First, I think it’s important to know that everyone wakes at night. This is why the concept of “linking sleep cycles” exists (even though I don’t believe this is something that can be ‘fixed’ or ‘taught’). Sleep is our most vulnerable state and we are biologically designed to wake periodically to assess the safety of our environment.
The biggest factor in differentiating between day and night is exposure to light. This is what sets an infant’s circadian rhythm, which begins to develop around six weeks of age and is usually set between three and six months (Yates, 2018). Darkness at night supports consolidates sleep, and exposure to light can interfere with this.
There are a lot of challenges with modern day sleep training. But, as someone who advocates for sleep solutions that do not include the ‘traditional’ methods, you might be surprised to hear me say that the biggest challenge with sleep training is not the crying in and of itself. Instead, the biggest problems with sleep training are
There was a point in time when I would live and die on wake windows. Or, at least I tried to. You see, sleep trainers promote wake windows as an exact science. You can follow a perfectly curated, handy chart, and just like that, your baby’s sleep will miraculously improve. ✨ 𝐍𝐄𝗪𝐒𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇 ✨ 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 […]
One of the things I love about a non-sleep training approach to sleep is that it allows space to consider all of the external factors that may be influencing a child’s sleep. In our house, this has been so critical to helping our family get better sleep. For my middle son, in particular, we have […]
If you’ve worried about whether your newborn needs to be on a schedule, you’ve probably come across the most commonly recommended schedule: the infamous ‘eat, play, sleep’, or EASY (eat, awake time, sleep, you time) routine. This typically fits best if you already have an easygoing (no pun intended!) baby, who likely would have fallen […]
One of the biggest concerns parents have about growing their family is how to ensure that their children get along. Having gone through this transition twice myself here’s what I think are they keys to cultivating a strong sibling bond:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀🔑When the new baby arrives, make a special point of introducing the new siblings to each […]
“She has you wrapped around her little finger.” “He’s going to get used to you responding immediately.” “Teach them how to be independent.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Children are built to be reliant on their parents. They are not meant to be independent, self sufficient or self-knowing until much later in life. Parents are meant to support their children – […]
As any parent of a baby knows well, teething can play a major role in sleep interruptions. Teething may be really tough for some babies, and not phase some others. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Teething can lead to more difficulty falling asleep as well as difficulty staying asleep, since teething pain tends to worsen when a baby is lying […]
YES! I could write an entire series of posts specifically on why self soothing is a myth (scroll through my feed and you’ll find a few that explain it a bit!), but just because babies can’t self soothe doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to naturally help them sleep better. Here are some ways to […]
