SLEEPTASTIC BLOGS
Setting Up A Good Sleep Schedule
If you’re like most new moms, you’re not thinking about how you’re going to get your newborn to sleep once they’ve arrived. In fact, you’re likely thinking that sleep is the one thing that your baby will be really good at once they’re born! And you would be right,...
Breastfeeding and Sleep: Yes, You Can Have Both!
Many expectant moms fear that if they choose to continue breastfeeding their baby, then that means they won't see a decent night's sleep for a few years. This is simply not true! Yes, it's true that babies enjoy eating and sleeping, and that they often go...
Is Your Child Causing You Anxiety?
I don't know too many parents who can say that their children have never caused them some sort of anxiety. Maybe it was because your toddler spilled their juice in the aisle of the store, or maybe it was because your baby was loudly screaming in church, or maybe it...
5 Reasons Why Parents Desperately Need Sleep Too
Most parents know that their children need an adequate amount of sleep each night, yet they fail to give the same attention to their own sleep. Why is that? One popular answer is that they're too busy to make sleep a priority for themselves. Unfortunately, they don't...
Preserving Sleep When Your Child Is Sick
Whether you're lucky enough to have always had a good sleeper, or you recently worked hard to get your child to be a good sleeper, every parent worries what will happen when that child gets sick. We all know that things could go horribly wrong during the illness and...
Parenting Through the Holidays
Having children at home around the holidays can be so much fun! It's great to see their little faces light up on Christmas morning or to receive their Hanukkah or Kwanzaa gifts! They remind us about the joys of the holidays - gifts, visits to see Santa, looking for...
4 Tips To Get Your Baby To Sleep In Their Crib
When we think about transitioning our children, we're usually thinking of transitioning them to a big kid bed from a crib. But for a lot of parents, transitioning starts sooner than that with when they need their babies to actually transition TO the crib. Oftentimes,...
Back-To-School Stress & Anxiety
With the back-to-school season upon us, it's important to remember something about our kids: they get stressed out and anxious too! Every year we send our kids to school, where they'll be in a new classroom, with a new teacher, seeing new faces, and having a new...
15 Reasons to Massage Your Child
There aren't many people who don't like to be massaged, whether it's their feet, back, shoulders, head, hands, or whole body. Well, kids are no different! In fact, the sense of touch is the first sense developed in the womb. Babies love to be touched, held, and...
7 Ways to Survive The Summer With Your Kids
As a kid, I always looked forward to summer break. Not getting dressed all day. Swimming for hours. Playing with my Barbies whenever I wanted. Eating what I wanted, when I wanted. Yup, life was pretty good. Fast forward a couple of decades, and now I'm the parent of 4...
How To Successfully Drop The Last Nap
Many parents worry about what life "post-nap" will look like. What parent ever says, "Hey, I'd like to have no break all day and to continually chase my toddler around from the moment they wake up until they go to bed"? If you said none, you would be right! Toddlers...
3 Reasons Why Naps Are Important
Back when I had one small child, I loved nap time. It meant that I got to nap right along with her! "Nap when your baby naps" is what everyone tells you when you have a baby. Yes, that works during two times of your life... 1) when you're actually at home all day with...
Getting Rid of Sleep Props
Getting rid of sleep props can be tough! If you don't know what the term "sleep prop" is, let me explain. A sleep prop is anything your child uses in order to go to sleep. For instance, parents are often the biggest sleep prop there is! Many kiddos rely on their...
Sleep Teaching vs Sleep Training
Every day I am in Facebook "mom groups", where tired, exhausted mamas often talk about their new baby's sleep. Some of these poor mamas are really struggling and it's causing overwhelm, anxiety, and sometimes depression symptoms. Any woman who's had any number of...
Why You Should Avoid Giving Your Child Melatonin
Let me start by saying that I do not recommend giving children any type of melatonin or other sleep products; however, I do recognize that for some children (ie those with special needs or have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder) it might be medically...
