Gulya M - Postpartum Doula & Newborn Care Specialist

I could not recommend Gulya more!! She is incredible. She is very knowledgeable about sleep training and overall developmental milestones. She taught me so much as a first time mom and gave me the confidence I needed as a new parent. With Gulya, my son was sleeping through the night in no time at all! She truly has a magic touch. Highly recommend for sleep training and overall infant / toddler care! Gulya works wonders all while being professional, kind and warm. Also, my son absolutely loves her!!

We were so lucky to have Gulya as our night nurse — she was truly amazing. From the very first night, she brought such calm, warmth, and professionalism into our home. Her gentle care, deep knowledge, and intuition with babies gave us so much peace of mind (and much-needed rest!).

She not only cared for our baby with so much love, but also supported us as new parents — answering every question with patience and sharing tips that made our days and nights smoother. It's clear that she genuinely loves what she does, and it shows in everything from how she soothes a fussy baby to how organized and reliable she is.

We can't recommend Gulya enough. She became such a special part of our baby's first months, and we'll always be grateful for her care and kindness.

We were so fortunate to have met Gulya. She is baby whisperer and a kind, generous, wise woman who brought order, care, and so much love to our home. What a godsend she was when I had twin girls 11 years ago. I had a difficult birth and could not physically take care of my girls. Gulya took loving care not just of my twin girls (with amazing ease) for those challenging first months. She also took care of me and taught my husband and I how to care for twin babies and child rearing principles that set our family (older parents with no other help nearby) up for success. We learned so much from Gulya. To this day I remain so grateful to her and we continue to be in touch today.

Working with Gulya was one of the best decisions we made. I actually reached out to her while I was still pregnant, and I'm so glad I did—she has been an incredible support from the very beginning.

As a first-time mom to twins, I felt completely overwhelmed by the idea of sleep training and didn't even know where to start. The anxiety of tackling motherhood for the first time, twins, and dealing with sleep deprivation was at an all-time high. But from the moment Gulya came into our home, her calm, grounded presence put us at ease. She brought such a sense of peace and confidence that truly transformed our environment.

What stood out most wasn't just her expertise, but her genuine care and compassion. She went far beyond just sleep training—helping us adjust the girls' routine in a way that set them up for success, and even supporting us through their reflux and frequent vomiting challenges.

What makes Gulya truly special is that her support doesn't end when she leaves. She continues to check in and be a part of our lives, and that level of dedication is rare.

We are so grateful for her and couldn't recommend her more highly. Her presence is definitely missed!

Hiring Gulya was one of the best decisions we made as new parents. She is an incredible newborn specialist with extensive education and hands-on experience in early newborn care. From day one, she guided us through everything — from paced feeding and the importance of using the right nipples (especially in those early newborn days), to building a structured feeding routine that truly makes a difference.

She taught us how critical it is to track feeds, especially in the beginning when babies naturally lose weight after birth. With her help, we created a consistent schedule that supported our baby in surpassing birth weight, which gave us so much peace of mind. She also educated us on digestion, how to minimize spit-up and colic, and the importance of holding baby upright after feedings. Her knowledge around sleep structure and schedules is equally impressive.

Beyond all of her expertise, Gulya has such a calm and reassuring presence. She helped me and my husband feel confident as first-time parents. We completely trust her judgment — her experience is truly unmatched. She knows exactly what to do from day one and handles babies with such natural ease.

I am so grateful my friend referred her to us and we absolutely hope to have her again in the future. We love you, Gulya 🤍

Gulya is so much more than our baby nurse... she is our forever family!

Having her by my side during those first crucial weeks and then periodically for support in the following months was absolutely priceless for myself and our entire family. Her love and care surpassed just caring for our daughter... As she provided guidance, love and support to each and every one of us.

I so desperately wanted her help when I gave birth to my first daughter, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out. Even though she could not physically be there with us, she spent countless hours upon hours on the phone with me... Guiding me... Answering any text or late night questions completely free of charge, just out of the goodness of her heart because that's the loving person she is!

