I mean, she LOVED her little Giraffe Wubbanub binkie {a.k.a Mr. Binks}
I would spend almost ALL night holding that darn binkie in her mouth. The moment she fell asleep the binkie would then fall out of her mouth she would wake up. This was a vicious cycle that happened ALL.NIGHT.LONG
Um, can you say exhausting?
It puts a huge smile on my face when I’m out doing errands and she can just sit in her car seat and play with her toys and not have that bink in her mouth!
2) I would have to pump my brakes at every single freaking stop light because she always needed to be «in motion” – otherwise she would start crying at the top of her lungs. Even when waiting in line at a store I would have to push that stroller baaaack and forth, baaaaack and forth. Not any more! Now, she just sits in her car seat and plays with her toys contently. #miracle
3) I am able to actually sleep in my own bed with my husband! From the day we brought Skye home, I slept with her in our guest bedroom – {a.k.a «the dungeon room» my husband and I would jokingly call it} She now sleeps in her crib with no problem!
4) She takes NAPS during the day now.
She sleeps anywhere from 1 – 2 ½ hours at a time in her CRIB. Before, she never took any day time naps. So you can see where I was starting to lose my mind with a baby who never slept during the day and night.
5) Because she is taking naps during the day I have TIME to clean my house and workout! My house no longer looks like a disaster zone. Clean house= happy mama
6) Skye is overall a more calm and happy baby. Before working with Vivian, Skye always seemed wired — like she had 10 cups of Starbucks coffee. It had a lot to do with the fact that she wasn’t sleeping. I love that when my husband and I take her with us to lunch I don’t have to push the stroller back and forth and entertain her the whole time. She can now entertain herself and just quietly observe her surroundings.
Oh and another thing that Vivian told me the day she came to my house was, «she will wake up cooing and smiling from her naps». I did not believe her. Like, what baby actually does that? She isn’t a robot for crying out loud! I’m happy to say she wakes up cooing and smiling and it brings tears of joy to my face every time.
Trust in Vivian. She has years and years of experience with babies and she truly LOVES the babies and has such a passion for what she does.
Sincerely,
ONE HAPPY MAMA

8 weeks old Twin girls sleeping through the night!
No book provides this type of guidance.
I called Vivian when my twin girls were 7 weeks old (now 13 weeks). It took a week with Vivian’s instruction for our girls to sleep through the night (11 hours) and become solid daytime nappers. Vivian’s approach is direct, so be ready to work and to do what is best for your children: teaching them how to sleep!
As a first time parent, and with twins on top of that, I was quickly going down the path of two «jet-​lag» babies on two different schedules. Calling Vivian was the best thing my husband and I could have done for our girls. Many of the posts below detail her methods and standards. However, what I stress to those reading this is that Vivian provides a philosophy, not just a check list. It’s an extremely loving and caring approach reminding you that you are the parent and need to provide the love, structure and guidance to your children. Yes, it seems straightforward, but as parents know sometimes logic and confidence can get lost in the pure awe of raising a child.
Wishing all you parents well! …and call Vivian for help!!!

Vivian is THE BEST at what she does!!! After Vivian, my son is SLEEPING through the night (at least 10 hours every night) and its been 10 days!!! He goes down for naps easily and takes 2 long naps at the same time each day. He knows that he is going to sleep and he does not cry nearly as much. Overall he is less fussy and much more happy. Happy baby = happy parents.
I am first time mom and our son is now 11 months old. Before Vivian, our son would be up several times at night and would not go back to sleep until I fed him. In addition he was a horrible napper — we would have to rock him to sleep and place him gently in his crib but he would wake up after 20 min! I finally gave up and just took him to bed with me and that was the breaking point.
We just didn’t know what to do so I called Vivian. When Vivian and I spoke on the phone, I liked her from the beginning. She is straight to the point and she is very knowledgeable. She is very nice and kind. She will explain every step of the sleep training very clearly. She came to our house the next morning. She spent all morning with us and she also spoke with our nanny to see what she was doing. My husband stayed home that morning as well. Everyone was getting sleep trained in our house! Vivian asked questions and then she told us what we were doing wrong. She has a list of things that you need to do in order for the sleep training to work. She is very strict about that because she loves babies and she does not want the babies to suffer unnecessary if the parents are not following the rules and skipping naps. That morning she showed me how to put my son to bed for a nap and at what time. She stayed for the evening and showed me what to do with him at night. What a difference that first day made!!! Since then she and I have talked on the phone multiple times a day to discuss how things are going. She calls every morning to ask how the nigh went. You can also call her during the day and ask questions if things are difficult and she will walk you through what to do.
Since then my son has been sleeping through the night and he takes 2 naps a day.
I am so happy I called Vivian. She is miracle worker and I can guarantee that her method will work :) Good luck and call Vivian!!! Everyone needs sleep, especially babies :)

