Elizabeth Berger

9/30/2024

When my husband Jeremy and I found out we were having our third child, we were thrilled but we were also overwhelmed, as we knew he'd be joining our two year old and our four year old and that it would be a tremendous amount to balance. One of my first moves after getting a positive pregnancy test was to reach out to Grady. Grady had already been our doula after the birth of our second child, so we already knew how absolutely unbelievable she was with  everyone in the family. She is a brilliant baby whisperer who will make your baby feel loved and expertly cared for every second he or she is in her care. As the mother going through postpartum, she made me feel so unbelievably supported and like I had the absolute best teammate in the world by my side. And she made my older son, Luc, who was two when our second child was born, feel like a bright star in the household. So as soon as she accepted the position to help with our third, Jonah, it was an instant exhale. And even though I knew how absolutely incredible she'd be, she surpassed my expectations. I honestly don't know how she does it all, but she managed to care for our baby AND be there for our two older children who are obsessed with her-- she is also an experienced teacher who is both wildly fun and a genius at helping kids through transitions and dealing with their emotions. She always made space to answer all my questions round the clock AND she kept our home feeling beautifully organized, all while making it seem effortless and manageable. Our home was a joyful, peaceful place in the early months of Jonah's life and so much credit goes to Grady for making that possible. I can say from the bottom of my heart that I don't believe there is a better doula in the world, and the only thing that makes me hesitant to write this review is that I'd like to keep her avail to support our family for the rest of time, because all three of our children love her to the moon and back. 

Megan Haley

3/14/2024

My transition to motherhood came with unexpected challenges and I would have been completely lost without Grady. I felt so comforted by her extensive knowledge about evidence-based newborn care and was deeply grateful to have her guidance while navigating the complexities of the postpartum period. She always had informed answers to all of my questions and taught me practical skills to deal with any situation that might arise to improve my sense of self-efficacy.   She was diligent about explaining the “ why” behind all of her techniques and walking me through how to implement them on my own to help me build confidence as a new Mom. Whenever my family was going to be on our own for a weekend or leave for a trip, she went out of her way to ensure that we were prepared and felt supported. Having Grady by our side in the early months allowed us to have a smooth experience adjusting to parenthood as we learned how to feel comfortable in our new roles.

Adapting to life with a new baby was difficult but Grady was able to ease the transition for us and made everything so much more manageable. When our baby was sleeping, Grady would go above and beyond to see if there was anything she could do to make our lives easier. 

 We felt bonded with her almost instantly and she quickly became part of our family. She has changed the way that I view myself as a Mother and has taught me everything I know about taking care of my son. Her goal was to ensure that I felt prepared to handle the demands of motherhood by the time she left and I can honestly say that I feel as prepared as one can possibly feel because of her unwavering support and guidance over the last two months. I will miss her and the loving energy she brought to our household tremendously. Grady had a profound impact on our family and will always be a part of our lives.

Lauren Liu

3/13/2024

Grady is an incredible doula. She brings with her a calm and warm presence. She is knowledgeable  without being a know-it-all. She will intuitively adapt to you and your baby’s needs and is an amazing source of both moral and practical support. We are truly grateful for having Grady join our family during such a tender time of our lives. Plus she’s funny!

Darah Wagner Boaz

2/11/2024

Grady was an absolute wonderful support to have in my postpartum and with my newborn. She was incredibly gentle, nuturing and knew what I needed even when I didn't. My husband and I felt very safe leaving our newborn with her early on when we had to and learned so much from her. Forever grateful for those early days when Grady came and calmed the house down with her wonderful energy and proactive care. I needed it as a new mom and the care was real, genuine and experienced. 

Willi

9/11/2023

I am incredibly grateful to have had Grady's support after welcoming our second child. Grady met us at home the day we arrived home from the hospital and provided all the positivity, warmth and knowledge we could have hoped for. 

Grady's support helped me navigate a c section recovery and those rough early breastfeeding days. I don't know how we would have managed without her help. She is kind, flexible, patient and warm and also just awesome to hang out with. As others have noted, she has a unique ability to intuit the help you need without needing to articulate it.

When my son was only 3.5 weeks old, my husband and I traveled across the country for my brother's wedding, leaving our newborn with Grady for the full weekend. She made it a breeze, and we felt confident he was in the best hands. We never would have made it there had it not been for her.

