The Sleep Nanny Podcast

Beaux Raymond - Motherhood

In this episode, we catch up with Beaux Raymond, a fresh mother who gained prominence as a reality TV star and influencer following her victorious stint on Netflix's popular dating series, Too Hot to Handle. With over 465,000 followers on her official Instagram, Beaux collaborates with various fashion labels. During our conversation, she delves into her challenging birth experience, navigating single parenthood following her recent breakup, and shares insights into her daughter Lillia's sleeping habits
 
Find her here - 
@_beauxraymond

Twin Sleep with Emily Simpson

In this episode we speak to twin mum Emily Simpson
Emily is a mum to 3 beautiful boys, including twins. She has a degree in Early Childhood Studies and experience working in various early years settings. She became a sleep consultant after her own experience of sleep deprivation when her twins were first born.
Being someone who loves their sleep, she really struggled with this which set her off on a road of researching infant sleep which she has found fascinating. She now loves helping other families address their sleep challenges so that they can enjoy family life with an understanding of sleep so that they are confident in navigating sleep going forward.
 
Find her here -
www.sleepnanny.co.uk/c/emilysimpson/
@sleepnannyemilysimpson

Sleep support and Autism with Vicky Cookesly

Vicky is a certified sleep consultant who established a successful business helping families find the right sleep solutions that gain amazing results. Vicky works with children from newborn to 17 years old and is also a specialist in Anxiety & Autism / ADHD sleep methods. Her unique and bespoke sleep methods have helped families from all over the world, overcome sleep problems that have affected their whole lives. Vicky is passionate about getting the right advice for each individual family in order to get the results they want.
Vicky also spends time running workshops & seminars on Autism, Anxiety and Sleep for many of the top Autism Charities & Societies both in the UK and USA and is the lead speaker and trainer on these specialist sleep methods. Vicky has over 16 years of professional training, qualifications and knowledge in these bespoke sleep methods, she also has personal experience with her own children who both have additional needs. Through her own experiences, she has combined this knowledge with science and research to create bespoke and successful sleep methods that help all families, with or without additional needs
https://sleepnanny.co.uk/c/vickycooksley/

Simple Nutrition To Support Busy Parents with Janine McGee

In today's episode, we're thrilled to welcome Janine McGee Nutrition, who will be sharing a treasure trove of tips aimed at helping you achieve optimal nutrition to deeply nourish your body at a cellular level. Whether you're in the delicate post-birth recovery phase or simply find yourself leading a hectic lifestyle with minimal time for culinary endeavors, Janine will expertly break down simple yet effective strategies to meet your nutritional needs.
Join us as Janine delves into the intricacies of dietary choices, offering guidance on what to incorporate into your meals and what to steer clear of. By understanding the importance of these dietary decisions, you'll gain valuable insight into how they can positively impact not only your current state of well-being but also your future health. So, tune in to discover the keys to unlocking a nourished body and a thriving life.
 
You can find out more about Janine and how she can help here:
Instagram - @janine.mcgee.nutrition
www.janinemcgee.co.uk
 

Attachment Trauma and Parenting with Dr Clair Burley

Dr Clair Burley is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in attachment trauma
After a successful 13 years in the NHS, Dr Clair now works from her private practice in Dorset. Dr Clair helps individuals, couples and parents/families with their relationship challenges and needs. This includes the relationship we have with ourselves (e.g., a harsh inner critic, difficulty managing emotions, attachment trauma) as well as with significant others such as a romantic partner, a child, or other family members such as siblings or parents.
Dr Clair has a nurturing nature, which is paired with her in-depth knowledge and experience of helping people transform their relationships. She draws upon psychological theories and models to make sense of your difficulties and guide you from where you are now, to where you want to be. The key to true happiness is in the harmony and connection within these relationships
 
Instagram @drclairburley
Website https://drclair.com

The Benefits of Baby Wearing with Vern Hill

Vern Hill is an ante and post-natal fitness expert, Founder of Carifit and father of 2, passionate about the benefits that baby wearing can bring to parents and their child. Supported by a team of industry professionals, as well as doctors, midwives, physiotherapists and baby wearing experts, they create fun, safe and effective workouts supported by thoughtfully made sports tech.
Carifit started out as an exercise method and soon developed into a wellbeing platform for all new parents at every stage of their parenting journey. With expert advice and support on nutrition, babywearing, sleep and postnatal physiotherapy, the Carifit app is the only 360° babywearing, parenting, fitness and wellbeing platform.
Vern Hill is the Founder of Carifit: https://www.getcarifit.com/ | @cari_fit on instagram

How parenting today is different to just 10 years ago with Lucy Piper

In this conversation we talk to the wonderful Lucy Piper who is the presenter at the Baby Show
 