You should meet with Vivian and hire her if you are sleep deprived and can’t understand what is wrong with your baby. I was very scared before hiring Vivian. The Pediatrician said she was a high needs baby and I believed she had colic, high needs, reflux. The issue was that she never slept and everything completely resolved itself after we hired Vivian. We were a wreck before hiring Vivian. I would typically hold my baby for 5 – 12 hours per day, followed by my husband, for the most part I was trying to get her to sleep. I would pull the shades, put on the wave machine, gently rock her in my arms as I swayed, shhhed and swaddled. I couldn’t even sit (or my baby would cry) so I had to stand all day rocking my baby or she would cry hysterically. I remember one day I tried to get her to sleep for 8 hours. When my husband got home he tried for another 4 and finally she fell asleep after the 12 hour. On a good day after about 3 months she would sleep from 6−12pm but that was all. No naps during the day. The rest of the night I was up with her.
—Enter Vivian
Vivian is very sweet and helped me listen to my babies cries (to determine what’s a serious cry vs. not) and showed me how she should sleep (in a crib). She told me how long to wait before going in and after about 3 days we were happy. Prior to that I only put her down 10 minutes per day, the rest she was in my arms or she would cry. I had a hard time sticking to Vivian’s program because I couldn’t stand to listen to my baby cry for more than 10 minutes so it took us longer than average to have her sleep 12 hours. It took about 2 weeks to have her sleep 12 hours consistently and since then she’s never woken us up again. Every part of my life was on the rocks before Vivian. Now we are as happy as can be. I only wished I hadn’t waited until 3.5 months to hire Vivian.

I wish every single family could work with Vivian. She is an exceptional person and has completely mastered sleep training. Our 6 month old son now sleeps 12 hours a night and is on a regular nap schedule. It is truly a miracle and we could not have done it without Vivian. Before we met Vivian our then 5 month old son was waking up 3 – 4 times per night in his co-​sleeper. We had been working with another sleep trainer who told us not to focus on naps (suffice to say this person did not help us at all). When we weren’t seeing progress with this first sleep trainer, I called Vivian one Saturday morning completely at my wits end. She called me right back, talked me through her methods, and came to our house two days later. She put our son down for his afternoon nap in his crib (first time in his crib) and from then on he has slept in his crib and he sleeps through the night. Vivian is a complete gem. It is rare that you meet someone as dedicated and caring as Vivian. It is all about the babies for Vivian. She truly wants to help the babies sleep — I really mean it when I say that I wish every family could work with her. She will get your baby sleeping and provides reassurance and support in the most genuine, heartfelt manner. The best part of having worked with Vivian is that our son is so happy and cheerful-​its clear that he’s truly thriving thanks to Vivian. I wholeheartedly recommend Vivian — it is the best money I’ve spent since our son was born. She is truly amazing. I only wish I’d found her sooner. If we have another baby I will work with Vivian and I’m recommending her to everyone. Absolutely adore her!!!

What can I say… this experience was nothing short of amazing! Now don’t get me wrong the crying was killer but it stopped… now my babies are happy going down for a nap and at bed time and are HAPPY when they wake up!
That very first day we started nearly broke my husband and myself, but we followed Vivian’s protocol and called her constantly when the twins threw us a curveball and she was excellent at calling us to check in. I should mention that we live in Connecticut and we felt like Vivian was right here with us! She is very special like that.
If you are questioning the cost of Vivian’s expertise. ask yourself how much would you pay for a quiet, happy, sleeping baby that sleeps from 6:30 pm to 6:45 am!!! She was worth her weight in gold if you ask us.
Vivian thank you is just not enough!

