Jillian Christjansen had a lot of confidence in her ability to add a baby into her life. Armed with her nursing degree and well-honed ability to research, Christjansen thought having kids would be a big change, but one she could handle.
Life with her first-born son started out very smoothly.
And then he stopped sleeping.
Suddenly, Christjansen was awake constantly at all hours of the night with a screaming, exhausted baby. Living constantly without good sleep herself started to take its toll.
“I felt so guilty because I realized I was not enjoying my child, I was not liking my baby because I was so exhausted and I didn’t know what to do anymore. That was my breaking point.”
Feeling embarrassed and ashamed that she wasn’t coping well, Christjansen recalled something another mom had mentioned – the Sleep Sense program. She looked up the program on her computer and decided to start that night by buying the online book and video package.
Developed by Dana Obleman, a former B.C. resident, Sleep Sense offers a variety of programs and services to help parents deal with sleep issues in young, healthy children.
Christjansen was delighted with the results. Within four days on the program her son was sleeping through the night and napping on schedule — and the whole household was happier. She adopted the program with her second son and calls him a “sleep champion.”
The topic became such a passion that Christjansen decided to make spreading better sleep her mission.
She later expressed interest in becoming a consultant for Sleep Sense. The company contacted her and, after evaluating her background and education, Christjansen was offered the opportunity to enrol in the Sleep Sense training program.
She studied the program and participated in the online courses as well as travelling to Florida, where Obleman is now based, to participate in an intensive training session.
In order to be certified by Sleep Sense, Christjansen also had to act as consultant for “test families” who then privately evaluated her before she could be registered as a consultant.
In the fall, she opened Purely Sleep Consulting and offers parents a wide range of sleep support services as a certified Sleep Sense consultant. Her services can include meeting with families, offering sleep education, creating a personalized sleep plan that parents are comfortable with, and providing ongoing support and guidance by phone, text or email – sometimes even through the nighttime hours.
“Having a consultant is way different than just buying a book and trying to follow it. Poor mamas out there – everyone’s throwing advice at them, telling them to read this and do that – often people are just so overwhelmed and exhausted they don’t know what to do anymore. That’s where I can really help them sort out the issues, find a way to work through the problem and offer them the moral support to stick with it,” Christjansen says.
Find out more at www.PurelySleep.ca or on the Facebook page: Purely Sleep Consulting To contact her directly, email: jillianchristjansen@gmail.com or phone 250-801-3358.
