my story

Parents, I've been where you are. Trust me. In 2010 my daughter was born, and I felt fully prepared after reading every single baby book I could get my hands on. Kaydyn was born and slept around the clock. "This is easy!" I thought. I was a bit concerned when none of the books I had read mentioned much about how a baby should sleep, but I figured that this is because babies just slept whenever they wanted to sleep—boy was I wrong. We developed a nursing-to-sleep association with a baby that couldn't sleep anywhere but on me—I'm talking nap time and nighttime. The bonding? Amazing. The flexibility? Not so much. In addition to our sleep crutches, I had no idea how often a baby needed to sleep. Kaydyn developed what we thought was colic; bouts of severe crying in the evenings. She almost looked to be in pain. Some days she wouldn't nap all day, and my nights would be spent pushing her outside in the stroller in the middle of the winter, up and down the driveway, and then ever-so-carefully trying to creep the car seat back into the house without waking her. This was not how I pictured everything; I was stressed, unhappy, and tired, and so was she. Finally, when Kaydyn turned six months old I discovered my first baby sleep book, and I was hooked. After teaching her how to fall asleep independently in her crib and putting her down for naps within her sleep window, Kaydyn became an amazing sleeper, and she still is eight years later.

Fast forward to 2012, and the birth of my son. Armed with all the tools needed to help shape Arlo's sleep, we were amazed at how differently our experiences with our two children were. Of course we still had sleepless nights, and of course we were tired—babies are exhausting! But Arlo didn't cry all day and night, we respected his need to sleep, and he is a happy, content baby (and we are a well-rested family).

And here we go again! Our daughter Willa was born in the spring of 2018 and our family is complete :)

Healthy sleep is addicting. Once I gained all of the knowledge from helping my two children sleep, I began to help others: friends, family, co-workers. Hearing their success stories was so rewarding, I decided to make a career out of this! That is when I turned to the Family Sleep Institute to become a Certified Infant and Child Sleep Consultant. I feel so blessed to be able to love my job, and to help so many others on their journeys to becoming a well-rested family.

Appointment safe zones!⁣ 🗓 ⁣ One thing that can be tricky with following a waketime schedule is knowing the best times to book appointments, outings, etc. The timing of certain events may not be flexible, but when you do have a chance to choose the timing, this post is meant as a helpful guide to know possible 'safe zones' for appointments!⁣ ⁣ The above zone recommendations are assuming a 7:00am wake-up. If your child wakes up earlier or later than that, you'll want to shift the timing accordingly [i.e. for a child that wakes at 6:00am, everything shifts 1 hour earlier]. This is not a perfect science of course! But the above 'safe zones' can be a good range for us to be able to manipulate the schedule to ensure the day isn't a total disaster [this might mean waking your child up or pushing out a sleep time to accommodate the appointment/activity] - this is okay! A late nap here or there [or a nap on the go if needed!] is part of life with young kids. If you follow the 80/20 rule [80% consistency, 20% flexibility] your child will stay well-rested :)⁣ 💤 ⁣ #babysleeptrainer #babysleeproutine #babysleepschedule #infantsleep #infantsleepeducation #infantsleepconsultant #weebeedreaming #messymotherhood #hotmessmom #myhonestmotherhood #aintnohoodlikemotherhood #thatmomlife #momdiaries #modernmom #firsttimemommy #newmomlife #sleepconsultant #pediatricsleep

