I will start off with a few confessions and a little backstory and get right to the Moms on Call interview with Laura Hunter because it flat out made me cry.
Reegan co-slept with us until she was almost 11 months old. Even looking back, I know there were A LOT of reasons (maybe excuses) for it. We were doing an international move, there was a hurricane evacuation, my husband was on deployments, I was staying at his mom’s house and my mom’s house… we were all over the place. And rarely without a crib. At one point, me and Reegs had stayed at 13 locations in under 8 weeks.
When we finally settled into our home, I was out touched to say the least.
Reegan “trained” pretty quickly and my friend had walked me through it via text message. She was a solid sleeper for about a year. However, when Reegan turned 2, everything hit the fan. I was very pregnant, my husband was working a lot, and she got a stomach bug. Back into our bed she came, and for months refused to leave. Preparing for her little sister, I panicked.
We did several sleep training methods and it was exhausting. In and out of the room, I felt lost and full of self doubt and just couldn’t imagine adding to this. Finally she slept again. But I didn’t really have a road map. Nothing had worked. Eventually it was just fine somehow.
Enter Julia. I just didn’t think sleep training was possible at this point for my babies without feeling like I was leaving them in a foster home to scream forever. I had the Moms On Call app and the schedule seemed far fetched for an on-demand EBF co-sleeping baby.
Cut to Julie being 7 months old and Out Touched was once again in full force. It was 7pm on a Monday night and I finally downloaded the Moms on Call book along with the Kindle app and skipped straight to sleeping for 6-8 month olds.
Sound Machine on White Noise. Footie Pajamas. Temperature Control (heater). Pitch Black.
LEAVE THE ROOM.
Seriously. Leave the room and do not go back in until the morning. None of the go in every 10 minutes. None of the extending times.
Unless they are in danger, get out and stay out.
You know what that felt like? It felt like the world might fall apart, it felt like maybe I was the worst mom ever, and it also tasted like permission. Permission for me to not have to stand by the door for hours. Permission for me to stop continually upsetting her by coming back in. Permission for her to calm down. Permission to prioritize sleep.
And in 34 minutes. Julie was asleep.
She woke up the next morning fresh as a daisy.
The Moms on Call App schedule became the lock screen for my phone and we have all been sleeping great ever since. Of course there are nights that Julie wakes up and cries for a bit, but it’s actually rare, and because of MOC I feel fine. I wake up several times as an adult and know it’s still time to go back to sleep. She’s learning that. And during the day, because of her schedule, I KNOW WHAT SHE WANTS. I can not explain the feeling of not playing a guessing game 75 times a day.
I can not express how much we all love sleep.
After 3 years of hearing about these woman and their MOC App constantly, I am thrilled that I FINALLY downloaded the book and trusted them.
When I reached out to Moms on Call, Laura Hunter was kind enough to agree to an interview.
…and sent over a set of books as a giveaway for YOU!
The body pillow is NOT part of Moms on Call, but both of my kids were addicted to them.
Interview with Laura Hunter of Moms on Call
How did Moms On Call come about?
Moms On Call started almost 16 years ago when my youngest was one week old and my boss (I was working for a busy pediatric practice in Atlanta) told me to start seeing our new patients. Go into the home and “tell then what to worry about, what not to worry about” The basics of day to day life with a newborn. Honestly, I thought there is no way! I am on-call 90 hours a week and I had just had my 5th kid! But that is what we did. Jennifer and I began putting together a “folder” of what we were doing in our homes and how we were answering the questions coming in from all those calls we were taking. What followed was a surprise to both of us. Letters began coming in of babies being happier, sleeping longer and better than ever, a decrease in colic symptoms and the most common was how much more “confident” these families were after we left. Word of mouth spread and before we knew it that folder turned into a published book and we were shipping those books/blankets out of our basement around the world.
Did you ever envision this kind of growth within the company?
No. It was not our intention. Our intention was to meet the needs of our families for the practice we working in. But before we knew it, we had patients from other practices calling, pediatricians from other practices were calling and wanting us to come to their home with their 1st born children and then to help their patients. Never in our wildest imaginations would we have thought we would be doing virtual consults with families around the world. The first time we had to ship a book to a Prince in the United Arab of Emirates, we had to ask, “can we even do that?”!
I have found that just being given the permission to leave the room has been life changing. Mom guilt is real and it’s what keeps many moms from sleep training. When it comes to the method, how did you come to “the goal is to leave the room and not go back in until 6:30am”?
