Sweetly Asleep - Infant and Child Sleep Consultant

A follow-up post to my last reel. 😴💜

When you sleep train your child, be honest about who they are! Don’t sleep train them as if they were your friend’s child.

Does your child do best with a 6:30 am wake up time? Then be honest and embrace that. You’ll only be disappointed when they consistently don’t make it to 8:00 am like you may want them to.

Does your child need their crib and room to get a good nap? Then do your best to prioritize their sleep needs so they can get that restorative sleep. (Babies and toddlers with older siblings may have to compromise sometimes).

Does your toddler love to stall? You may need a consistent, established bedtime and nap time routine. Or maybe you need to make a visual chart or checklist so they can see exactly what the plan is. A “go with the flow” attitude might not work during this phase.

Every kid is different! Embrace the one you have 💜

- Baby is sleeping through the night when suddenly they start waking every night at 1 AM.
- Preschooler rocks the transition to their bed, but months later they start showing up in your room during the night.
- Your toddler gets sick and starts crying during bedtime routine and asks you to stay. You do for those first couple nights, but then they start asking every night.

It is normal and expected for even rockstar sleepers to experience bedtime or nighttime struggles. And for children who’ve struggled with sleep their whole life, it might feel like they have a new challenge every night.

So what’s a parent to do?!
⭐️ The great news is that if you have sleep trained before, your child likely has the skill set to fall asleep and resettle during the night. You may just need to revisit their sleep plan and they’ll be back to their usual sleep behavior!

If it’s an entirely new problem, you probably need to set new expectations so you and your child both know what to expect.

If you’ve never sleep trained, now is the time! You CAN change the sleep dynamic in your home.

💤 But above all, cultivate a home that promotes and protects sleep. 💤

Believe in your child.

Adjust boundaries and expectations as needed (especially as they get older and can stall and ask for more).

Recognize what are wants vs what are needs.
- sickness: always a need!
- nightmare: a need!
- another book: a want!
- re-tuck blanket that fell off: a want! Teach them how to put their own blanket back on.
- water: a need that they can take care of themselves! Leave a cup or water-bottle where they can reach it.

My Family’s Values:
- Everyone deserves uninterrupted sleep at night.
- My bed is reserved for me and my husband.
- We are all capable individuals.
- Boundaries help my children feel secure and confident in their expectations. They get to test boundaries. I get to uphold them.
- My children are allowed to have big feelings about change. I hold space for their emotions. I’m not afraid of them.

Just like you probably have a feeding philosophy, discipline philosophy, screen time philosophy, etc., choose a sleep philosophy!😴

June’s big girl bed! She’s been in it for about a week and is doing great!

I recently purchased these Shinnwa Bed Bumpers for Toddlers (2-Pack) Memory Foam Bed Rails from Amazon.

She hasn’t fallen off the bed, but these seemed so handy, easy to use, and convenient for traveling that I put one on her bed to get her accustomed to it. She loves it!

⭐️ Mother’s Day Giveaway ⭐️

In two weeks we will be celebrating Mother’s Day in the US. I am a strong advocate of having more support for moms/parents of young children. I want to do my part to give back to the amazing community of parents, working hard to navigate this stage of life.

So, to honor you amazing mothers, I am hosting a giveaway for a FREE 2 week sleep training + support package to one winner.

I know that many moms just want more sleep for Mother’s Day!

To enter:
1) Follow this account.
2) Like this post.
3) Share your favorite post or reel from my page to your story.
- Tag my account in your story.
- (Send me a screenshot of your story if your account is private 💜)
4) Tag another mama on this post, who could use some sleep help!

1 additional entry = per tag

Sleep training package is for my regular 2 week service. It must be redeemed within 6 months of winning. It is valid for one child (although I reserve the right to make an exception for multiples).

Giveaway ends Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 11:59 PM PDT.

Winner will be randomly selected. Winner will be announced on May 9, 2023.

Contest Rules:
By participating in this contest you acknowledge, as an entrant or participant, a complete release of Instagram.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.

This prize is transferable ONE time with prior approval from me.

I’m truly so excited to have TWO payment plan options offered on my website. Sleep training can be an expensive upfront investment. Payment plans make sleep training more accessible 💕

Skip the Stanley Cup, the manicure, or that run to Target “just to look around” 😆 and invest in your child, yourself, and your family’s wellbeing. You deserve it ❤️

Follow-up post from yesterday’s reel 👍

These are the 3 biggest challenges with being consistent that parents face when dealing with toddlers.