It's a wonder they sleep at all! So what do we do?⁣ ⁣ ✔️Make sure baby is not overtired. If you're hitting this regression at the 3.5-4 mo mark then baby should only be awake 1.5-1.75 hrs in between sleep times. We should still be getting 3-4 naps per day, totaling about 15.5 hours of total sleep. If your baby is taking catnaps [which can be normal at this age] then you need to compensate with an early bedtime, which brings me to my next point...⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ✔️Make sure we've moved bedtime earlier. At this age we begin to see sleep patterns mature and nightsleep consolidate. This means that your baby who was previously sleeping in until 8am may begin to shift his natural wake-up time earlier, to around 6-7am. This then means that we need to begin shifting the bedtime earlier as well to account for this. It is a common misconception that putting baby to bed later will help them to sleep in - it is the exact opposite that is true. Putting your baby to bed later in hopes that they will start to sleep in will only backfire and lead to an overtired baby who will in turn wake up even earlier. This early to bed, early to rise pattern is here to stay and trying to fight it is going against baby's natural sleep rhythms. By 4 mos, the last nap of the day should be ending by 5pm, with bedtime occurring 1.75-2 hrs later.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ✔️Work on baby going down awake at bedtime. If your baby is now 16+ weeks of age, it's time to sleep train! Sleep training before this regression can help to avoid a regression at all [or minimize the effects]. You can sleep train during this regression as well, as this is often the solution to get sleep back on track! If your baby is not yet old enough or you aren't ready to sleep train, at least make sure that we are teaching baby that the crib is a reasonable place to sleep. If your baby never even has the chance to fall asleep there, then there’s no reason she should accept the crib. In little babies it’s all about offering the chance; you don’t have to do it every sleep time, but it is important to think about this in anticipation of this regression. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ 3 MORE TIPS IN THE COMMENTS!

BACK TO SCHOOL!⁣ 📚 🍎 ⁣ While there is a lot of uncertainty in our house with school this year [as I'm sure most families are experiencing!] one thing for certain is that we've got to scale back our ☀️summer bedtimes☀️ for back to school next week!⁣ ⁣ Hopefully this visual is helpful for determining your school-aged child's ideal bedtime according to their wake-up time.⁣ ⁣ ✏️Please note the timing on the chart is lights out time 💡and suggestions are assuming your child does NOT nap - if they do, bedtime would be later according to nap duration [i.e. if your child naps 1 hour, bedtime would be ~1 hour later than the chart outlines].⁣ ⁣ 〰️Are your kiddos back to school already? Next Thursday/Friday in this house and putting all the positive vibes that I can out there for a safe and successful return for all kids, whatever that may look like for your family! ⁣ #backtoschool #school2020 #bedtime #toddlersleep #preschool #elementaryschool #middleschool #messymotherhood #myhonestmotherhood #mommyhood #mommingainteasy #mommingsohard #imomsohard #motherhoodunplugged #raisingthefuture #sleepconsultant #sleepcoach #sleepcoaching #sleeptrainer #schoollife #schooldays

Save this for later! 👆⁣ ⁣ Nap transitions can be a really frustrating and challenging time in your child’s life. It always seems like as soon as we get into a good groove, we have to go shake it up by dropping a nap!⁣ ⁣ 🔷If you are looking for a step-by-step guide to all 4 of the above nap transitions, check out my Comprehensive Nap Transition Guide [link in bio!]🔷⁣ ⁣ You'll see that I mention 'cannot be otherwise explained' when referring to nightwakings or early wake-ups. By this, I mean that the nightwakings/early wake-ups are not a possible result of:⁣ ⁣ ➕Sleep associations/needing a parent present/parental assistance to fall asleep⁣ ➕Too many naps on the go⁣ ➕Bedtime was too late/child was overtired⁣ ➕Illness/teething⁣ ➕Developmental milestones/mental leaps⁣ ➕Habitual waking [i.e. the waking/early wake-up has been happening for a long time, not a new development]⁣ ⁣ 🔘Which nap transition did you find the most challenging? ⁣ ⁣ #naptransition #sleeptraining #sleepexpert #sleepconsultant #sleepcoach #weebeedreaming #sleeptips #infantsleep #infantsleepeducation #infantsleepconsultant #babyexpert #babytips #babyhacks #toddlersleep #toddlertips #toddlerhacks #messymotherhood #myhonestmotherhood #mommingainteasy #honestlymothering #aintnohoodlikemotherhood #morherhoodunplugged #raisingthefuture #thatmomlife #momdiaries #firsttimemommy #watchthemgrow #workingmomlife #modernmom

