I want to tell you a little more about myself and how I became a Sleep Consultant. My full name is Michelle Nardone Culleton and I am 38 years old. I live in the Northwest Philadelphia suburbs in a town called Lafayette Hill. I am a mom, a wife, a Physical therapist, a professor, a social butterfly (pre-covid…sigh), a home cook, a cleaner of messes, a mover of the toys around in the house so we don’t step on them…you know how it goes! I currently take care of my son full time and as also manage this business. Prior to starting this business and prior to Liam being born I worked as a full time Pediatric Physical Therapist for over 13 years at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Being a physical therapist is so rewarding (and of course a lot of hard work!). When Liam was born I made the difficult decision to become a Physical Therapist on a Per Diem basis which meant I would work occasionally on the weekend and if they were really busy. The con was giving up a full-time career making a difference in children’s physical abilities but a perk was the ability to have a more flexible life schedule and tend more to the needs of my family. I’m sure all of my readers here have a great relationship with their Pro/Con lists!
As I’m sure you can relate, becoming parent is such a huge life change. I mean, I knew I was unprepared but let’s be honest, I was UNPREPARED. Unprepared for the huge weight and responsibility of having a child and unprepared for the millions of decisions that needed to be made and all of the things to learn. Who knew there were THAT many brands of bottles, diaper creams, swaddles, mattresses, strollers…the list goes on! What I’m getting at here is that I was most unprepared for the feeling of utter exhaustion related to sleep deprivation. Before Liam I could “catch up” on the weekend if I wasn’t rested. Well as you know, the ability to do that flies out the window when you have a kid.
So here my husband and I were with a poorly sleeping and extremely overtired newborn and no idea how to help him. And he could SCREAM. My neighbors were nice and said they never heard him. I’m not sure that was possible. I was sooooo tired and miserable and felt so helpless. And worse, led myself to believe I was a bad mom (please don’t ever think this about yourself, ok? ). I’m the type of person that tries to find solutions to problems so that’s what I did. I researched, I read, I watched videos and then implemented some strategies to help Liam sleep better. I learned how to enforce healthy habits and be more consistent. And it helped! Fast forward to this day and Liam is a wonderful sleeper.
So how did this lead me to becoming a Sleep Consultant? A few months after Liam was born we were visiting with some friends who had a similar poorly sleeping baby and they hired a sleep consultant. They were over the moon about the results. I only could think I wish I would have known that there was a professional out there to help me! The last thing I wanted to do when Liam wasn’t sleeping was to use my only free time and mental energy left for the day to read how to get my son sleeping better. I would have loved to have the guidance and reassurance from a professional. That conversation with friends led me to research the process of becoming a consultant and I realized that this would be something I could really enjoy! Up until this point having a career as PT was focused on helping others and I was really missing that. This was a profession where I could continue to help others achieve something that is such a basic and overlooked need. Sleep is so important for a child’s development and I love the idea of promoting healthy sleep habits. Also, because I was a parent now, I could relate to new moms and dads feeling so sleep deprived and overwhelmed.
Thank for reading if you have made it this far and it feels good to share this story! If you have any questions and would like to know more about how I can help you please give me call, I would love to talk to you.