We knew we absolutely had to have her for our second child, and when she was here in person---- it was absolutely incredible to watch how she just transformed the entire household into a sea of calm and she just took the fear right out of the room.

Several months after I delivered, I had to have another surprise surgery and she was right there in a blink of an eye supporting us! She would have moved mountains to be there and she did! She will be forever part of out family and we love her!

To Whom It May Concern, It is with the deepest gratitude and admiration that I write this letter of recommendation Gulya Mukanova. She served as a night nurse for our newborn Dominic during a time when our family needed both expert care and compassionate support. From the very first night, it was evident that Gulya possesses an exceptional blend of professionalism, skill, and empathy that goes far beyond the standard expectations of her role.

Gulya's extensive knowledge of infant care, including sleep routines, feeding schedules, and soothing techniques, was a tremendous asset to our family. She not only ensured that our baby was well cared for throughout the night but also helped establish a healthy routine that carried over into the daytime. Gulya was always attentive and gentle with Dominic, handling every situation with remarkable calmness and competence, even during moments of stress or unpredictability that are inevitable with a newborn.

Beyond her technical expertise, Gulya has a unique ability to create a sense of trust and reassurance. As new parents, my husband and I often felt overwhelmed, but Gulya's warm and patient demeanor instantly put us at ease. She was always willing to answer our questions, offer helpful advice, and encourage us in ways that boosted our confidence as caregivers.

One of the qualities I most admired about Gulya was her reliability and professionalism. She was consistently punctual, organized, and communicative. It was clear that Gulya approached her work with a genuine sense of responsibility and care for our family's well-being.

Thanks to Gulya's guidance and care, we were able to get the rest we desperately needed during those early, sleepless weeks, and we felt confident that our baby was in the very best hands. I wholeheartedly recommend Gulya to any family in search of a dedicated and compassionate baby night nurse. She has truly been a blessing to our family, and we will forever be grateful for her kindness and expertise.

Gulya was truly our saving grace. She is incredibly skilled and knowledgeable about infant care. She is reliable and trustworthy. Not only did we trust her fully to care for our newborn daughter throughout the night, she taught us how to care for our newborn daughter. Gulya gave us the gift of knowledge and confidence of how to be good parents in the early days of our baby's life. We would absolutely recommend her and are forever grateful.

Gulya was incredibly professional, reliable, and compassionate. Her calm demeanor and attentive care allowed me to rest, knowing my baby was in great hands. Gulya always monitored my baby's needs, from feeding to diaper changes, and always communicated clearly.

She went above and beyond, making sure both my baby and I felt supported and comfortable throughout the night. I am truly grateful for her help and would not hesitate to work with her again in the future.

"Get a Night Nurse!" Those were the four best words of advice I received from a friend of mine before our twins were born. He rightly convinced me that I knew nothing about babies and would need someone to help demystify the process and walk us through the most fragile of times. He was right... and Gulya was the perfect person to do it. I can't even begin to say how powerful and important having her help us was. She's truly the 'baby whisperer'. Her years of experience bring a level of first-hand knowledge and well-honed instincts that exceed everything from the latest advice book to the trusty out-of-date parenting advice from our own parents to even our doctors.

She knows exactly what that 'squeal' is... how high to prop up a crib mattress... you name it. But beyond taking care of our two lovely girls, she also taught us how to. She corrected false information the hospital staff had imparted on us... diminishing issues like spit-up etc in the process. She showed us how to bathe our daughters even though one of them weighed less than five pounds. She left us feeling confident enough to be able to take care of our daughters, but I still ask her to come over any time she can. I hope she can help your growing family as much as she helped ours.

