A New Journey…
Welcome!
Thank you for supporting my journey. A year ago, if you had told me this was what I would be doing- I would have said no way! I planned to have my baby, take off 3 to 4 months and go back to work. Which I did… I went back to work after 20 weeks. But, having Nora also unleashed a huge passion of mine to help Moms find their way by following their intuition.
So how did I get here? Before Nora was born, I had ideas of what her sleep would look like and how we would go about getting there, really having no idea what was coming my way. I think almost everyone does this- say things and think things about what will happen/ what you will do when you become a parent. Some of it ends up being true, but a lot of it doesn’t. The truth is, no one really knows how it feels to be the parent of a child, until you are one. Even with a ton of experience with babies (this was me).
When Nora was just about 3 months old, all of the sudden I was SURROUNDED by people/ things/ shows/ etc. telling me what society’s standards are for infant sleep and I just wasn’t here for it. I went to the dentist one day and the first thing she asked was “how is she sleeping?”- I watched This Is Us and Jack was telling Rebecca he had to let the babies cry while she seemed so distraught over it- I was at a friends house and my 12 week old daughter just would not stay asleep for longer than 5 minutes- a friend of a friend said “you have to leave her to cry or you’ll be having a two hour long bedtime routine when she’s 4”- honestly, the list goes on. Meanwhile, I had been following @islagracesleep for awhile and was extremely interested in her baby led sleep certification course. I loved what she shared about following your intuition, about how mom knows best, about how you can hold & feed & rock your baby to sleep and basically about how ignoring what society is telling me to do with my baby was the BEST thing I could do.
I decided I needed to take this course, I needed to help spread the word about normal infant sleep, I needed to help other moms realize that sleep training was NOT the only option. At the time, my daughter was sleeping great at night, up to 8-10 hour stretches. Her naps were short & mostly only on me, but overall I was fairly rested and feeling good. Hence, feeling up to enrolling in a 6+month long certification course. Turns out, it was the best decision I could have made personally, as my good sleeper hit the four month sleep progression HARD (and it lasted 12 weeks) and I really needed the education in the course to survive those months. I’ll share my daughters story in a different blog, but I’ll just say one thing: I did ALL the things (feed to sleep, rock to sleep, bedshare, hold her for naps, etc.), no sleep training and she STILL decided to sleep through the night when she was ready- at 11 months old.
After finishing my certification with isla grace sleep, I enrolled in Dr. Neufeld’s intensive 1 course, which I am currently enrolled in and will complete in March. The information on attachment, emotion, sleep, etc. is honestly life changing and needs to be shared over & over again. If you don’t know who he is, check out his site.
With my certification, I launched my business- HolisticMamaSleep. I support moms 1:1 with email support, one sleep education call, or weeks/months of support- depending on the age of the baby and what they are looking for. I provide parents a map, NOT directions. I don’t tell you exactly what to do, but I will help you find your way. It is not simply cry it out or wait it out. If you need/want to make changes, I can support you through them while you support your baby (or toddler). I will also be providing online and in person classes (starting on normal newborn sleep & what to expect and expanding from there). I am working on my lactation certification as well.
I look forward to supporting new moms and helping them find peace and happiness in the postpartum period. If you know someone expecting or a new Mom- send them to check out my instagram @holisticmamasleep!