Local Greenpointer Ella Grace Hanover is a pediatric sleep specialist who started a sleep coaching practice called Ella Grace Sleep Solutions, providing comprehensive virtual coaching for parents in the neighborhood and all over the world.
Hanover now has a successful Brooklyn-based business and rave reviews from clients, but this was not always her chosen path. She first studied communications at Fordham and wanted to work in fashion.“When I was studying communications I was working with kids part time on the side, and I loved it,” Hanover said of her first introduction to working with kids through babysitting.
“I think everyone has a talent and true passion and kids are mine,” Hanover told Greenpointers. After this realization, Hanover went back to school to be a teacher. While studying, she worked as a postpartum doula and night nurse.
“I feel in love with being in the home,” she said. “When you get to come into someone’s home and bring love and support the mom and baby, I was never going to not be doing that,” Hanover concluded.
Hanover never used her teaching degree and continued to work with moms and babies as a doula and night nurse. After working with one family in Brooklyn, Hanover ended up staying on as a nanny, so her experience runs the gamut.
“Sleep was always a big part of the expertise I brought to families. I saw families that had routine and predicability around sleep and the benefits that had for the child and parents.” Hanover also saw sleep routines that were messy and not established and the ramifications of that.
When Hanover was pregnant with her son in 2021, she studied to be a pediatric sleep consultant, and then opened up shop quickly. She worked through her pregnancy, taking on clients on the side. In February 2022, she developed a website for her business and formally built it out.
All of Hanover’s sleep coaching is done virtually, mostly over the phone. She currently offers two support options. The first is a Sleep Strategy Call, which is a 45-minute phone call that “gives families the clarity, peace of mind and age-appropriate strategies.”
Hanover explained that most people have a schedule, but need just one or two tweaks. One example is if the baby wakes at 5 a.m. and another example is a transition from two naps to one. “A lot of the calls are about giving clarity and action steps, but also confidence. That is a big part of what I do,” Hanover explained.
The second option is the Complete Sleep Support, which is a comprehensive two-week program for families who want to achieve predictable, quality sleep with an individualized approach and daily guidance. This option includes a comprehensive intake form, onboarding call, customized sleep plan, daily check-ins, two phone calls per week, and a 30-minute wrap-up call.
“The two-week program is about big transitions,” Hanover said. One example is the transition from the parents’ bed to the crib. Hanover looks at the whole family and the whole child. She says it is important to understand the parents’ goal, and tailors her support for each unique family, making it client-led and family-focused. She monitors progress and troubleshoots day by day.
“My goal is to arrive with no agenda,” Hanover said. “Every couple of months I shift programs based on needs I see coming in from families.”
Hanover has developed a shining reputation among her clients. One client, Michelle Kinsella, said, “Ella saved us.”
Kinsella told Greenpointers, “My baby’s sleep was horrific. At ten months I would still be up five times a night. We were deeply sleep deprived and at breaking point. But I couldn’t stomach the full cry it out method. Ella got us on the right track with her gentle but firm methods and after three weeks our little one finally slept through the night. It was a miracle and the best money we ever spent.”
Another one of Hanover’s clients, Kate Lundell, said: “Ella is knowledgeable in a way that allowed her to craft a highly responsive sleep plan for us day by day, based on our baby’s specific needs and changes as we transitioned from co-sleeping to crib sleeping.”
“In my case, I also needed a lot of reassurance and support (and permission, at times) around that separation and learning how to, and when not to, tolerate crying in the short term. The whole experience ended up being way less harrowing than I’d expected,” Lundell told Greenpointers. “More than anything, she helped us gain more self confidence as parents in the face of all the inevitable sleep challenges of the first year with a new baby.”
Though she could take clients from anywhere because she works virtually, Hanover told Greenpointers that a lot of her clients are local and many come through referrals.
Hanover also exuded her love for Greenpoint moms. “I love Greenpoint as a neighborhood, but also as a mom. The connections I have built with other moms in the neighborhood are really rare. It’s rare to find a community that is so easy to connect with other families. The avenues to meet other moms are accessible,” said Hanover.
I like your gender neutral headline, using the word parents and not the usual female privileged ones many far left publications use, ie the man does not exist.