Vivian Sonnenberg is truly amazing! She sleep train both of my kids and they sleep so well. My husband and I couldn’t be happier. I first met Vivian to train my 10 month old daughter. My daughter slept through the night that very same night and continues to sleep through the night today. She is now 2 years old. Bedtime naps are super easy following Vivian’s method. My daughter always know when it is time for nap and time for bed. She loves to get ready for bed. I just had my 2^nd baby and Vivian sleep trained him starting at 2 months. He slept through the night by 2 ½ months. After he was sleep train, it was so much easier for me. I got rest and both my kids were well rested and happy every day. She is very passionate about babies and sleep training and I am so glad to have her. =)

Vivian is a dream come true. Some reviewers have mentioned negative comments and I’m shocked. Vivian came to us when our second baby was just 12 pounds (around 3 months old). She spent a difficult week coaching us through some long nights and within a matter or days (literally, less than 8 days), our young baby was sleeping 12 hours at night and taking 2 long naps during the day. Our first son NEVER did this because we were doing all the wrong things. Vivian was a warm, supportive, thoughtful coach. I recommend her to anyone who wants to sleep train at an early age.

VIVIAN IS A MIRACLE WORKER!
I will be grateful to Vivian Sonnenberg until the day I die! Vivian saved my marriage, my sanity and my baby. After reading many of these reviews I feel I probably had the worst case. My child NEVER slept. At 8am I started my 12 hour routine of holding her until my husband could take over. For 12 hours a day I practiced the 5 s’s. I never was able to sit my baby down — not for 5 minutes. She cried incessantly and my life had turned into a bad dream. The doctor concluded that she was high needs. My husband and I concluded that we would have to send her to special schools and never afford to buy a house.
ENTER VIVIAN
I was reluctant to spend money we didn’t have but I was desperate. Vivian came over within a few days after I called and has been instrumental in getting my life back on track. Within one week my baby slept through the night and was even napping! I had NEVER put my baby in a crib before Vivian because I practiced co sleeping and incorrectly believed that my child slept better with me there. I was dead wrong. My methods were all wrong. I tried my hardest to help my daughter sleep yet the harder I tried (never letting her down, never putting her in the crib or letting her cry) the worse it got. After I met Vivian and followed her methods things changed. At 3.5 months my life finally stopped spiraling out of control and for this I will forever be thankful to Vivian.
She will patiently walk you through the process and consult with you every day until you have it down. She is like the fairy godmother you dream about — only she knows what she is doing.

I am giving Vivian 5 stars because, first and foremost, her method WORKS. If you do exactly what she tells you to do, and remain consistent, baby sleeps through the night. Mine did at 10 weeks. My other son was never sleep-​trained — Vivian offered advice on how to correct his toddler tendency to sneak into our room — and that has worked as well. She was available morning and evening, 7 days a week, for 2 months after a 2.5 hour consulting session. To me, this was more than fair. She was quick to respond to emails and phone calls, and I never had a problem with connectivity. I feel so grateful that both of my boys are finally getting the sleep that they need, and I have precious time with my husband each night before turning in. Thank you, Vivian!

Vivian succeeds again with our twins! She has slept trained my 15 week old twins and she is brilliant! I didn’t think it would be possible to place the twins to sleep in the same room, let alone to sleep for 12 hours a night. However, Vivian accomplished this miracle for us. I am finally getting some rest after 4 months of exhaustion. More importantly though, the twins are finally getting the sleep they need to grow and stay healthy. They have grown so much and so well in the past 2 weeks since the sleep training with Vivian. Sleep for the babies and the parents is the best gift anyone can receive. Nothing is more important than sleep. Thank heavens there is a truly qualified and highly experienced expert like Vivian. There are so many so-​called experts, but her success speaks for itself. She has helped countless families. I was referred to Vivian by some attorney moms and I will continue to wholeheartedly refer Vivian to other families without any reservation. Just trust in Vivian, benefit from her wisdom with babies’ sleep and experience the transformation for yourself. This will be the best decision you make for your babies and for yourself!

