The first few years of your child’s life, there are so many products out there to choose from it can often feel like you need to buy everything. As a Mom that has been through it and now has a strong knowledge base in all things infant sleep, I am going to list for you the products that are a worthwhile investment for you to get through the first years of your child’s life.

1. Blackout shades! There are some that are actually portable, such as The Gro Company Gro-Anywhere Blind

2. White noise sound machine. This product is a regular in our home and when we go on vacations. We all sleep better with the sound machine on; mimicking the peaceful sounds of the womb! Marpac Dohm Classic White Noise Sound Machine is my recommendation.

3. Halo Sleep Sacks Swaddle with the Velcro. These are fantastic to use the first 4 months of your baby’s life to help your baby feel safely snug just as they did in the womb. They also help create the optimal cool sleep environment that we need as humans. We used these with my daughter and it helped her start sleeping longer stretches at night!

4. Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit for when you want to make the transition out of the swaddle blankets. Sure your kid may look like the marshmallow puff man from Ghost Busters, but this thing actually works to dull the startle reflex!

5. East Baby Travelers- Separate and organize your baby/toddler supplies into their matching Easy Baby Traveler organizers, then place your Easy Baby Travelers in any bag you want to call a diaper bag. These travelers are the biggest time saver for a busy parent! Added bonus is that the owner of this company is my friend Danielle! https://www.easybabytravelers.com

If you have any other questions about recommended and worthwhile products to purchase in those first few years of life, feel free to reach out to me at Emily@peacefulsleepconsulting.com or (203) 568-7967

The first few years of a child’s life comes with it many developmental milestones, transitions and changes. It can sometimes feel like it’s hard to keep up with them! When it comes to a child’s sleep however, there are certain key aspects that should remain the same and consistent in order to maintain a healthy sleep foundation.

Think about sleep in the same way you view nutrition and the food we put into our bodies. Do you want your young child to have a diet consisting of junk food (naps on the go in the car or stroller, late bedtime) or a diet made up of fresh fruits, vegetables and lean proteins (sleeping according to their circadian rhythms and biological needs)? On top of the long term health benefits of sleep to your child’s brain development and the positive impact sleep has on mood and behavior, think about how your child’s sleep can positively impact your life with your spouse. More time to be together, talk, connect and get your “date night” back into your life. As your child gets older, you’ll also get your social calendar back on track and start going out at night on the weekends (although this does hurt the next day when you have to wake up at 7:00am)!

If you find that despite your greatest efforts, you are still struggling to get your child on an appropriate sleep schedule, Peaceful Sleep Consulting is here to help! Reach out to Emily at (203) 658-7967 for a free 15 minute consultation to inquire more about our services and how Peaceful Sleep Consulting can restore sleep to the whole family.

OK, I am going to get personal and admit some things here… During the first 2 years of my child’s life I obsessively read every child sleep book out there. It worked to my advantage in nearly every sleep stage and developmental milestone until the summer of 2016, when my daughter got the dreaded Coxsackie virus from her school. We were on a family beach vacation in beautiful Watch Hill, Rhode Island when my daughter fell ill and learned on our first night of vacation how to jump out of her pack ’n play. There went our vacation! We tried everything imaginable to get our less than 2 year old to sleep in that pack ‘n play but it was not happening! When we came home it did not get any better. She jumped out of her crib the second we put her in there and we were at a loss of what to do. I began to once again, obsessively read the chapters in the sleep training books that specialized in “boundary setting” and “’problem behaviors in toddlers.” Needless to say, I found a lot of conflicting information and had no idea where to begin. We tried two different approaches and were seeing some slow progress but not enough for our sleep deprived brains. Finally after 2-3 weeks of complete bed time chaos we hired a certified child sleep consultant that had been recommended by a friend. The process was simple, clear, easy and worth every penny. The sleep coach actually confirmed everything we had been doing was correct but she gave me the confidence and peace of mind from her expert opinion, to stay the course. She guided us through until we met our goal which was only 3 days after hiring her. We were on the right track and nearly there on our own but being able to have an expert tweak our process, troubleshoot other options and then provide us with support while we implemented the plan, made it stress-free.