Daylight Savings Time – “Falling Back”
As I’m sure you know, Daylight Savings Time (DST) ends this weekend, with our having to move our clocks back an hour. I don't know about you, but I hate it when people say silly things like "awesome, we'll get an extra hour of sleep!" For those of you who are single...
Stress, Anxiety, and Sleep
As parents, when we think about stress and anxiety, we often think about ourselves or other adults having it. But what if I told you that your kids can have just as much or even more stress than you?! It's true! Kids experience stress every day... moving to a new...
What’s My Kid Eating Now?
As a parent of 4 kids, I often find myself saying, "What's my kid eating now?" I mean I usually know what they're eating, but sometimes they sneak food. And sometimes I give them things that aren't the best, because we're on the run to school, sport, or other...
Why Can’t I Just Feed My Child To Sleep?
Feeding-to-sleep is hands-down the #1 sleep prop there is (a sleep prop is anything a child uses to get to sleep, including you). Why? Well, let's face it, when a baby is born we will feed our child and then they will almost always immediately fall asleep. Who's going...
Exercise, Hydration, and Sleep
You might be wondering what exercising and hydration have to do with sleep. Well, actually it has a lot to do with it! As we're getting ready to head into the hot summer months, I thought this was a great time to talk about these two things. I'm sure that you're aware...
Postpartum Anxiety and Parenting
Many new moms suffer from postpartum mood disorders: depression (PPD), anxiety/obsession compulsive disorder (PPA/OCD), or psychosis (PPP). While many of us have heard of PPD, sadly many will not hear about PPA, OCD, or PPP. PPA (and OCD) is one of those things that...
Ending Toddler/Preschooler Battles in 3 Easy Steps
Anyone with a child one year and up knows what it means to have bedtime battles...and daytime battles too! They call it the "terrible twos" but if you ask me it starts at a year old when they can walk and talk and doesn't end until they're 4, 5 or sometimes never! As...
Daylight Savings Time – “Springing Forward”
As I’m sure you know, Daylight Savings Time (DST) is coming up this weekend. Let me just start by saying that if I had my way, there would be no DST! It affects not only children’s sleep patterns but adults, too. In fact, statistically, there is an 8% increase in...
What Every Mom Needs To Know About Fainting
**This is a special blog post, not about sleep, breastfeeding, or infant massage, but about being a parent. I want to share a very personal, and very raw, story of mine that just happened a few days ago. I hope that it brings awareness to a common, yet rarely...
Tired of Those Early Morning Wake Ups?
Early morning wake ups can be the worst! When we're sleeping our best at 4 or 5am, our kids are secretly plotting their revenge for that lollipop we wouldn't let him have yesterday. Ok, well maybe they're not actually plotting, but it sure does feel like...
When illnesses, teething, injuries, or milestones affect your child’s sleep
With all the happy memories and busy times this time of year brings, it also brings illnesses and sometimes injuries. There are colds, stomach bugs, bacterial infections, viruses, the flu, etc. And depending on the age of your child, you might have teething and/or...
4 Sanity-Saving Room Sharing Tips
Room sharing. It's when more than one person shares a bedroom. It could be parents sharing with a child or siblings sharing a room. Sometimes we room share because we want to, like having your newborn camp out in your bedroom for a few months. And sometimes we room...
History and Benefits of Infant Massage
The history of massage goes back thousands of years ago to China at about 2700 BC. Egyptian tomb drawings in 2500 BC showed massage therapy and were the pioneers for reflexology. India had the first known written massage therapy traditions around 1500 BC,...
Back to School Sleep Tips
I don’t know about you, but back-to-school time is my favorite time of the year! After a summer of running kids to camps, parks, play dates, amusement parks, vacations, sporting practices, and trying to keep them entertained 24/7, I am beyond done. At this point, I...
6 Things You Can Do To Have Your Kids Sleep Well on Vacation
Vacation...it's filled with excitement, sprinkled with some anxiety, and topped with a little fear. Of course we all are happy and excited at the thought of spending quality time with our families, getting away, seeing the sights, and relaxing (I threw...