Tag: baby sleep

Posted on by — Leave a comment

What is SLEEP TRAINING? Truths, myths and will hiring a sleep consultant help.

Hello! I am so happy you are here! My name is Ola. I am a certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant, with multi-year experience in child care & children’s education and I am absolutely thrilled you are here. You reached this place because you’re looking for ways to help your child sleep better. Breathe a sigh of relief because you are at the perfect place! Let’s start with what SLEEP TRAINING is because there are many stereotypes circling around sleep training. 

Let’s start with “Cry it Out”, known as full extinction or Ferber’s method. The most common misconception, and most hurtful to the sleep consultation industry is that sleep training equals crying it out. That is a lie. Sleep training is simply a process of helping a baby sleep well. Yes, Cry It Out is one of the methods BUT not the only one! Your child doesn’t have to cry themselves to sleep. I help exhausted parents teach their babies proper sleep hygiene and habits around sleep and the methods I teach are gentle and gradual that allow you to comfort your child in a reasonable amount of time. 

So if you are wondering if during sleep training with me you will be leaving your child to cry it out so they fall asleep out of exhaustion, my answer is absolutely not. 

I do not teach extinction methods because I am against leaving babies alone without checking on them. It is not healthy nor safe. Sleep is when we restore and heal, therefore, it should be stress-free and babies should be loved and comforted at bedtime. 

I am sure you are also wondering how someone like me can help you, right? Because there are many books about sleep, sleep training and what other things can I tell you?
Since you are here, something is not quite working, is it? I believe literature can be so helpful, however, when it comes to sleep training, it is a bit more complex than one solution for all. Sleep training is a puzzle and it is multifaceted – a lot of factors come into play and because every child is different and adapts to changes at their own pace, they all need to be looked at individually. It is my job to discover your child’s sleep challenges and guide you in the process of overcoming them with a carefully crafted, fully tailored sleep plan. 

Think of athletes, for example, they hire coaches to achieve their goals faster. When you want to invest, you hire a financial advisor. Hiring someone like me will just take out the guessing and will get you to restful nights faster.

Sleep is healing. It is so important to your child’s health and wellness – by helping your child learn how to sleep well, you are giving them a gift. I promise you there is an answer. I promise you a good night’s sleep for the entire family is much closer than you think.


You may schedule a call with me right now! Let’s chat & make a new game plan!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Baby Sleep: Early Morning Wakings

Tips on how to deal child's early morning wakings.

Early morning wakings are very common sleep troubles parents encounter and they also can be the most difficult to resolve. An early waking or early rising is anything before 10h from bedtime that considered an early morning waking. It may take a few weeks to see improvement – especially when a baby has just started sleeping through the night and may just sleep the bare minimum 10h, and also what type of an early riser you have.

The Cheerful Early Riser characteristics: This baby wakes up very early but is rested and refreshed. Baby has slept at least 10hrs of overnight sleep and takes decent naps. Although, they wake up too early for your liking, they meet their daily requirement for sleep.

What can you do?

  • Use 100% blackout shades
  • Limit light and noise after dinner
  • Limiting naps may help
  • You can try moving bedtime to see if it could change baby’s wake up time by shifting a daytime schedule by 15-min increments each day until you reach new bedtime. It may take 1-2 weeks to adjust.

Small percentage of babies are “larks” – they wake up early in the morning, cheerful and refreshed and get tired early in the evening. They wake up at he same time every morning, no matter what time they go to bed. Whether your child is a lark is genetically determined and true “larks” are very hard to change.

TYPE 2 of an early riser: The Tired, Cranky Early Riser and here is their characteristics: This baby sleeps less than 10hrs/night or naps poorly, or both! Baby doesn’t wake up refreshed in the morning and is tired for majority of the day. This baby doesn’t meet their daily sleep needs and could benefit from more sleep. Reasons they wake up are: hunger, external factors (light, noise), discomfort, over-tiredness, habitual waking, anticipation/excitement.

The first 3 are self-explanatory. Let me briefly explain the last three.

OVERTIREDNESS. Yes, overtiredness can cause early morning wakings! If baby isn’t getting the proper amount of sleep and are put to bed late it can cause early rising. It is one of most common sleep myths – later to bed, baby will sleep in. The exact opposite is true!