From my own personal experience as a parent and my professional experience as a certified child sleep coach, these are the reasons to hire a certified child sleep coach.

Internet and Books- You have found yourself googling certain sleep issues and are finding a mountain of information. Friends are giving advice on Facebook Moms groups or are referring you to a sleep training book that’s been their go-to book. The point is, there is too much information out there. For any one issue or question you may have, there will be 10 different answers if you look hard enough! When you have a certified sleep coach, that person will be able to synthesize everything you have read or heard and break it down to you in a structured, clear and concise way.Individualized approach- As a certified child sleep coach, I approach working with clients in the same way I do as a therapist. I listen to my clients, ask important/guiding questions, provide a child and family sleep assessment and then work collaboratively with clients towards reaching their goals. I do not stop working with a client if the time has run out. I am committed to working with each family until they get the results they desire.Sleep problems in children if not resolved can lead to long term problems for the child and parents. Research shows that poor sleep affects mental and emotional health in parents and children. Poor sleep over a long period of time can lead to poor academic performance, increased behavioral issues and ADHD.Expert advice- When you hire a certified child sleep coach such as myself, you are working with a professional that has done an extensive amount of reading, research, experiential learning and is part of a network of other certified sleep experts in the field. I was trained at the Family Sleep Institute, where I completed over 250 hours’ worth of training. If you work with me, you will find that I don’t subscribe to one type of sleep training approach and instead will take the time to find a solution that is aligned with your family’s philosophy.Coaching and consistency- The single most important reason to hire a certified child sleep coach is to have the support of a certified expert to guide you through the process every step of the way. Let’s face it… making a change to your already established sleep routine is hard on both the parents and child. It’s helpful to have a support system when you’re thinking about doing any kind of serious lifestyle change. Think about starting a new diet program or training for a triathlon. When you have a sleep expert coaching you through, holding you accountable and making sure you follow the plan with consistency, you will see the results you want. What could be better than that?

Teaching a child to sleep is an essential skill that will need to be learned in their life time. The long term benefits of healthy sleep are endless. The role of a professional sleep consultant is to teach your child the skills necessary to happily sleep through the night and to take long, restful naps during the day. If you are struggling on your own to get your child the sleep they desperately need, do not hesitate to reach out to me, Emily@peacefulsleepconsulting.com or call (203) 658-7967 for a free 15 minute consultation to see if hiring a certified child sleep coach is right for your family.

Night waking in babies and children are a frequent concern for parents. They can be so confusing when they are happening! Night waking is a normal biological occurrence that takes place in everyone in babies up through adulthood. As humans we wake up anywhere from 2-6 times every night. The only reason it may seem to become a problem is if you or your child is unable to fall back asleep unassisted. Biologically babies have shorter sleep cycles and they are most likely to have a waking at the end of REM sleep, the most active sleep state.

We have established that night waking is “normal” in babies, children and adults but what are the reasons that a child will have difficulty falling back to sleep?

Now that we have covered the “why” for night awakenings, let’s review some things you can do as a parent to help decrease the likelihood of night waking.

Night awakenings can be very stressful for parents as well as for children. Try and rest assured that they are very common during the first few years of life. In most cases with some specific intervention, they decrease over the course of a few weeks. If you feel like you are reaching the point where you have tried everything and are still not seeing progress, do not be ashamed to talk to your doctor, a child sleep consultant or a child psychologist that specializes in sleep disorders if your child is older.

Naps are a hot topic in the parenting world! In this blog I will review with you what you can expect in the first few years of your child’s life when it comes to naps, how much day time sleep is needed and what you should be doing to help improve their naps. Before I delve into the specifics of the timing for naps, it’s important to review how much day and night time sleep your child actually needs. Check out the chart below from Dr. Richard Ferber’s book Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems. There are a lot of key sleep recommendations out there by other sleep experts but I always found this chart to be on point with my daughter’s true sleep needs. This chart is an overview of the average sleep needs; some children need an hour more or a little bit less than these guidelines.