From the moment Gulya set foot in our home, she changed our lives. I had a pretty traumatic birth, and the night we brought our son home, Gulya walked in and brought so much peace, knowledge, and relief. Her sweet and calm energy is infectious. She is extremely knowledgeable and nurturing. We even extended her time with us until her next job. She helped me get my son sleeping through the night by 9 weeks old, which was truly such a gift. When she left our family, I was SO sad to see her go but over the last 5 years we have stayed in touch. I am SO happy to announce that I am pregnant with our second son and the first person I reached out to was Gulya to book her again. She is part of our family and we love her dearly!

I'm a first-time mother of a baby girl, Orla, who is now seven weeks old. I'm from England, and as I am far from home my mother-in-law offered to hire me a baby nurse to help me and my husband survive the tough nights after my c-section. I had no idea what to expect with a newborn, and I wasn't sure if I would even need a night nurse – for example I didn't understand that settling a baby back to sleep after a feed can take so long that the parent gets no sleep again before the next feed!

I thank my lucky stars that I employed Gulya. When she came to us, my daughter was two weeks old, and already my husband and I were unknowingly indulging in behaviors guaranteed to keep Orla awake all night. Gulya arrived and set about teaching us how to begin rituals that will lead a baby toward a full night's sleep. From knowing nothing, I am now supremely confident in bathing my baby, soothing her diaper rash, expertly swaddling her, judiciously using a pacifier to soothe her back to sleep in the night, supporting her body in the right way, and a host of other skills.

I learned how to create a bedtime ritual for Orla with lighting and noises that would soothe her, and I watched Gulya's gentle yet firm handling of my baby and was able to copy her. It is a miracle that now, at just seven weeks, Orla sleeps pretty much through the night with just a few minutes of 'chirping' in the early hours, which I know how to soothe. My husband and I get almost as much sleep as we used to, and have the energy to tackle the day ahead. Personally, I have become very fond of Gulya. She is a mother herself with a fascinating personal history and has a sweetness, compassion, and strength that is very rare. I felt great relief when her smiling face appeared at my door each night. I only wish I could have kept her forever, but she is so talented that I didn't need to!

Our family has had the great pleasure of working with Gulya as our baby nurse from November 2020 to January 2021. We could not be happier and as such extended our time with her until the start of her new job. In the few short months we have known her, she has brought so much joy into our home. She arrives each night with a huge smile and positive energy that radiates throughout our home.

Gulya is extremely professional while putting our son first in every way. Aside from her nurturing, loving, patient and calming demeanor, she tackles the impossible: sleep training. While she only works shifts at night, she was an integral part of establishing his daily routine and feeding/nap schedule.

We were challenged by intense gas and reflux issues so she really focused on his digestion and educated us on the best techniques to aid and eliminate these issues. By week 6, she eliminated all night feedings and had him sleeping 8-10 hour stretches. She has gone above and beyond our expectations and helped us with all of our parenting needs. From bottles to laundry, pumping and nursing, to assisting mother post C section, engaging with our 2.5 year old toddler, she does it all. While the baby is her primary focus, she truly wants to make this challenging newborn phase as easy as possible on the parents and entire family. She genuinely cares about each child and has developed a strong connection with our baby. Our daughter runs to the door each night to greet her with a giant hug. I know I could call on her at any hour for help or a question and she would be there.

As if having a newborn isn't scary enough, it is especially daunting during Covid times. Rest assured, she takes every precaution, gets tested regularly/upon request, and lives responsibly on her off time. Gulya has touched our lives in a profound way for which we will be forever grateful. I cannot say enough positive words regarding Gulya and any baby and family would be lucky to have her! We are going to miss her dearly.

We were referred to Gulya by a family friend who had twins and needed help at night. When we met with Gulya before our baby was born, she put our minds at ease. Her knowledge and experience are incredible. She answered all of our questions about sleep training with such certainty and confidence. When our daughter Sloane was brought home from the hospital in the middle of the day Gulya came early to make sure that we got some much-needed sleep and stayed over 14 hours to help.

