First, it’s important to understand why bedtime is such a power struggle for toddlers. In case you hadn’t noticed, toddlers love to feel a sense of being in control. This means they’ll likely start saying things like “no”, or “do it myself!” frequently. This is a very normal and very healthy part of their development! This is the age they start to develop autonomy, which will serve them well as they continue to become more and more independent. Unfortunately, this part of development does not serve you well when it’s time for bed😂.
Read More“My newborn baby sleeps all day and is awake all night! It’s like her days and nights are switched. HELP!”
Let me start by saying this is completely normal. They simply haven’t developed the internal clock yet that we have.
Our brains know that light = awake and dark = sleep. Their little brains don’t understand that...yet.
Read MoreCluster feeding is when your baby eats lots of little meals close together. For example, your baby eats at 7pm but is hungry again at 7:45, 9:00 and 9:30, then eats on more time before bed at 10:00. This usually happens at night when your baby is gearing up for bedtime, but it can also happen throughout the day.
Read MoreHave you ever tried to nap in a car or on an airplane? Do you wake up feeling totally rested or kinda blah?
For me, I always feel kinda blah. I mean, sure, I fell asleep. But my body was in motion so it couldn’t get into a real, deep sleep.
Babies are the same way! It’s pretty hard for their body to get good, restorative sleep if they are on the move every time they go to sleep.
Read MoreLet me know if this sounds familiar:
“I nurse my baby to sleep for bedtime and she keeps waking up couple hours in the night. Why?!”
When we transition from one sleep cycle to the next, we want everything to be the exact same as it was when we fell asleep the first time.
Read MoreMamas. PLEASE hear me out: sleep deprivation is not motherhood! Nor does it have to be a part of your motherhood. YOU get to decide!
Read MoreOne of the most frustrating things is knowing your baby can sleep great, but they keep waking up because their binky keeps falling out. In these moments, it’s easy to think “Maybe I should just get rid of it!”. Please hear me out when I say: I promise it’s worth it to push through!
Here’s why:
Read MoreLet’s talk about when to put your baby down “drowsy but awake”. It’s a term we hear often, and it simply means you rock your baby until they are drowsy, then gently set them in bed and allow them to doze off into a deep sleep on their own. But when do I recommend doing this?
My answer is simple: During the first 12 weeks:)
Read MoreOne of my biggest concerns as a new mom was, “is my baby getting enough ounces in a day? How many is she supposed to have each day? What if she drinks 2oz less than the recommended amount, then what!?”
These concerns kept me up at night pretty often, until my pediatrician told me something that calmed my nerves and changed my perspective.
Read MoreFor the first few months of your baby’s life, they will likely eat every 3 hours and take a nap every 1-1.5 hours, which is known as the “3 hour schedule”. However, as your baby gets older, they will start to stay awake longer between naps, as well as go longer between feedings - about 4 hours. At this point, your baby will move to what is called a “4 hour schedule”.
Read MoreFirst, let me explain what a dream feed actually is. A dream feed is when you give your baby a full feeding while they are still asleep. So your baby is not waking up at all, they aren’t crying or acting hungry, you simply stick a bottle in their mouth or latch them onto you and give them a feed before you go to bed or in the middle of the night.
Read MoreIf I answered all of the questions on here, it would be a novel, so I’m going to do a podcast episode about (stay tuned for that!), but one response kept popping up that I wanted to address: I want to sleep train but I’m too tired to be consistent".
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, with my method, sleep training typically looks like one week of consistency for a lifetime of sleep.
Read MoreMama, did you know that you don’t have to wait for months and months to teach your baby how to sleep? Did you know that with my method, you can literally start the sleep training process as early as 4 weeks old?
Read MoreI don't know who needs to hear this, but... you cannot spoil a newborn!
As a baby sleep consultant and mother of 4, I want to ASSURE you that you absolutely cannot spoil a newborn and there’s no such thing as snuggling your newborn too much:)
Read MoreHave you ever noticed that somehow everyone becomes a "baby expert" overnight when you're a new mom? 😂 From "You should try this!" to "Back in my day..."—we've heard it all!
Here are just a few that have been said to me personally:
"When are you planning to have your next child?" (I ran away crying because we were in the thick of infertility)
"You look SO tired!" Thanks? I gave birth 3 days ago and haven’t slept since because of medical complications.
Read MoreIn my professional opinion, the easiest way to prepare your baby for daylight savings is to siimply move your baby’s schedule up by 10-15 minutes per day this week leading up to Sunday, March 10th.
By the time you switch the clocks, your kids will be right on track and they won’t even know the difference!
Read MoreYou’ve just spent 30 minutes rocking, bouncing and swaying your baby to sleep, then went through the careful process of setting them down and walking away as slowly and quietly as possible so they don’t wake up.
You close the door behind you, let out a sigh of relief, only to hear your baby crying 30 minutes later😅. The worst part!? You have to repeat this process no less than 7 times throughout the night and neither of you get sleep.
Read MoreOne of the most common concerns parents have is that their baby will only nap if they are holding them. This causes a lot of stress for parents because they feel like if they hold their baby for naps, it will form bad habits and their baby will never learn how to sleep.
I have good news for you: holding your baby for naps will not form bad habits, and it’s totally okay to soak up those snuggles!
Read MoreRaise your hand if you’ve ever heard someone say “Never wake a sleeping baby!”. I know I have! But the truth is, there are actually a lot of situations in which you should wake a sleeping baby. Why? Because if your baby is getting too much sleep during the day, it’s going to be very hard for them to feel tired enough to sleep at night!
Read MoreIf you are on step 3 in The Sleep Fairy Way Method and are eliminating night feedings by slowly pushing feedings back, apply “binky duty”, as I like to call it. This means you offer the binky instead of a feed for 10-15 minutes per waking. After those 10-15 minutes, if baby is still awake, go ahead and feed your baby.
Read More