The Sleep Mums

It’s bedtime, everyone’s calm and settled and suddenly 40 minutes later your baby is fast, fast AWAKE!  In this podcast we’ll help you get to the bottom of this ready steady wake routine. 

We’ll cover:

1 - What is a False Start? 2 - Why do they happen? 3 - What can I do about them? 4 - Why are they more common at night? 5 - Do False Starts just happen to babies?

Plus, we answer one of your questions about why a toddler consistently...

It’s the middle of the night, you’ve just got back to sleep and suddenly you hear a whimper, then it turns into a cry. You have just got your baby to sleep, they can’t possibly be up… 

The loop of exhaustion, frustration and disappointment that can come with regular night wakings is very real. We’re here to help you out of it.

1. Why does my baby wake every hour at night? 2. What can I do? 3. Are regular night wakes related to hung...

People talk about baby and children’s bedtime routines but what about a morning routine?

At it’s simplest, a morning routine is a few steps that you take you from nighttime to daytime. But it’s not just a process, having a positive morning routine can have a biological effect and help to reset you and your child’s circadian rhythm. 

1. What is a morning routine?  2. Is it something we need to do forever ? 3. What does a good one lo...

Contact napping is where a baby, toddler or child spends their nap with all or part of their body in contact with their parent or caregiver. It’s lovely, its necessary, it’s part of parenthood but it can also be intense and tiring too.

In this podcast we discuss:

1 - What is contact napping? 2 - When it works 3 - Is there a point it’s not so good? 4 - How can you move away from contact napping?  5 - Is it an all or never kind of th...

Growth Spurts are an essentially exhausting part of childhood.

There’s no set in stone way how to predict how and when your baby will grow. Sometimes a growth spurt hits overnight and a sleepsuit that fitted the day before suddenly wont snap (sometimes they last much longer).

We’re here to help you through answering all this

1 - When and What are Growth Spurts?  2 - How Do I Know it’s One?  3 - Will they Mess Up my Routine?  4 - ...

Boundaries are such an important tool to help our children feel secure in their surroundings and with other people, but they’re also really important for us as parents. 

If we want to show our children the importance of them, we need to model them ourselves and one place they can really come in handy is sleep.

We'll also answer our listener Laurie's question about putting boundaries back in place after the kids have been at the gra...

Sleep is generally not something associated with New Year - it’s all about counting down the minutes to staying up late. 

But once the holiday hangover, be that from too much mulled wine, mother in laws or mince pies, subsides everyone is all about making a fresh start.

A change in routine isn’t a resolution, though, a good routine grounds you, giving you stability to deal with the mountain of other shit we have to do on the daily ...

December can be an exciting time but it can also be really exhausting and if you’re already parent-level tired, the overwhelm of making it through can make it feel a lot less merry and bright. 

In our holiday episode we talk about why and how the holidays can be tough, some tips on how to manage them and bring you a wee bit of festive cheer.

As always, we hope to give you the gift of better sleep, that’s top of our list!

1 – Pack...

Settling is the word we use to talk about how to help your baby to sleep; all the time… but especially when it seems like they really don’t want to!

This episode will arm you with a tool belt of settling techniques you need to help your baby get to sleep, firstly with you and then ultimately by themselves.

Well also give you some coping techniques to get you through the toughest of nights as well as answer our listener Hannah's que...

Is anyone else suffering from parent guilt right now?

Parent guilt is this gross, uncomfortable ache that lodges itself in your heart and creeps into your head, often in the middle of the night. It can keep you from sleeping, almost as much as a newborn.

This episode isn’t directly about sleep, but we care about finding ways to help everyone sleep better and that includes you as well as your children.

1 – Try not to compare 2 – A...

What is sleep like when you first bring your baby home?

Non-existent? Glorious? Broken or anxious?

In our very first podcast episode we look at The First Two Weeks. Share our most important guideline from our book and how, if you’re ready, to start laying the foundations for better baby sleep.

We’ll also answer a listener question from someone you might just recognise!

1 – The Most Important Thing  2 – Hormoans 3 – Sleep Fo...

The most important piece of baby sleep help you’ll ever hear?

This week’s episode is all about The Sleep Mums Golden Rule. We know some of you don’t like rules when it comes to parenting but this one will give you more freedom, not less.

We’ll answer our listener Kerry’s request for help on moving her 4.5 month old baby from her Moses basket to a cot.

This whole episode is a gold mine of baby sleep chat!

1 – Sarah’s Favourite Word ...

One of the hardest things about baby sleep is that there is so much information out there. It can feel like everyone reckons they are a baby sleep expert and it doesn’t help that not all of the information they’re sharing is true!

Our myth busting episodes are some of our most popular so it’s time to put some more of these sleep untruths to bed - forever - in our brand new Sleep Myths Part 3!

1 – Total Quiet Please 2 – Just a Bad...

All of us have bad days. Every single one of us: parents, babies, children… even that lassie on socials.

So, it’s not the having the bad days, it’s how you cope with them and in the midst of having one it can feel impossible to do so. We’re here to help you through, give you support and ideas for managing them.

We’ll also answer one of your questions about what happens if you need to put your baby to bed early after a bad day and b...

Has your child pleaded for you over the other parent? Or begged for them instead of you? Then you may have experienced parent preference.

At first, being the favoured parent might feel flattering but it can quickly stop feeling like a win. And, whilst not being the preferred parent can be hurtful, what does it actually mean?

In this podcast, we’ll explore parent preference, what it looks like at different ages and how to cope – and...

Clock changes can give parents the fear, you feel you have everything in a delicate balance, you’re getting some sleep, they nap and then the time bandits come along! You find yourself doing mental leaps, counting on fingers and trying to work out when on earth they ‘should’ go to bed.

In this podcast we’ll share what will really help, give you some practical tips and, hopefully, stop any alarm bells ringing about the clock change.

Juggling sleep with a baby and a toddler can be difficult.

You might be pro at coping with a poonami, be able to butter toast one-handed and manage a meltdown but working out nap and bedtime with two (or more) can floor even the most experienced parent. Meeting the needs of two - sometimes screaming – children who have very different demands is challenging and, particularly where sleep is concerned, exhausting.

In this episode we l...