CONTEST CLOSED⭐️GIVEAWAY/REVIEW!⭐️⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I may have found my new favorite sound machine - introducing the SNOOZ!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Why do I ❤️love❤️ it so much?⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵Lately I've been a big fan of pure #whitenoise [i.e. not an audio track] and the @snooz has a real non-looping fan inside⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵There is a huge range in possible tone adjustments as well as 10 volume settings⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵There is an app [woo!] where you can set a timer [perfect for us that forget to shut it off in the mornings!] and you can turn the machine on/off or up/down from your phone⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵No annoying lights [why some noise machines come with a light that you can't turn off I will never know!]⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵It came with a sleep mask! So cool⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 🎵My FAVE feature is that it has a nursery calibration, which basically means you can double-check the decibel level of the white noise based on where your child is sleeping in the room. SO awesome!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ➕And now the best part...... I have a Snooz White Noise Sound Machine to give away to a lucky follower!!!!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ All you have to do to enter this giveaway is:⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ☑️Follow @weebeedreaming and @snooz on IG⁣⁣ ☑️❤️ this post⁣⁣ ☑️Tag your friends [separate comments, each tag is an entry!]⁣⁣ ☑️Bonus entry: share this post on your stories and tag @weebeedreaming and @snooz ⁣⁣ That is it! Hope everyone is having an awesome summer! ☀️ Good luck!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ *this giveaway is in no way affiliated with Instagram ⁣ ⁣ #weebeedreaming #snooz #babysleepproblems #babysleepaid #whitenoisemachine #babysleeptips #giveaway #fridaygiveaway #sleepexpert #babysleepconsultants #babysleepcoach #babysleepconsultantsleeptips #toddlersleep #toddlersleephelp #tiredmom #tireddad #sleepymom #helpmybabysleep #motherhoodthroughinstagram #motherhoodrising #babygiveaway #babygiveaways #parenthoodunplugged #parenting #parenttips

DREAMFEEDING! 🌙 🍼 ⁣ ⁣ I've never done a DF with any of my kids [mainly because as babies I felt I worked so hard to get them to sleep, I'd be darned if I was going to risk waking them up!] but I've seen it work amazingly well for families I'm working with [and I've also seen countless times where dropping the DF is what helps to improve nighttime sleep!]⁣ ⁣ A dreamfeed isn't for every baby [and it can sometimes work and then stop working!] so hopefully the above graphic helps to understand what it is, when to do it, how to know it's working, and how to get rid of it!⁣ ⁣ Did you do a dreamfeed with your kids? Only for the brave I say! 😝⁣ ⁣ #dreamfeed #dreamfeeding #weebeedreaming #babysleeptrainer #infantsleep #infantsleepconsultant #nightfeed #nightfeeds #momminainteasy #babyschedule #helpmesleep #newbornsleep #fourthtrimester #honestmommin #sleepcoach #sleepcoaching #sleepexpert #babysleephelp #breastfeeding #bottlefeeding #feedingbaby #babysleeptip #newmom #newdad #motherhoodintheraw #motherhoodunplugged

Friday Funny! - what type of sleeper(s) do you have? 🤣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #fridayvibes #fridayfun #fridaymood #babysleeping #infantsleep #sleeptraining #earlywakeups #catnaps #catnapsallday #mybabyhatessleep #weebeedreaming #sleepconsultant #sleepconsulting #motherhood #fatherhood #realmomlife #realdadlife

