controlled crying

The 4 month sleep regression, the 12 month sleep regression, the 18 month sleep regression – what is happening?

All babies are different! How could a ‘one size fits all’ approach to baby sleep possibly work (particularly an approach that advocates separation of mother and baby)? In this insightful episode, Pinky interviews Carly Grubb, Founder and managing director of Australian charity, Little Sparklers, home of The Beyond Sleep Training Project and…

We all have sleep associations, we don’t bat an eyelid about our own quirks or needs around what helps us sleep. Yet, with even a very young baby, there is pressure to ‘teach your baby to self-settle’ – to fall asleep without any help from you.

I'm not talking about exhausted parents, reaching out for help. Im talking here about rude, self entitled a'holes who talk about their babies as though they are objects – inconvenient objects at that. They use words like ‘stubborn’ and ‘manipulating’ to describe tiny helpless infants. 

We all have sleep associations, we don’t bat an eyelid about our own quirks or needs around what helps us sleep. Yet, with even a very young baby, there is pressure to ‘teach your baby to self-settle’ – to fall asleep without any help from you.

Forgot the flashcard saying 'you are being born'? Don't have a curriculum beyond cuddles for your 3 month old? If you are worried your baby may be 'slipping behind' his peers because you haven't been providing enough educational enrichment, relax!  New research shows that the most critical factor in helping your baby's brain development is…

Sleep deprivation can play havoc with your mind your body and your soul. You know that, right? You know this because you are the mum of a new baby or an older baby or a toddler or perhaps a baby and a toddler. So how exactly are you meant to get sleep when your kids don’t – sleep, that is? You know that baby sleep studies define ‘all night’ as…

Sleep deprivation is a bitch! And if you dare complain how exhausted and crappy you are feeling, you are sure to get the same old answer: “you need to do ‘sleep training

Just like us, babies are individuals –and this goes for sleep requirements too. In most infant sleep studies, 'all night' is defined as five hours. If you are thinking that even five hours uninterrupted sleep would be a dream come true, there are some gentle strategies you can try to help your baby, and you, to sleep better:

My stinging sleep deprived eyes would well up as I detailed my baby's wakeful habits and I'd cop the standard lines of, 'have you tried swaddling', 'putting him down drowsy but awake', 'bedtime routine', 'listen for his protest cry it's different to his emotional cry', 'it's because you're still feeding him', 'you need to not hold him, you've built…