From the moment Gulya came into our house she has put our family first, treating Sloane like her own daughter. By the time Gulya arrived at our house each day Sloane was very fussy, but as soon as she came in the door and Sloane saw Gulya, she calmed right down. Gulya is the baby whisperer and has become a part of our family. She helped teach us what we should and should not do.

She was able to identify that Sloane had acid reflux very early on and created a plan to combat this during the day and night. I am very happy to say that it worked! We could not have done this without her especially during the pandemic. Gulya always made sure to wash her hands, wear a mask, and take all the precautions outside of when she was in our home. Again, another reason she put our minds at ease was her careful nature not wanting to put our family at risk of Covid-19.

We had a bad accident in our home, so we had to relocate for a month and even with all the moving around Gulya was able to sleep train Sloane far earlier than we ever could have. Because of that we asked Gulya to stay past the 2 months we had originally hired her. She stayed for another month to help us with getting Sloane on a better schedule during the day. She is very reliable, trustworthy, caring and an amazing human being. I would recommend Gulya to all my family. We could not say more amazing things about Gulya. We love her like family.

Gulya worked with our family to care for our twin boys from the time they were 6 weeks old to 10 months old, for a period of 8 months. She was referred to us by a night nurse we initially contracted, but wasn't available after our initial contract, therefore, referred us to Gulya. She started helping our family at night, but we eventually kept her as our full-time, daytime nanny. Having Gulya at that point was so crucial, as we were adjusting to being first-time parents to two newborns, and needed all the help and rest we could get.She is caring, and gentle, and fits right in with our family. Gulya is very responsible and reliable and understood the direction we wanted to take with their schedules, feedings, etc. but also took the initiative to offer her own suggestions, which was very instrumental. We were truly pleased to have her and sad to see her go as we no longer needed her on a full-time basis.

Gulya is our angel. Gulya has been working with our family as a baby nurse at night 5-6 nights a week, 12 hours every night for a year. We have 4 kids under 4 years old and she was helping us take care of the twins at the beginning mainly. When Gulya started the boys just came home after 8 weeks in NICU, one of them on an apnea monitor and the other with bad reflux. Gulya is so loyal and helpful.

We were referred to her in emergency times, after a bad experience with another baby nurse who fell asleep feeding my son. We fired her and hired Gulya to help us out. Gulya stood up and helped us in hard times for us, even though she was getting over a cold. She covered her mouth with a mask and helped us, I wouldn't know how I would do it without her help. Both of them were on medications and needed special attention, and not feed at the same time as the doctor ordered. Gulya is very dedicated, professional, and loving, she listened to our concerns and did her best to make us and the boys happy.

On top of that, we would go out and Gulya would play, feed and put our 3.5 year old daughter to sleep. She is great with kids, knows how to manage 4 of them all at the same time, and doesn't get panicked when the boys were up crying at night both at the same time. We have a 3-month-old boy, Gulya took care of him since he was born, on top of the twins. Gulya helped me get up at night to pump, prepared everything I needed, and gave me emotional support and knowledge about things I didn't know. We got my newborn on a schedule since he was 6 weeks old and now he sleeps through the whole night. Gulya is been very helpful, we wouldn't do it without her help, we are blessed to have her. She helped preparing bottles, feed, change, give medication on time, do kids' laundry, and many hours holding my boys when needed in the middle of the night so I could get some sleep. We trusted her with whole our hearts. Gulya helped sleep train all 3 boys.

As of now, we won't need her service, She did a great job successfully. All my 4 kids sleep through the whole night until 6:30-7 am. I am very happy we choose her. She has to allot of experience, easy going, and very attentive. Gulya became part of our family. I can't express how grateful I am, we will miss her. We recommend her service to every mom who wants to sleep at night knowing her kids are in good hands.