Lucy trained as a professional dancer and enjoyed a career around the world until she was 25 before making her break into television presenting on a breakfast show in Chicago, USA
She is a mum of two and the world of Baby and Maternity is one of Lucy's greatest passions. When she was pregnant with her first child, she presented The Baby Channel on Sky, a fabulous daytime show interviewing various experts on the sofa with her big bump! Lucy has been hosting The Baby Show stage since 2004 making this her 18th year. Over the years she has shared the stage with hundreds of experts and celebrity mums, talking about labour, breastfeeding, sleep and weaning. Lucy loves to explore and talk about the latest baby products and is always on the lookout for the latest innovation. With her empathy and admiration for new parents, she loves to empower and support expectant and new parents on their exciting parenting journey. 
In this podcast we talk all things 'Baby' and how motherhood can take it's toll.
 
Take our free sleep assessment and tailor your own plan of action on our Sleep App, it's free to download on the Apple and Google Play stores https://sleepnanny.co.uk/app/

Why I changed my opinion of sleep training with Becky Brightman

In this episode I talk to the wonderful Senior Sleep Nanny Consultant and wonderful human Becky Brightman.
Becky found Sleep Nanny as a sleep-deprived parent, just like you, who was at her limit. At 18 months old, her daughter was taking upwards of two hours to fall asleep (day or night) and was feeding at least three times a night. Mum guilt over her child's sleep deprivation was ever all  consuming. Whether it stemmed from feelings of responsibility for her child's disrupted sleep patterns or from societal pressures to ensure perfect parenting, it often weighed heavy on her heart. The relentless cycle of sleepless nights exacerbated this guilt, as she started to question her ability to provide adequate care and support for her child's well-being. Despite her best efforts, the inability to "fix" her child's sleep issues amplified these feelings of inadequacy. Sleep Nanny transformed her life in two short weeks and it was from that point she knew she wanted to help other families experience the same.
In this conversation we talk about mum guilt, sleep experiences, societal pressure and the knock on effect this can have on the whole family.
Find Becky on Instagram - @sleepnannybeckybrightman
https://beckybrightman.sleepnanny.co
 
Take our free sleep assessment and tailor your own plan of action on our Sleep App, it's free to download on the Apple and Google Play stores https://sleepnanny.co.uk/app/

My Baby Doesn’t Sleep Enough

In this blog, we are going to be addressing the fact that you’ve recognized that your baby doesn’t sleep enough, or your little one doesn’t sleep enough. So we’re going to find out why. Where is it in 24 hours that the lack of sleep is coming from? Because understanding this is key. 
In the previous blog we started talking about overtiredness and what that does, and the effect of overtiredness. So today, we are going to fully understand where the overtiredness could be coming from. 
First of all, could it be lack of daytime sleep? That’s the first one I want you to think about. Is your child under three? If they are, then they probably do still need some daytime sleep. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes they need daytime sleep beyond age three as well.
But if they are under three, then it’s pretty much a sure thing that they do need some. And if that’s the case, how much should that be, at this current age and stage that they are? How much daytime sleep would be beneficial for them? And in what sections? How many? How many naps and how long would they be, if they’re going to be doing the best sleep they can do? So if we can understand that we can then understand whether they’re getting enough or not.
That immediately gives us a fixing point like, “Ah, okay, my two-year-old, let’s say, is having a half an hour nap in the day.” Okay brilliant, we’ve identified a problem. It’s not enough sleep for a two-year-old, we need to be aiming more towards the two-hour mark. So we already go, “Oh right, okay. That’s what I need to do to help to fix things.” It could be the amount, but it could also be the quality. So you might think, “Oh no, my child gets loads of sleep. They get the exact amount that they need for their age and stage.”
But if the quality of that sleep isn’t great that could be the problem. It could be the timing as well. So what if they’re getting the quantity overall, but the quality is poor and it’s in little snatched naps of light sleep. And perhaps, in their case, it’s not restorative enough, and the quality of sleep is down. Also, motion sleep, so the sleep that you have on the go, in the pushchair, or the car, or on the move, motion sleep often won’t give the same quality of sleep as a proper sleep space and ideal sleep environment. It can, but often it doesn’t. So that could be the key and the thing that is causing your little one to be overtired. So these are all things that you can look at and explore to spot it with your little one where’s that overtiredness coming from. 
The other thing with timing to look at is if they’re awake for too long between sleeps.
So sometimes people will tell me, “Yep, they’re getting enough sleep.” And they are, they’re getting enough. Let’s go back to our two-year-old, perhaps they’re getting nearly two hours every day and it’s brilliant, but they’re taking that a bit late in the day. So actually, from their morning wake-up time until the start of that nap time, if that window of awakeness is too long, even if they’re getting the ideal amount of nap after that, the very fact that wake window is too long could be the reason for their overtiredness, even if they are getting enough naptime. So timing does play a part in this as well. 
Timing is something that can easily be overlooked or ignored because you think, “They get the sleep eventually.” Yeah, but that extended wakeful period may have already done the harm and cause the overtiredness.
When you look at bedtime itself. Is bedtime late, a bit too late or irregular? Does it move around a lot? That could be another reason for overtiredness, a bedtime that isn’t consistent, or that is too late for a little one. 
Most 0 to 6 year olds, some seven-year-olds, will do best with a bedtime around 7:00 PM. That’s if you operate a kind of a day in the life of where you want to wake up between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM, maybe you have school or preschool, or you are working, and then wind down, your evening meal or whatever, and then to sleep around 7:00 PM, somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, for sure. Absolutely, somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, for anyone, I would say, 0 to 10 years. You may get a few on the older side that can cope with a slightly later bedtime, but generally speaking, from 0 to 10 years, I would say somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, it’s going to fit really, really well. 7:00 PM’s great, right down the middle.
The last one that you could look at in terms, if you’re trying to figure out, where is this overtiredness coming from? I know my child’s overtired, I figured that out in the last episode, but where is it coming from? Could it be disturbed nights? Do you have lots of wake ups going on in the night, lots of disruption? Are they up and down? Are they having wakeful periods in the night? 
That, in itself, is going to cause overtiredness because not only do they lose those bits of sleep when they wake up, but the very fact that they’re having them means that the sleep cycles are not thorough and they’re not nourishing. We cycle through our sleep like this. And if they’re spending a lot of time up here, they’re not getting their deep, nourishing sleep and having that restorative effect. So it could be the disturbed nights, okay?
So have a think about those, see which it could be for you. If this has helped you go, “Ah yes, it’s that,” then brilliant, because you can then move on into my blog, where I’m going to be sharing with you how to actually fix that, how to get them to sleep more.
Take our Quiz and get your free custom sleep plan today!