🍼Baby Feeding Chart!⁣ 🤱🏼 ⁣ I asked my SIL what a helpful chart would have been as a first-time parent, and she gave me this recommendation since the amount/frequency of feeds was something she felt unsure about!⁣ ⁣ ➰Now of course, this is just a guideline, and you should speak to your pedi if you have any concerns. Following your baby's hunger cues is important and feedings should always be flexible [just like sleep times!] but this is meant to give you an idea of what can be 'normal' at each age!⁣ And please, if you have any ideas for helpful infographics, let me know below!👇 #weebeedreaming #breastfeeding #breastfeedingmom #breastfed #breastfeedingmama #breastfedbaby #bottlefeeding #bottlefeed #fedisbest #fedisbestwhetherbottleorbreast #babytips #newborntips #infanttips #nightfeeds #nighttimeparenting ⁣

When to introduce a pillow for sleep?⁣ ⁣ ➕The AAP recommends no soft bedding/pillows in the crib until after 12 mos. Once your child reaches the age of 1 at the earliest [or even somewhere between 18-24 months], introducing a pillow can be a helpful tool for teaching them to sleep in one position the whole night long [which is great preparation for moving to a bed between 3-4 years of age!] This maturity in sleep is partly biological [as smaller children do not reach the same stage of sleep paralysis as older children do] and partly behavioral [some kids are just more wild in their sleep than others!] As you can see in the video, Willa [age 2] now sleeps in a similar spot all night long, and this may be partly sleep maturity but I do feel her pillow has helped!⁣ ⁣ ➕Not every child will take to a pillow and it can take some time for them to figure out it's proper use, but it can be a helpful association. Don't worry if your child doesn't use a pillow properly until they are in a bed [and if your child is sleeping comfortably in their crib without a pillow, there is no need to introduce a pillow if you prefer not to!]⁣ ⁣ ➕It's important that when we introduce a pillow, it is not simply a regular pillow, as this is designed to support an adult's head and neck. The strain a regular pillow could put on your child can lead to restless sleep or poor posture. A toddler pillow is designed with a small child's proportions in mind and allows for a comfortable and safe sleep. I would even recommend looking for a 'less fill' option, especially if your child is under the age of 3 and/or is a tummy sleeper.⁣ ⁣ ➕If you notice that your child tends to bunch up blankets or stuffed animals to sleep on, a pillow might help them feel more comfortable! Additionally, once your child's shoulders are wider than their head, they may be more comfortable sleeping on a pillow than a flat mattress.⁣ ⁣ ➕I strongly recommend a pillow that can be machine washable [the entire pillow, not just the case]. My favorite toddler pillow is from @littlesleepyhead - we've washed it probably close to 50 times and it feels just as nice as the day we bought it!

💤SLEEPY CUES 101!⁣💤 ⁣ Sleepy cues can be very difficult to read especially beyond the #newborn stage. This is why I often recommend keeping 1 eye on baby and 1 eye on the clock ⏰ - we have a time in mind that we want to put baby down and will put down regardless of sleepy cues [as not seeing any cues doesn't mean baby is not tired, it may just mean they are the perfect amount of tired!] but we put down early if we are seeing any of the later signs of fatigue. ⁣ As babies get older, sleepy cues become more unreliable [some don't show any until they are way overtired, others may yawn because they are bored] but if you are seeing any of these above signs, then be on high-alert that a sleep time should be approaching soon! 😴 #sleepycues #tiredbaby #tiredmama #helpmybabysleep #sleeptraining #sleeptrain #newbornsleep #newmama #firsttimemom #momhacks #parentinghacks #parentingtips #weebeedreaming #momminainteasy #babyschedules #babysleeptips #fourthtrimester #honestmommin #sleepconsultant #sleepexpert #motherhoodunplugged #motherhoodjourney

When to introduce a pillow for sleep?⁣
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➕The AAP recommends no soft bedding/pillows in the crib until after 12 mos. Once your child reaches the age of 1 at the earliest [or even somewhere between 18-24 months], introducing a pillow can be a helpful

Wee Bee Dreaming

how to decide whether you should use an early bedtime or a late nap
Mar 9, 2023, 9:10 AM