Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam Jones and Pat Porrey.
Pam and Pat, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Pam: I’m the co-Founder of Sweet Dreams Infant Care. I have been a Registered Nurse for over 20 years working at various hospitals in Labor & Delivery, NICU, Mother/ Baby units, Lactation Counselor and teaching new Parent Classes. For the first 10 years of my career I did not even know what a Baby Nurse was!
It wasn’t until I worked at one of the largest Women’s Hospital in Chicago where I saw first-hand due to shorter hospital stays how many new moms were often not getting the training and assistance they needed before they left the hospital with their newborn(s). Due to budget cuts and staff reductions, I was not able to take the time to teach new moms about their newborns, the way I wanted too. Being a mom myself and my love of taking care of babies, it did not take long before many of the new moms started asking me, “Could you come home with me and be my Baby Nurse?” Since I was not exactly sure what that was at the time, I always graciously declined. It was not until one of the doctors asked me if I would go home with a sick new mom and help her care for her newborn that I finally said, yes. Once I did, I knew I had found my passion. My life changed forever and our company “Sweet Dreams Infant Care” was born.
Becoming a Baby Nurse I was able to take the time to educate and support parents in their home and build their confidence. Going home with these new moms I was able to educate and support them in a comfortable relaxed environment, and help them get the rest they desperately needed.
The only problem was that I was the only RN that was working as a Baby Nurse at the time and I could not keep up with the demand. After working with sleep-deprived families, and seeing the difference I could make- I could not tell these new moms NO. So, I enlisted my recently retired sister, Pat Porrey who had previous business experience and a Master’s degree in Psychology to open Sweet Dreams Infant Care with me. Our goal was to be able to recruit and train experienced RN’s and Infant/Newborn Care Specialist to help more parents by providing postpartum education and support. Our mission is to “Rescue Sleep Deprived” families by teaching healthy sleep habits from birth. So babies and their parents could achieve the HEALTHY SLEEP they all so desperately needed, and really enjoy this time.
Has it been a smooth road?
In the beginning years, I did what I loved to do. I was able to go to our client’s homes and give them the postpartum education and support they needed. However, once our company started growing, everything changed. I could not stay up all night and try to sleep during the day and then wake up to a dozen phone calls from potential clients and caregivers. So, we decided we would train and place more caregivers so we could reach more sleep deprived families. We wrote a 375-training manual all of our caregivers need to read and test out on. This way we were sure they were giving the best information and care to our clients and their babies.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Sweet Dreams Infant Care is full service Infant Care agency dedicated to providing Chicagoland and its surrounding suburbs, Dallas, Tampa and San Francisco with the most trusted and reliable postpartum care services available.
It was great to be recognized this year as the 2017 best Sleep Specialists by both Collin and Fort Worth Child magazines. For the past 5 years we have been the resident experts in Night Nursing and Infant Care with the Bump Club and Beyond which is the largest premiere social event company in Chicago. We are additionally proud to be continually asked to teach Healthy Sleep Habits & Sleep Training classes for the Transitioning to Motherhood group at the largest Women’s hospital in Chicago. We were also honored to receive the Goldman Sach’s job and revenue growth 2015 award given to us by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
However, we feel our biggest accomplishments are always measured by the high quality of care our team strives to give to our clients and their families.
You cannot help but grow attached to all the babies we have cared for since we opened in 2009. But, we will always have a special place in our hearts for Conor. Here is the testimonial Conor’s mom wrote for us which pretty much sums up why we do what we do.
It is hard to put into words what these women did for me and my family. Pam and Pat signed on for a night nursing job that entailed one healthy newborn, but unconditionally rose to the occasion to care for me and my whole family. Pam and Pat joyfully joined our family on May 12 to give us the helping hands with baby #3, Conor. I always looked forward to their arrival every night! They are the kindest, caring, trustworthy, knowledgeable and dependable women I know. As some weeks went by, Pam and Pat kept informing me of some “out of the norm” things they noticed with Conor, which I had been noticing too. On June 26th I took him into a GI specialist who discovered a tumor in his kidney, which ended up to be a Stage III Wilms’ Tumor. Conor was treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The ONLY way our family got through this was because Pam and Pat were there to do anything and everything. They were there to talk, a shoulder to cry on. They cared for my other two young children when we had to be in the city very early for radiation. But, most importantly, they loved and comforted my little baby through all the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy. This has been the most emotional and exhausting year of my life, but I made it through because of Pam and Pat’s unconditional love and support. Pam and Pat’s help with all the daily home medical care that Conor needed put him on a fast track to remission. Now I am proud and thankful to say my 1 year old little boy is a cancer survivor, and we could not have done it without Pam and Pat.
COLLEEN & BRENNAN C. GLENCOE
We created our placement agency to be different. We formed relationships with our caregivers and clients. Our caregivers becomes part of your family whether they work with you for one day or one year. We focus on education and support for new parents. We have lots of repeat clients calling us back, which tells us it works.
We go through great lengths to be sure we are sending the most professional and experienced caregivers available. We make sure everyone working for us has a minimum of 2 years’ infant care experience.
Everyone needs to take a Baby 101 class from one of our Registered Nurses and a Lactation support class from one of our Lactation Consultants. We also train all our caregivers in healthy sleep practices.
In addition, they have to read and test out on a 375 -page training manual we wrote to be sure everyone knows babies and their proper care following the American Pediatrics guidelines.
They all must have a Tdap vaccination and a yearly Flu shot. Everyone must have current Infant CPR. We run an extensive Background check on these caregivers and check all their references they also all must carry Professional Liability Insurance.
Most importantly, the caregivers do not sleep while they are on the job caring for your babies. We are the only agency that has this no-sleep policy. We had a baby who stopped breathing on us one night and if we were not fully awake and engaged to perform CPR, we would have a very different story to tell. We feel this job is the most important job someone can do. We do all this to give you the peace of mind you deserve along with the restful sleep you need.
We are writing a book about the good, the bad and the funny parts of pregnancy and newborn care. We are excited about it and want to make it funny, yet with plenty of realistic tips for new parents. Hopefully will have it completed before the end of 2017. We are also planning to begin offering help to parents in Tampa.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago is great city. I love working here and would recommend it to anyone wanting to start a business because of its friendly people and diversity.