Travelling And Kids Sleep

https://youtu.be/lx4Kmk1UcVk
To conclude my little series on traveling with your little ones and maintaining the best sleep possible, this post is all about the return home.
These tips are going to help you to get your little one’s sleep back on track and get them sleeping really nicely at home when you’ve returned from travel or being away, or on a holiday, or something like that.
Number one, the journey home itself. So when you’re coming home a bit like the journey out, you have this random day, it’s a transitional day. It’s going to be a day where you may find you or your child might get more sleep than usual, you might get less sleep than usual. It doesn’t matter, it’s a transition. It’s when you get back, that really makes the difference in getting back into your routine.
When you come back, try if possible, it’s not always possible, but try if you can to factor in a recovery day. That’s the day after the travel day. So you’ve got your travel day and then a recovery day. If you can, if your timetable allows. That’s going to give you the opportunity to just play with timing, whatever time we start, the day is fine. Wake up when your body clock’s ready. And then, look at, where are we now? What time is it? Right, based on this wake-up time we need to have, or not have naps. Based on what happens there, we need to do what we need to do in order for bedtime to happen at that time, which is your time at home. So having that recovery day, it’s like having a buffer zone to really sort it all back out.
The second thing is home routine right away. Get into your home routine right away. Once you’ve got back and you’ve done that, you’re going to be starting to think, right it’s breakfast time at this time, this is our dinner time, this is when bedtime is. Just get back into that routine and rhythm. And particularly when it comes to your bedtime routine for little ones and the environment that they’re in. If they are in their own room, if they spent a week sleeping in a room with a sibling, but normally at home, they’re on their own, it’s hard and fast rules back to normal. That’s where you sleep, your bed, your room. If they are usually in their own cot, but they’ve been sleeping in a bed or a different sleep setting or in with parents on a holiday, back to normal, back to their own sleep space. Whatever the rules are at home, they need to come back right away.
The third thing to remind you of is jet lag. If you have changed time zones, especially big ones, jet lag can last a week. It can take a week to really get back to normal. But you’re going to encourage that along and you’re going to help that along faster by getting into your local time and your routine based on the time zone you’re back in. And by getting into those cues, the environments, the meal times, all those things that make up the home routine. Catch-ups as well. If you are, or your little one is tired, more than usual, have little catch-ups. It’s okay. Don’t think you’ve got to keep your little one awake to maintain the perfect bedtime if they’re tired, just because perhaps they don’t usually nap or they’ve had their usual amount of naps. If there’s additional tiredness there, a little catch-up sleep, really won’t hurt. And then still go ahead with your normal bedtime, so you can get that back onto the normal path.
Take care and I hope that this helps you and your little one if you are travelling soon.
Take our Quiz and get your free custom sleep plan today!