I will preface this by saying that it’s taken me over a year to write this review — to make sure I could do so in a professional way. I am, in all honesty, emotionally scarred by my experience with Vivan Sonnenberg.
We called her about our 7-​month-​old, who was not sleep trained and was very difficult. (For reference, I have an older child whom we sleep-​trained, hardcore CIO, when he was a baby. I have no problem with the idea of it or a logical implementation of it. And I knew all this going into our time with Vivian.) I’d read sleep training books. I’d been through it once. I guess I was expecting expertise or magic — what we got was an overpriced grandmother whom I had to call every morning to insist, despite her obvious disbelief, that I hadn’t gone into his room at all. Despite his hours of crying.
Suffice it to say, Vivian offered no new advice other than «he should have socks on when he sleeps.» She met with us once, we paid her an exorbitant amount of money, and then I called her every morning for four and a half weeks.
FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS.
No follow-​up from her; no refocusing the strategy. Four and a half weeks of my baby crying 1 or 2 hours every night. Sometimes more. Very rarely less. (Like I said, I’m still emotionally scarred, even though he’s fine…)
Vivian literally said to me once, near the end of it all, that she’d never seen anything like this and didn’t know what to do. I should have asked for my money back at that point, but I felt so trapped — already having gone through such agony and not wanting to really mess him up by untraining him.
A small annoyance was that every time I called her, she was in an elevator or in her car and had really bad cell service. Communication was bad with her on many levels, but cell reception made it all the worse.
If you’re looking for someone to tell you to leave your kid alone all night, at all costs, feel free to pay me $ 600. I’ll do it. Better yet, find someone who’s actually an expert. Better yet, use your own gut instincts and carefully weigh what price you’re willing to pay for sleep. But please, please, please don’t call Vivian Sonnenberg. I wouldn’t wish her on my worst enemy, much less a desperate parent.

Vivian is an angel, we adore her like she is family now. She is sweet, patient, honest, kind, thorough, wise, and very intelligent. We are so glad that we met her and that she spent time with our baby girl. We have an amazing little girl who is perfectly well rested now that we have her on a schedule per Vivian’s plan.
Call Vivian and meet her. ASAP, you will never regret it.
She always answers or she gets back to you right away on the phone. She is so sweet and gifted, truly blessed to have met her.
Brilliant helper indeed!!!

Vivian is a miracle worker!!! We hired Vivian three three years ago when our daughter was 5 months old. Our daughter was never a great napper nor did she sleep long stretches at night. We finally called Vivian when our daughter was five months old and still waking up every couple hours during the night. She was exhausted during the day and so were we. Vivian had our daughter sleeping 12 hours within 3 days!!! We could not believe it at all! And she gave us all a great schedule for the days so both baby and parents knew when it was time to eat, play and sleep. We finally had a routine and our evening and nights back!!! And best of all, our daughter was a very happy baby throughout the day!
We recently called Vivian again when our son turned 5 months. I hesitated using her again because I figured I had learned so much the first time that I could just apply the same learnings this time. While we were much better parents this time around, our son was still waking up once a night — around 4am. This was not getting better so we finally decided to call Vivian again and she got him sleeping 12 hours by the second night!!! Vivian is AMAZING and we recommend her to anyone who has a child that is not sleeping through the night.

Vivian helped us turn our life around as new parents. Our just-​turned-​5 month old boy had been very irregular in his sleep since he was born, for the most part waking up every few hours all night long to nurse (occasionally, though rarely, going for 5 – 6 hour stretches) and taking very short (i.e., 20 – 45 mins), irregular naps. I was totally exhausted and also frustrated and discouraged about what we could do to turn his sleep around. I, like many reviewers, had read many books on sleep (all the big ones) and had even been trying sleep training for some time. Still, things did not seem to be improving and I was feel worried that we would never really figure this out.
I met with Vivian and literally that night, for the first time, my son slept through the night (i.e., 12 hours). On subsequent nights we did have more of a struggle at times, but more or less, from the day Vivian came to meet us, we have had real sleep in our house. Now, about 3 weeks post-​Vivian, we have a boy who sleeps 12 hours a night and naps for 1.5−2.5 hours twice a day. I can’t believe this is my child!
While a piece of me thinks Vivian waved a magic wand when she came to my house, I am (unfortunately for me :)) much more of a skeptic than that. I think what really did the trick for us was the thoroughness of Vivian’s approach (while I already had a lot of the major sleep do’s in place, from reading so many books, i.e., bedtime routine, early bedtime, etc. etc.), there were a lot of little things I hadn’t thought of. Plus, there are always little specific questions that come up that the books do you explain. And this leads me to the biggest help in working with Vivian: the fact that she makes herself available to you DAILY for phone calls. Having attempted sleep training multiple times on my own and having the attempts fail for various reasons, I know that being able to touch base with Vivian and get her support and advice daily is the reason that we have been successful.
I do not hesitate in recommending Vivian. Call her if you are having trouble with sleep!!! Your life can be so much better and Vivian will work with you to develop a detailed plan for getting your little one (and you) to sleep. Having babies is expensive, and I know that my husband and I felt that we «shouldn’t» have to spend money on something that «should» come naturally, but it is by far the best money we’ve spent so far. And 3 weeks in, I know if we have a problem come up, Vivian is totally available to me and will help me figure it out. I feel very supported, empowered — and most of all relieved!!! — that I have a baby who is now sleeping. It allows us all to be happier.
One last thing: we did have to tolerate some crying which is simply hard. I do believe that if you are at the point of considering hiring a sleep consultant, it is very likely that some crying will happen to get to good sleep (though, I hope for your sake, not :)). I say this because if crying is 100% not an option for you, then I would reconsider whether hiring any sleep consultant at this time is the right choice. With that said, you might find, once talking with Vivian who is clearly such a loving mother with the baby’s best interest at heart, that some crying actually is okay with you… but I realize this is very personal.
Good luck!

