Morning Mercies Sleep Consulting | Maternity clinic

Morning Mercies Sleep Consulting

Phone: +61 478 647 336

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25.01.2022 Empowered and Confident This testimony I received today contained these two words that are core to my philosophy in the sleep consulting world. I don’t want to be on the bandwagon of campaigning for one style of parenting over another. I don’t want to draw people to my business by the transference of guilt or shame. My dream and motivation is to see Mums become empowered and confident in parenting, so they can live, be, grow, do, serve their families and love their... communities with newfound energy and freedom If that’s something that resounds within you, let’s work together #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #babysfirstyear #toddlersleep #babysleep #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep

15.01.2022 New Member of Morning Mercies Sleep Last Friday, I had my baby! This is Everett, who surprised us with his arrival 2 weeks early. Thankful I got to finish up with my final few clients before meeting my third little blessing. I will be on Maternity Leave for the next few months but will be trying to keep up to date with my socials as I learn the newborn rhythms for myself, again, so I can be even more equipped (and empathic!) to help you all as you enquire at different s...tages of your babies’ lives. Please message me if you have Enquiries about booking in later in the year or purchasing gift certificates. Thank you to the lovely clients who have sent beautiful messages of congratulations I love that we are on the journey together (shout out to those on multiple night feeds! ) and how many clients become my friends

14.01.2022 Happy Mother’s Day .... to all my clients, followers and friends ! Today let’s celebrate the gift it is to give of ourselves every day of the year. Let’s remember the joys and the triumphs, knowing we are all doing the best we can to love and nurture little ones through these busy, hard but holy years (that everyone tells us go so fast!) ... Here’s me with my two (soon to be three!); the inspiration and motivation behind Morning Mercies Sleep If you’ve been thinking of booking in, make sure you do soon, as I’ll be on leave from June (will post about that soon!) Hope you all can be with the ones you love today and be honoured by kids, husbands, partners or whoever sees, knows and loves you for what you sacrifice to bring life to your family. I see you ! You’re doing a great job

14.01.2022 Getting Back into Routine after Holidays There’s something about a New Year that is both inspiring and daunting. Thoughts like Let’s make some changes! and Where do I begin? tend to flow in when we might have had a big break from our everyday. I’ve loved the break, had some much needed family and beach time, but ready to be back in business for 2020 I’m here to help anyone who would like some help working on building some healthy sleep habits using a persona...lised plan if you’re left determined for change after holidays, or if you’re just wanting a tune up via a 30-45 minute phone call. Now taking bookings for January and February, so message me if you’d like to know more or take that first step that we know is the hardest. You can do this #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #babysfirstyear #toddlersleep #babysleep #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep

13.01.2022 Red Nose Day Did you know that in Australia, 9 lives a day are lost due to SUDI (Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy) ? This is significantly less than the figure 30 years ago, but still heartbreaking that there is any figure at all. The Back-to-Sleep campaign (since 1991) has been hugely influential in their research and evidence, as sleeping babies on their backs is now the renowned safe sleep position. Always place your baby on their back, in their own sleep space, ...for naps and night sleep. Once they can roll and move onto their stomach themselves during sleep, it is safe to leave them in their position, provided the cot is free of everything else, the surface is firm and flat, and they are unswaddled. There are modifiable risk factors listed in the post below that I take all my clients through before working with them. Have a read and share the post below to help inform and educate more Australian parents - this is the purpose of Red Nose Day.

12.01.2022 Client Review - 7 month old Here’s a lovely client review I’ve received after finishing with a Mum (and incredible midwife) of her 7 month old last week! So many mums have reservations about asking for help and trusting someone else with their precious child, understandably. A complimentary call with me, can begin the trust relationship and hear how I can cater my approach to suit you. It’s so important that you feel understood! I love that my philosophy allowed Letisha to be open (and super keen - we started in the next 2 days!) to sleep coaching and alleviated her fears. Thank you for your beautiful words, Letisha! You were a dream to work with! And I’m so happy that your goals and expectations were exceeded! 12 hour nights are the dream!