When healthy and over 12 weeks of age, What we found is that if we put a few things in place: routine ( consistently as reality will allow), feed well, instill good habits when possible before we even get to this point, using a sound machine etc. What we found is that most of us can do anything for a few days. If it last weeks we may not be able to do it. So when that time comes, again not all CIO is the same, what a momma heart needs to know is that they are not crying because you are not in there, they typically are frustrated and crying because it is different than what you have been doing. It takes about 3 nights to settle in and get used to it. The mom guilt is real! Mainly because we find ourselves allowing too many voices to speak into how we do this thing called “parenting”. What we want parents to do is to parent out of truth and not fear. The truth is there are many ways to do this thing called “parenting”. The truth is that we all love our kids regardless of which “method” we do. The truth is our kids are loved beyond measure and they cannot feel “abandoned” if they are not “abandoned”. The families that reach out for help, ask questions, read a book are families whose kids know love! So at MOC we just ask that you parent out of that truth. You find what works in your home with your belief system. But more importantly, how about letting this next generation of kids be raised by “parents” and not experts. We will help, we will walk this out with you with books, personalized consults and some new stuff coming in 2019. But we believe in you, the parent!!!
Did you ever struggle with that yourself with your 5 kiddos?
Yes! Working 90 hours a week from home, starting MOC and my consulting business when I had 5 kids and 4 of them under 5 yrs old, there were many opportunities to second guess if I was doing everything “right”. You know what I didn’t. But this is what I know: I know that in my home we do not expect perfection. Not from us as parents and not from our kids. So, the truth is, I will never be perfect. My kids will not be perfect. So we give a ton of Grace and Mercy in the Hunter house. I love that my kids have the opportunity to see me fail and ask forgiveness and I love that my kids know they can fail, take ownership, get up, dust themselves off and start again. I constantly battle seeing all the perfect pics, perfect families, clean houses and realize that is just not my reality! Right now my floors are awful, pillows never seem to stay on the couch, probably 5 loads of laundry to do and I am sure that leftovers from Thanksgiving are still in my refrigerator!
You have a cult like following, but it’s more the name of the company than your faces, any funny stories on hearing MOC moms chatting not know it was you?
One of my favorites: I was on a flight out of Atlanta, sitting in the middle seat between an older gentleman and my daughter. We were chatting when the gentleman said he had been in Atlanta for the last few weeks after the delivery of his first grandbaby. He said, “it is so incredible.” He then said, “they are doing this thing called Moms On Call and man I wish we had that when our kids were little.” So, I reached down, pulled the book out of my bag and he says, “What you know about them?!!” and I turned the book over and my picture was there. It really was so funny!
I have scrolled through the MOC book on my phone almost every night to reassure myself. Is there anything you wish you could add into the book?
I wish that parents would be able to feel how much we believe in them! That their kids are loved and that every need is met, in a wonderful home, in a climate controlled environment. They are going to be just fine! That our kids are strong, adaptable and resilient and so are you!! That is why the personalized consultations have been so successful. It allows us to partner and walk it out and limit the amount of voices speaking into how we do things.
Before sleep training, I was co-sleeping and of the mindset that they are only little for so long and I just want to hold her and snuggle as much as I can, but then exhaustion hit me and one night, in the hallway at 7pm I downloaded the book on Amazon and said that’s it we are doing MOC. How do you respond to the “snuggle while you can” perspective?
I am going to snuggle and love on my kids all day!!! When we are exhausted and no one is sleeping well it makes it difficult to be the best we can be during the day. I want to be rested, I want to have time to get other things done in the evening so that it frees up time during the day and by creating routine and boundaries we find that both kids and parents are ready for all the new adventures the day holds.
What’s the coolest success story you’ve heard so far? (Mine is my friend of 4 girls uses MOC and somehow has all 4 kids asleep by 7:15pm nightly… even her 2 twin babies!)
Oh my goodness that is a tough one to answer. We literally get emails everyday from families. I have one family that has had me out 4 times with the addition of each new kid. While I am there for the 4th time, doing the bath that I have taught this family 3 other times within 5 years, I go to put the big washcloth over the chest while doing the bath and dad says, “I forgot about the washcloth!” I turned around and said,” You did not, you just want me to feel sorry for you and come back out if there is a 5th baby. I am not doing it. If you don’t have it by now, then no more kids.” He responded with, ” Laura you will come back out if there is a 5th because it has worked so well and we want to do it exactly the same way each time.” So they have 4 kids that have followed the MOC way and they still check in and talk about how great all of their kids are at sleeping and they are now in elementary and middle school.
This is one they just received:
| Dear Moms On Call – Thank you so much for your program!!! My husband and I would love to speak anytime toward the tried and true method that you teach. We had a very healthy 1st baby that slept through the night at 9 weeks. We have a very sick baby with HLHS (1/2 a heart) that has gone through many surgeries and still more to come….but once we were safe enough and cleared by our cardiologists to sleep train….we got him on the MOC method about 6 months old. He is now off his feeding tube, sleeping through the night and THRIVING thanks to MOC. Your program can work for all types of babies that are doctor-approved safe enough for your training. Thank you for helping our children and us to enjoy our lives! For more about our story and our new mission to help others with CHD – go to BrightHeartFoundation.org ♥ |
Post was original posted February 2019 but has been updated and recirculated.