Need help? My 3 week package is specifically designed for toddlers 💕 DM me or book online!

These 5 steps are amazing for soothing newborns. Great for fussy times. But above all, I swear by using these to help my baby transition to a calm, drowsy state.

It’s actually my favorite part about the newborn stage.

There’s so little in life that feels calm and structured, but to feel like I could at least soothe my newborn was empowering.

These are the steps I use before I lay my newborns down in their cribs.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter! 🐣 💕🌷

Have you ever napped at a weird time of day? Only to feel groggy, off, grumpy, or confused. And then struggled to sleep that night?

Or gone to bed super late and not felt rested the next day, even if you slept in?

Most of us know from personal experience that getting quality, consolidated sleep at regular times is more refreshing than squeezing in sleep wherever we can get it.

After the newborn stage, the same principle applies to our little ones.

That’s why I work with clients to get their children on biologically appropriate schedules that align with their circadian rhythms. Because contrary to what some people think, babies and small children don’t just sleep when they need sleep.

They can be difficult to read, leading caregivers to miss their sleepy cues and the child gets overtired or overstimulated. It can be soooo easy to mistake the hyper toddler for being super awake, instead of realizing that they are already overtired and hit a second wind.

If you are struggling to get your little one on a consistent and successful schedule, I’m here to help! I offer one hour consultation calls or personalized sleep plans to help guide you through sleep training.

My firstborn’s newborn naps are the reason I started the journey that led me to becoming a sleep consultant.

She was doing great at night, but her naps were unpredictable and challenging. I was suffering from undiagnosed PPA/PPD and craving some element of control in my life.

If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to let go of trying to control nap lengths and simply meet my child where they were at.

So, with that disclaimer, here is what you can control about naps:
- timing
- environment
- location
- routine
- associations
- daytime activities
- how long your child is offered the nap/allowed to stay in their crib
- if/how you want to try to extend their naps

(Granted this list may change if your child is in daycare or other childcare during the day).

Here is what you can’t control:
- how long your baby sleeps

I dislike naps until my children finally make it to the one nap stage of life. Only then did they truly become reliably consistent with their naps.

So if you’re feeling irritated with naps, you are in good company. It’s completely normal for them to be a challenge for your children.

But if your child is really struggling to take naps at all, requires you to do all the work for them, has no schedule, or is struggling with sleep in general, check out my website for the different sleep packages I offer. I would love to help set you up for sleep success!

✨Attachment + Sleep Training✨

This is a shockingly debated topic. I’ve read so many actual studies on this topic and the takeaway is:
-sleep training works.
(when done properly and no underlying medical conditions are present)

-sleep training does NOT damage infants and children developmentally.
(in fact the consolidated sleep they get afterwards positively promotes their development)

-sleep training has ZERO impact on attachment if the child is in a warm, loving environment.

-short-term stress boosts your child’s resilience and self-regulation.

Studies for these specific findings:
Parental use of 'cry it out in infants: no adverse effects on attachment and behavioural development at 18 months.

Ayten Bilgin, 1 and Dieter Wolke1,2
'Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; ?Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Behavioral Treatment of Bedtime Problems and Night Wakings in Infants and Young Children
An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Review
Jodi A. Mindell, PhD14; Brett Kuhn, PhD?; Daniel S. Lewin, PhD°, Lisa J. Meltzer, PhD*: Avi Sadeh, DSc
'Department of Psychology, Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA;

(Article): Cry, Baby, Cry
A journal jumps on the Dr. Sears bandwagon to say sleep training is dangerous.
Science says otherwise.
-Melinda Webber Moyer

Five-Year Follow-up of Harms and Benefits of Behavioral Infant Sleep Intervention: Randomized Trial
Anna M.H. Price, BA(Hons) ; Melissa Wake, MB BS; Obioha C. Ukoumunne, PhD; Harriet Hiscock, MB B°

Sleep Problems in Early Childhood: Continuities, Pre Factors, and Behavioral Correlates
Barry Zuckerman; James Stevenson; Veira Bailey Pediatrics (1987) 80 (5): 664-671.

Links between infant sleep and parental tolerance for infant cry longitudinal assessment from pregnancy through six months postpartum
Michal Kahn ", Yasmin Bauminger°, Ella Volkovich, Gal Meiri , Avi Sadeh a, 1,
Liat Tikotzky