If I could give negative 5 stars, I would in this case. I was one of Vivian’s first clients and she told my husband and I that her experience consisted of helping her grandchildren fall asleep (I have heard that she now says she is an RN). If you need to pay someone to tell you to let your child ‘cry it out’, she is your person. However if your child cries an hour for the first night, 2 hours the second and then 3 straight hours the third she doesn’t have a clue nor is she trained as to what else might be going on with your child. So, in sum, her only advice is to tell you to let your child cry it out and she will call you for 3 days to make sure you did that. She should be in jail for charging what she does and for pretending g to be a nurse!!!

All I can say is, SAVE YOUR MONEY! This is NOT a customized plan at all, it is something you can easily get out of any sleep training book. I feel completely duped by paying way too much for so little in return. I blame my severe sleep-​deprivation for falling for such a lame service. She does not give any alternatives to her cookie-​cutter plan. And the phone support is nothing at all beyond her telling parents to stick to the plan.
SAVE YOUR MONEY and buy a sleep training book.

Vivian is so wonderful! I am not exaggerating when I say she has had a significant positive impact on my quality of life, my marriage, and my ability to be a good mom.
I was quite nervous to sleep train our twins (4 months old) but I knew we had to do something — poor little guys were so sleepy from short naps that they didn’t have enough energy to play much during the day. On top of that, my husband and I were exhausted from the frequent night wakings for feedings and pacifier replacement. All of this made for a cranky household. Nobody was thriving.
We have a two year old and got by not sleep training him. Let me tell you, it was two draining years of rocking him to sleep completely and having a lot of trouble getting him to take good naps, etc. I wish we had known about Vivian during our struggles back then. We all would have been a lot more rested and happy.
Once we invited Vivian into our home and asked for help, we experienced an amazing transformation. She gave us the tools to really care for our family. You don’t realize how crucial sleep is until you, your spouse, and your children lack it. Vivian very clearly explained how to take control as parents and give our children the best care possible by setting guidelines for their sleep. I really appreciated how knowledgable she is about her work. On top of this, she sincerely cares about her clients, especially the babies. She pours her heart into her work! One of the most valuable things Vivian offers (included in the consultation fee) is two months of help by phone. This has been invaluable to me as she always has a thoughtful response for me, tailored to our situation. She really is a genius at what she does.
The most important thing is to trust her process. Follow her instructions and you will be so incredibly pleased with the results. My parents and in-​laws are flabbergasted by what great little sleepers we have (as compared to our sleep struggles with our first child). My husband and I are so happy that we no longer have to bargain with each other for sleep. We have more time for ourselves or each other in the evening since the babies are asleep by 7pm and don’t wake until 6am.
Also, don’t feel like it’s too late to get help — Vivian not only helped us immensely with our four month old twins but she also got us on track with gently creating healthier sleep habits for our two year old. If you feel you are ready to make this positive change for your family, give her a call!

Hiring Vivian was the best money I have ever spent. Period.
She saved my sanity after 6 months of very little sleep. I had previously hired another sleep consultant who kind of helped but did not really get the job done. Then I hired Vivian and within a few days, our lives were so much better. She coaches you through everything, and constantly checks in to see how things are going. I found her wonderful to work. It is such a relief knowing she is there if we need sleep advice for our daughter in the future!