What can you do?

  • Stick to age-appropriate wake windows and daytime schedule. BE CONSISTENT.

HABITUAL WAKING. Sleep is the lightest towards the morning. We cycle more through the light sleep stages in preparation for the morning waking. Also, the sleep pressure is lower in the wee hours. So it is especially hard for the baby to fall asleep in the early morning, especially when they don’t know how to go to sleep on their own. It is very easy for this to become a habit while you are trying to cope with these early morning wakings

What can you do?

  • It is very important to teach a baby it is not time to wake up yet – they will learn eventually. Treat this just as you would treat the in-the-middle-of-the-night waking.
  • If baby is fussing for about 10 minutes, it is ok to go in and give them a gentle reminder using a key phrase like “it’s sleep time”, then leave.
  • If you have done the steps above, it’s been over 25 minutes or it’s around the desired wake time, chances are your baby will not got back to sleep. Pick them up, make a big deal out of the morning (so they do not think you came because they were fussing), and start your morning routine. Your baby may want to go to sleep an hours after they woke up which would be the extension of their night sleep. It is important to wait with that nap for at least 2 hours from the time they woke up or until 9am (depending on their overall daytime schedule).

EXCITED ANTICIPATOR. If baby enjoys whatever it is parent is doing after they wake up, they may start waking up early excited for this. Whether it’s cuddling, going to parents’ bed, rocking or feeding – a parent may be unwittingly creating a situation a baby is waking up for.

What can you do?

  • Make mornings less exciting – it isn’t as mean as it sounds! Instead of doing whatever your baby might have been waking up for, start with something less exciting: diaper change, taking jammies off, getting dressed for the day. You can compare it to days you go to work and days off – when it’s work day you can ignore your alarm clock 10 time. However, on a day off you either wake up early excited or have no problems waking up for what you planned 🙂
  • Same as with the habitual waker, you would go in with a sleep reminder/treat it as a night waking. Do not go in too often – it may too stimulating and turn into a game.

Seeing improvement in the early morning wakings can take a few weeks BUT it can be very successful if parents remain consistent!

Tips on how to deal child's early morning wakings.
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Bad kids or Bad parents?

I have recently come across an online debate where people were weighing in on whether it’s kids that are just bad or parents. I didn’t participate in that discussion because I would have written an essay but I thought this is definitely something I can discuss here 🙂

Before I begin, I would like to point out I will be referring to kids between age of 2 up to 9 maybe. Teenagers are a lot more complex topic for discussion as there are a lot outside factors which influence them whereas the little ones’ environment is pretty narrow.

Do I think there are no bad children? Yes.

What are bad children anyways? Those who do not blindly obey or those who throw tantrums in the middle of Target shopping floor? What is BAD? I don’t know, honestly. Because if having emotional breakdowns, lack of impulse control (which is a part of development!) or not being able to express how one feels is bad, then, wow, adults are such hypocrites because sometimes they cannot do any of these 3 things but require a 4 year old to do so. That’s bad 😉

Do I think there are only bad parents? Absolutely not.

I strongly believe there are parents who are wonderful people but simply lack parenting skills. Many, if not most adults become parents without any knowledge of what it takes to be a parent. And no wonder – they have never done this! Children are unique little humans with their own needs, emotions and feelings. While it is absolutely transforming & life-changing, to become a parent and have kids, there is no manual on how to raise your kids to become great humans and survive at the same time. 

Unconditional love, support and a t t e n t i o n  are necessary ingredients to raise a happy child in my opinion. (Also, consistency but it is a secondary type of ingredient). I always say the best thing you can give your child is your TIME. This special connection is a way to understand your child. I say this because,sadly, there are parents who pass responsibility of raising their child onto a caregiver and assuming there is not much left to do, they lower their guard. Children that are nurtured don’t act out – they have no need to. Their needs are met, their world is safe and predictable. Boundaries, rules and discipline (the one that teaches, not humiliates) are healthy things. What is more, education has nothing to do with raising kids right. Values or principles cannot be taught anywhere except from your parents.

My advice would be: it will get really hard sometimes which is why is so important to establish rules, follow through and why being a united front is imperative. You are not the only parent who experiences parenting challenges. E V E R Y single parent does and every single parents is doing their very best.

You’ve got this!