She also made a huge impression on our 3 year old daughter, who continues to talk about her. Leading up to our son's birth, I had been worried about how our daughter would adjust to sharing our attention with her brother but she couldn't have cared less -- she just wanted to hang out with Grady :)

Lindsay & Mike

7/13/2023

Where do we even begin? Finding the right words to express our immense gratitude for Grady's help feels like an impossible task. We are so thankful to have had Grady as our postpartum doula as she became an integral part of our lives during those precious and intimate six weeks after our daughter was born. The challenges we faced with breastfeeding and our little girl’s weight gain seemed daunting, but Grady's presence brought us immeasurable comfort, wisdom, and insight that transformed our journey.

From the very beginning, Grady's unwavering support went beyond anything we could have hoped for. We had so many questions as first time parents and Grady never made us feel like we were asking too many. We completely trusted her to take care of our daughter during the night for the hours we needed extra sleep. The peace of mind we experienced when Grady cared for our daughter was unparalleled.

Grady's expertise helped us establish a routine that not only made our daughter's life more predictable but also brought harmony and ease to our entire family. Her passion for her work and the genuine love she showed our daughter made each moment feel truly special.

There is no doubt that Grady will forever hold a cherished place in our hearts. If the time comes to welcome another child into our lives, Grady will be our first call without a moment's hesitation. Her warmth, personal touch, and care made an indelible mark on our family's story, and we would be honored to have her by our side once again.  If you are reading this, look no further :)

Annika Barinholtz

6/8/2022

We loved Grady, and importantly, so did our kids! We hired Grady to help when we had our second child, and she was so wonderful with our newborn, and with our toddler as well. Grady's love and care for my kids was obvious, and I truly only felt comfortable leaving our baby with her, for those first few weeks. She was lovely to be around, and was also a fantastic cook! Xxx

Annie Garrett

5/19/2022

Grady is truly everything you want in a birth and postpartum doula- empowering, supportive, calm, nurturing, informative, and knowledgeable. We hired her to help with our hospital birth and it was the best decision we made - she helped us feel prepared for delivery prior and was amazing with answering any and all questions via text. During the delivery she made us feel at ease and relaxed (even pampered!) while laboring, and supported us through a tough decision we had to make. The postpartum care she provided was something I completely underestimated the value of when we booked her, but I am SO GLAD we had her. My milk supply came in late and my daughter had a tongue tie which was causing a painful latch, and if it weren't for Grady's knowledge and coaching, I would have for sure given up in those first few days. We also used some of our postpartum hours towards 1 overnight where she bottle fed our daughter and we both got to sleep for 8+ hours straight. Blissful. (woke up leaking all over the place, but worth it!). I can't stress enough how incredible Grady is, she is a special human and is worth her weight in gold.

Mark Landry

10/27/2021

Seeing Grady take care of our newborn son was like entrusting him to a mythical character whose powers were created to help guide babies into toddlerhood. As much as we would have loved to see her stay until his 18th birthday, alas, Grady's magical mission took her away to the next baby. 

Judi Smolker

5/26/2021

Having Grady by our side has been invaluable! She is very knowledgeable, professional, experienced, organized, positive, calm and even keel. She gave us resources and useful referrals, made us delicious healthy snacks, and kept copious notes of what the baby did and when. We learned so much from her and we were always so happy to see her because we knew a sense of order would come back to our home, as she helped with laundry and dishes so we were never overwhelmed. She's great with our daughter and had a very soothing and gentle approach to their time together. I loved that she stayed awake during overnight shifts and made use of her time in our home always doing helpful things. She also gave good breast feeding support and advice and organized some constructive play time/tummy time for our baby. I honestly wish she could keep working with us forever and I'm so sad to see her go. 

Aimee K

4/29/2021

If you are reading this and are considering hiring Grady as your doula, the best advice that I can give you is to do it already! You will be incredibly lucky to know her and even luckier to work with her.

Grady joined us shortly after the birth of our second son (our oldest was 3 at the time), and continued with us over the next year. She fit in seemlessly with our family and was incredibly concientious about not coming in and taking over. Instead, she helped us to gain confidence in our own parenting skills. She had an innate ability to know when to step back and when to step in, and she always found a way to help out without needing to be given direction. Grady just always seemed to know what we needed, even if we didn't always know ourselves or couldn't have articulated it.  She was also great at coordinating with our long-term nanny and other doulas working overnight, so that everyone was on the same page about what was happening with our baby.  She is also a fantastic teacher, and was able to impart new skills and practices to our nanny with the upmost grace and respect.

Grady truly has a gift in the way that she communicates with babies and small children. She speaks to them and listens to them in the same way she would an adult, while still being able (in the case of our older child) to set clear boundaries. She was amazing at making sure that our older son didn't feel like she was only there for his little brother. Sometimes that meant taking him out on an adventure of his own, and he loved her for it. I can't tell you how much I feel like she helped ease our transition into being a familiy of 4. 