The first 3 months of a child’s sleep there is no set schedule when it comes to day time sleep. Night time sleep is becoming more organized and some babies may be sleeping through the night (sleeping a 6-8 hour stretch of sleep uninterrupted). The first few months of a child's life is the best time to start putting them down for naps in the same place as where they sleep at night time. The ideal nap sleep space is covered in my blog The Peaceful Sleep Environment.

At 4 months of age is when a child’s circadian rhythms start to develop and is when you can begin implementing a nap schedule. Typically naps at this age are still on the shorter end (less than an hour) but if you put your child down at the times they have sleep waves, their naps will be both mentally and physically restorative. Nap times at this age are 8:30/9am, 12/12:30pm, 3:30/4pm (cat nap-less than an hour). If your child is an early riser, this morning nap will be closer to 8am. Around this age, morning nap develops first and the afternoon nap comes later on. Bed time then becomes about 3 hours after the last nap ends. If your child is taking naps that are shorter than an hour, you will want to start building them up an hour either gradually or by enforcing a rule that no matter what, your child will be left alone for an hour for each nap. If you have more questions about “cat naps” check out my blog called Cat Nap Solutions.

At 8-9 months of age, a child usually drops the third nap, and bed time becomes earlier. Bed time occurs 3.5 hours after the last nap ends. If your child is still taking shorter naps around this age, try to push the second nap start time a bit later by 30 minutes to help encourage a longer nap (12:30/1pm nap time). If the second nap becomes longer, then the need for the third nap will disappear and bedtime can be 3.5 hours after that second nap.

Between 11-18 months is the typical age range where a child will drop down to 1 single longer nap, with the average age being about 15 months old. For some this will be a smooth transition and with others, it will be very confusing to figure out. The best way to be able to see if your child is ready to drop that morning nap and only take a single afternoon nap, is to observe their behavior. If a child able to happily go through their morning playing and is not too cranky, you can phase out the morning nap and put your them down for a 12/12:30 nap. If your kid is going down easily for the morning nap but not going down until past 2pm for the afternoon, you will want to gradually start pushing the morning nap forward by 10-15 minutes every few days until the morning nap is closer to 12pm. After a few weeks of consistently taking a single nap around 12pm, you can start to push nap time to be closer to 12:30/1pm as this is the ideal timing to catch the sleep wave associated with circadian rhythms and it is most mentally restorative.

Once a child is down to a single nap at around 11-18 months old, this will be the same nap time until the child drops the nap completely. Some children stop napping around their third birthday while others will hold on to it until they are 5 years old! There is such variability with when a child will stop napping entirely. I think it’s best to hold on to that nap as long as possible however, you have to limit the duration of the nap so it does not interfere with night sleep. At 3 years old a 1.5 hour nap is the maximum and by 4 years old, a 1 hour nap should be the maximum.

My child started to fight her nap closer to her third birthday and while she is 3.5 years old right now, she will take a nap 35% of the time. She is outgrowing her need for the nap and I see it in her behavior. Some days at around 3-4 pm the crankiness sets in from her not taking a nap. If your child has started to do the same thing, hang in there, it is just a phase! What you can do on the no napping days is still encourage some quiet, rest time in a bed or lounging on the couch for your child. The rest time can be something you do for years with your child so start the process at this age to instill the healthy habit. Studies show that quiet/rest time has many health benefits for children that are no longer napping. We are doing “family rest time” at the time when my child would have been napping and we find that an hour to hour and a half, is enough to get us all through the “witching hour.” Now, that my kid has mostly stopped napping, I make sure to put her to bed around 6:45-7:15pm and she will sleep through the night uninterrupted until 6:30-7am. Some days she goes to bed a little earlier and other days a little later, but this time frame seems to work well for her, while also giving my husband and I some much needed alone time once she’s asleep. Date night is at 7:30 in my home!!!

Take a look at the chart from the beginning of the blog. Where does your child fall with those sleep averages? If your kid is way below those averages, then it may be time to intervene and make some changes. If their sleep falls within that range, then you are killing it and way to go!!!