One of the best decisions we made prior to the birth of our twin girls was hiring Aigoul Bollweg, whom we call Gulya, as our night nurse. In the interview, Gulya appeared knowledgeable, competent, with an unassuming, gentle, and peaceful aura about her. With the chaos and confusion that comes with a baby (or two in our case), we wanted someone knowledgeable and capable yet also gentle and caring. We felt Gulya was an excellent fit. Gulya worked with us from early February to early May of 2015. And indeed, she turned out to be an exceptionally competent, capable, and loving caretaker to our twin girls. She was also like family to myself and my husband, as she guided and educated us during the first three challenging months with our girls.

Prior to the birth, Gulya came to visit us to check out our nursery space and gave us extremely helpful advice about what things to buy (and not buy), saving us time from doing extensive research, hassle from not having all the necessities on hand, and money from buying unnecessary things. On the first day returning from the hospital, my husband and I felt rather overwhelmed, suddenly home with two babies and myself physically incapacitated. We couldn't have been more relieved when Gulya arrived a few hours later and took over complete care in the evenings and gave reassuring answers to all baby related questions. And, as first time parents, we had many.

Gulya is a "baby whisperer." Our home is small and loud noise travels to all rooms. Virtually every evening she was with us was a quiet and peaceful one, allowing us much needed sleep. The girls were clearly happy in her care and responded, even at a young age, to her beautiful voice and loving touches. We also woke up to clean laundry for the girls, a neat nursery, and all baby bottles and supplies cleaned and ready for our day. Gulya even did any dishes that were left in the sink!

Gulya is also a born educator and part of her mission is to educate parents. She set up a system of recording feedings and routines for what to do with the girls day and night which we continue to this day. She gave us a lot of invaluable advice. To this day, when I have some baby related question, I still go to Gulya. As would be expected, we were extremely worried when the time came close for Gulya to leave us. Gulya assured us we would be fine and that the babies would be sleep trained by then. And indeed, as promised, our girls, who sleep in the same room, were sleep trained by the end of 3 months—with no crying throughout the process. They were able to sleep one 4 hour stretch from 8:30pm-12:30am. After the midnight dream feed, they would sleep another 6-7 hours straight.

Integrating into a household with two newborns is not an easy job. Gulya made it look easy. In addition to her professionalism and exceptionally high standards as a caretaker, Gulya is a warm, beautiful, and caring personality. We continue to miss her.

By the time Gulya left, I had recovered more physically, but also had learned so much from her about how to take care of my girls. I feel like a competent mother and I can truly say that Gulya enabled me to become the mother I want to be. My husband and I are ever grateful for Gulya's help and care and recommend her absolutely.

I hired Gulya when my twins were born. She literally saved my sanity. She was so calm and caring with the babies. She taught us many techniques to help the babies sleep for longer stretches. By 8 weeks my babies slept almost 8 hours! She would even bring me my pump parts in the middle of the night so I wouldn't have to get out of bed to pump. She was helpful in every way, and was always looking to do more. Gulya is on my list to call for future babies! Thank you Gulya!

Our first baby was born with silent reflux. We were totally lost. The pediatricians couldn't give us any helpful advice in relation to reflux and we were so distraught until we met Gulya.

Our son gained weight quickly and started to show his personality shortly after Gulya started working with us. She is an expert in her field and was able to gently teach our son to sleep over a period of time. He still sleeps very well in his toddler bed throughout the entire night thanks to Gulya. She saved our sons life, gave us hope, and we still consider her part of the family to this day.

We cannot recommend Gulya enough to anyone who is struggling to help their baby feel comfortable and safe.

We were so lucky to have Gulya as our night nurse — she was truly amazing. From the very first night, she brought such calm, warmth, and professionalism into our home. Her gentle care, deep knowledge, and intuition with babies gave us so much peace of mind (and much-needed rest!).

She not only cared for our baby with so much love, but also supported us as new parents — answering every question with patience and sharing tips that made our days and nights smoother. It's clear that she genuinely loves what she does, and it shows in everything from how she soothes a fussy baby to how organized and reliable she is.

We can't recommend Gulya enough. She became such a special part of our baby's first months, and we'll always be grateful for her care and kindness.