Grady is intelligent, caring, responsible, fun, engaged, organized and completely professionional. She truly loves being a doula and that positive energy is contagious and wonderful to be around. She is absolutely one of a kind and we miss her terribly, although I know we will always be in touch.

Elizabeth

4/27/2021

Grady was our postpartum doula and she was absolutely phenomenal.  She had all of the qualities we were looking for in that she was exceptionally warm and loving towards our brad new baby girl while also being extremely knowledgeable about newborn care.  She was also extremely easy to communicate with and flexible about hours, doing whatever she could to accommodate our family and our needs based on the day or night.  She helped our new baby fall into a nighttime sleeping rhythm very easily and she provided us with detailed tips about her methods so that we wouldn't be left in the dark once she was gone!  She always had helpful tips and strategies when our baby was fussy or uncomfortable and she went the extra mile to keep her feeling calm and secure-- whether it meant taking her for little walks or giving her a tour of every light in our house!  We also learned a lot about how to keep our baby from getting overtired which made the days and nights MUCH more peaceful.  Grady is that rare person who can teach you a lot without ever making you feel judged or like you're doing things wrong.  In fact, she makes you feel like everything is going great while continuing to gently steer you in the right direction.  We often leaned on Grady for nighttime help and we both got some much needed rest knowing that our baby girl was in her loving care.  Whenever our baby was sleeping she helped our household run smoothly in other ways-- whether it was helping out with laundry or tidying up or simply being kind and loving to our toddler son who quickly fell in love with her, Grady made our home a more sane, joyful and smoothly run household.   We would one thousand percent recommend her and we believe any family would be lucky to have her.  

Colin Mayer

4/23/2021

First off my wife and I love Grady!!! Working with her throughout the pregnancy was the best decision we ever made. After my wife gave birth the first 2 weeks of my child's life had Grady in it and my daughter still remembers her from it. She lights up every single time she sees her still to this day and she is 1 year now. That should tell you everything you need to know. If that's not enough, for me (A Dad) it's like this...imagine every worry answered, every unknown brought to clarity and each moment you have a peaceful guide there with you in this new and overwhelming experience. As new parents who have both lost their mothers and all the wisdom that comes with Moms, we didn't feel that absence with Grady by our sides. She will be there for our next child and every single one after that. We are so Thankful that she was there by our sides, and I was very grateful she was there to support my wife as well. It's hard to explain how disconnected you feel as a male in this experience, even in this Grady was able to help me understand what my wife was going thru every step of the way. I thought a Doula just cared for the baby, when in fact I now know she cares for the entire family that supports the baby as well. In fact we still hear from her and love that Georgia still carries a connection with her. In fact the only negative to this whole experience is that she has to move on to help other families. 
Thank you so much for everything Grady we are actually timing our next child around your availability. ;) Looking forward to the next one with you. 

Sara Mayer

2/19/2021

Grady is an absolute angel on earth and as we call her, "the baby whisperer". I couldn't have imagined the first 2 weeks of our daughter's life without Grady's help. From the moment we arrived home from the hospital, she was waiting for us with her gentle smile and a warm loving embrace for our little girl. She was there to calm my new-mom nerves every step of the way and assisted me with everything from expressing milk to folding laundry. Our baby suffered from terrible Colic and Grady was an absolute godsend to help calm her or simply to take her into another room so that we could get some much needed rest. Grady was always able to calm the baby within minues (something us first time parents weren't so good at!). Her extensive knowledge of child development, lactation and birth were the perfect combination to set my husand and I up for success when it was finally time for her to leave. We felt completely prepared and equipped to handle this incredible adventure called parenthood. We are forever grateful of those first two weeks of our baby's life spent with Grady and I can fully say that I am confident having her with us was one of the greatest decisions we've ever made.

Naz Shukran

9/2/2020

Grady was a wonderful support system during and even after my pregnancy.  Although we never met in person because of the pandemic, she was always very resourceful and encouraging, even at times when my doctors thought I'd be met with some challenges during labor and delivery.  She made me and my husband feel like we could get through this, despite being pregnant during a global pandemic.  With family far away, she became more than a doula - I consider Grady a friend and someone I can count on with giving me honest and thoughtful advice.  She's part of the family and can't wait for our family to meet her!

Lindsay

12/5/2019

Grady was a stable and centered resource during a hard and transitional time. Her knowledge and encouragement helped to guide me through the unknowns of parenting. I value her insights and perspective as I know she prioritizes caring for others. She is uniquely gifted in this space and I view her as a true blessing in our lives.