If you’re a sleep obsessed parent like myself, you have probably read up on how to create an ideal peaceful sleep environment for your child. There are some basic things you can do for the first few years of life that will optimize the probability of your child sleeping for longer stretches in the day time and night time.

These three suggestions are useful as your child goes through many sleep transitions over the first few years of life. Think about all of the changes that happen with your child’s sleep with naps transitions (4-3-2-1-none), illnesses, vacations and going into a big kid bed. If as a parent you are able to maintain consistency in the temperature of your child’s room, keep a darkened mood lighting and use a white noise machine, all of those transitions that take place will be smoother for the whole family.

"No day is so bad it can’t be fixed with a nap." ~ Carrie Snow

Does your newborn or infant struggle with the dreaded cat nap or as I like to call them, CRAP naps? There’s nothing worse than seeing your child struggle with short naps. Any nap that is less than 45 minutes is not mentally restorative but it may be physically restorative meaning, it is just enough to get your child through for the next hour or two before the crankiness kicks in. It’s kind of like having French fries for a snack instead of an apple with peanut butter; the French fries will hold you over for an hour or two but the apple/peanut butter combo will fill you up for at least three hours. My daughter took cat naps for the first 4-5 months of life until I started to do these simple things.

Put your child down for more naps in their crib, in a darkened room with white noise. The same circumstances they have at night time for sleep, create for your child in the day time.After 2 months of age, avoid holding your baby to sleep, having them sleep in the carrier, car naps and stroller naps, unless it is the last nap of the day or extenuating social activities (plans out of the home on the weekend that you need to work around).If you put your child down for a nap and they cry or are fussy, that’s okay! This may be a new thing for your baby and it takes time to build them up to the 1-2 hour naps.Once your child starts to become more comfortable sleeping in the day time in their crib, gradually delay your response to them waking up prematurely. If your child is waking up 30 minutes into a nap, start by waiting 5 minutes before going to get them out of the crib. After a few days, start to wait 7 minutes before going in etc. The idea is you want to build them up gradually over a few weeks to get them comfortable sleeping in their crib for a longer duration, ideally at least an hour.

The main end goal to have when you are working towards extending a cat nap is to be able to leave your child be, alone in their crib in their room for an hour. Think about it, do you think you’d nap better in the car or in your bedroom with blackout shades and a white noise machine? Over time as your baby becomes more comfortable hanging out in their crib alone for an hour, when he/she wakes up at the 45 minute mark, your child will learn to put themselves back to sleep, allowing for a deeper more mentally restorative REM sleep. Naps take longer to come together than night sleep simply because the need for sleep in the day is not as strong as the need for sleep at night time.

The best thing you can do when you are “nap training” is to be patient and consistent. Babies tend to start getting into a good rhythm with day sleep between 6-8 months of age, once the startle reflex fades (wahoo)!

We all want to find out ways to help our newborn learn how to have healthy sleep habits and associations. This is part II of my newborn sleep blog series. There are a few more helpful things you can do as a parent to make this newborn stage a little smoother.

“Think in the morning. Act in the Noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”—William Blake

If only it were that simple with a newborn William Blake! Right before my daughter was born a few years ago I remember thinking, “Those first few weeks are going to be tough but eventually, I know she will start naturally sleeping through the night.” I could not have been more wrong. If there’s one thing I have learned in parenting a child it’s that they actually need to be taught how to sleep on their own. There’s a small percentage of babies that actually don’t need a lot of guidance to learn how to sleep, but from what I have seen and read, that is not the majority. Just ask your friends in local Mommy and Me groups and classes. They are all struggling or have had challenges with sleep in those first few years of their child’s life.

A lot of sleep training books will tell you to wait until your newborn is at least four months old adjusted before implementing any sleep training and they are right, however, there are still things you can do as a parent of a newborn to help prevent the need for sleep training.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you started to do a few simple things for the first four months of your baby’s life that would help your child learn to fall asleep and stay asleep on their own? Let me review some things you can start doing now to help create a healthy sleep foundation for your newborn.

Stay tuned for part II of Newborn Sleep Basics...