10.01.2022 Pull out the Winter Sleep Sacks It’s May tomorrow! As looooonnngggg as April felt with the social distancing restrictions (dare I say, especially for Mums?!) we made it through! Hoping this means we are closer to seeing one another again. Tomorrow til Tuesday is a cold snap! If you’ve checked any weather app recently you’ll see the annual 3 degree (Sunday ) mornings are on the way to Toowoomba! Pull out those 2.5-3.5 TOG sleep sacks to prepare your babes and toddl...ers. I recommend sleep sacks even up until 3 years old, and even if your toddlers are in big beds. They don’t often have the motor skills (when half asleep) to cover themselves up when cold at night. Wakes can occur in those early hours with the body temperature drop and the light sleep phase occurring, so best to prepare tonight and hopefully you won’t be making breakfast in the dark tomorrow #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #babysfirstyear #toddlersleep #babysleep #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep

10.01.2022 Sleep Needs and Signalling This review was significant for me, and also motivated me to share a post, because some misinformation has circulated the internet, in this age of blogs, mum-shaming and the ability to self-publish. The misinformation is that teaching skills of self-settling will cause baby to stop signalling needs completely to parents and care-givers. That Sleep Training will cause more problems for your baby, with attachment and their future relationships.... Reading that would cause anyone to worry, run in the opposite direction, and even wonder why sleep consultants exist! The evidence proves that this is simply not true. Your baby can and will learn to sleep, connect sleep cycles themselves, overcome overtiredness and the need for extremely long settling assistance. Often this means you can be more aware of when baby is crying due to sickness, hunger or pain, because you can rule out overtiredness/inability to sleep as the cause. Sleep is a valid and important need for all of us, and meeting children in this need is where I can help. If you’d like a study that validates the mum above, and my summary above (that isn’t a blog or opinion piece!) here’s a link: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content//6/e20151486

09.01.2022 Just for a laugh Anyone else have curtain calls with their toddler/pre-schooler at bedtime? What’s the best excuse for coming out of bed you’ve heard?

07.01.2022 Gentle Methods To Sleeping Through Sleep Plans and Coaching Methods are never a one-size-fits-all, though some sleep books may lead us to believe this. One of my most common inquiries is whether there is more than one approach to supporting baby to independent sleep. There are many! Whatever method you choose, effectiveness depends on the temperament of your baby, and parent readiness for change! Miss M here has always been a night waker according to Mum, and is 16 mont...hs old. She has regularly been up 3-7 times a night, not to mention waking as early as 5:30am for the day. We began working together on Tuesday with a new daytime routine, a gentle night settling method and support phone calls. After 3 nights, look who slept through, and is pretty proud of herself! #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #babysfirstyear #toddlersleep #babysleep #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep

07.01.2022 Merry Christmas Everyone! Before I sign off for the Christmas and New Year break, I thought I’d share some of my suggestions for making the most of the holidays with little ones needing to sleep! Firstly, decide how you feel about the events to come and decide on how you plan to respect baby’s need to sleep, even though it’s Christmas. You won’t ruin a routined and sleep trained baby with a few days out of routine but compromising too much to keep up with social ...activities will cause overtiredness and be hard on baby and Mum! This can mean coming up with how you will respond to people who aren’t baby’s Mum or Dad and not feeling guilty about the boundaries you want to be in place. Be confident and unapologetic in the routine you want to follow, and sleep environment you want to maintain during the holidays. It can be tempting when aunts and uncles wonder where the baby is to skip naps but tell them when baby is rested he’ll be seen again! Plan how you will leave an event (my suggestion is right on bedtime or push it if a later nap was had). If you have lots to bring home and organise, talk to your partner and plan your escape Ask for help with other children if you find you need more hands and do a group goodbye if it means you’ll save time. If you need to travel for more then an hour, aim to leave home at or slightly after your routine nap time. That way you can count on a sleep to be had in the car (at least by the time you get on the highway!) and when you arrive you can count on baby to be well rested. Always travel with your portacot and white noise machine, and check with relatives about a room you could set it up into, if planning to be out all day. Skipping naptime won’t make the event fun for you or baby! Remember looking at faces, loud music, talking, and festive social scenes can be super stimulating (more than baby’s normal day) especially for newborns. If baby becomes hot, agitated, and is obviously upset, consider bringing naptime forward or just taking some time with baby, into a dark room, without stimulation, to calm them down. If you change your naptimes, protect night sleep by keeping naps between 9am and 3 pm. Sleeping past 3 or earlier than 9 can make it harder to go to sleep, or create an early wake up I tell my clients, for routines babies/toddlers use the 80/20 rule. Keeping 80% of the week routined will allow easily 20% freedom for difference, within reason. Work will your baby and read their cues, try to be flexible to enjoy the season, but make the calls you need to make to have a silent night Do you have any other questions? If so post below! And share with your friends Love to all, and your babies, Carleigh

06.01.2022 HOPE IS NEVER LOST - EASTER SALE As this Easter Season of Hope coincides with the virus season of uncertainty, I’m reminded of my own time adjusting to life with a new baby, and my heart goes out to all parents in the struggle. As I hoped for things to change (ie. getting more sleep!) and the uncertainly around each day with a little person with not a lot of capacity to communicate with me (other than crying!) there was a minefield to navigate within myself, as a mum. Ju...st a reminder - I am here if you would like to sign up as a client and bring some hope to your sleepless nights. I am limited to coaching online rather than in-home but this is the option that most clients choose! Many have jumped on the sleep coaching bandwagon this month since isolating. If it is an encouragement to you, I can testify that their days are VASTLY different now that both their children and parents are getting down time in naps and night! In the spirit of the HOPE Of Easter, for 24 hours I am knocking $20 off the price of Personalised Sleep Plans, bringing them (with 2 weeks of phone and email support) to $169.00! Message me to take advantage of this by midnight tomorrow night (Monday).

05.01.2022 Disorganised Newborn Sleep Patterns Something I have found since working with mums of newborns, and having my own again, is that we Mums can often have high expectations of newborn sleep. This can be because newborns often (not always!) nap in arms, on the run, in daylight, in noisy environments, with siblings playing in the background etc. However some newborns, depending on how old they are and how many weeks gestation they were at birth, don’t nap quite that easily... just anywhere. And this is not because you’re doing anything wrong! Regardless of whether you have a sleepy newborn or an alert newborn, something to remember is that sleep patterns are disorganised in this stage, and the majority of newborn sleep is REM sleep (active sleep that will have movement, eyelid flutters, little whinges /cries throughout, easily woken). That said, though, the nature of disorganised sleep means that newborns can become overtired if not assisted to have some long naps in the day in amongst the little micro sleeps that emerge on the breast/bottle or in the car/carrier/pram. Some things you can do to help their little body clocks emerge and develop (which leads to healthy sleep habits as they get older and are ready for more organised routine) are the following (you might use some/all/few at different stages of the first 12 weeks): Finding an optimal sleep window (usually within an hour of waking) Arms down swaddling Feeding well (full feeds regularly through the day) White noise on a sound machine Dark room away from noise Patting, holding, rocking, feeding to sleep Offering a longer nap (2 hours) around midday and assisting back to sleep when necessary Slowing down visitors and stimulation if longer naps are being resisted Importantly, remember to follow safe sleep recommendations and check your baby’s sleep surface is firm and flat, separate from the parents’ bed, position them on their back, not propped up and clear of any obstructions/toys which can cause suffocation and are risks for SIDS. Many wish for a baby that will fall asleep easily (and stay asleep!) by just being placed in the cot (and sometimes this can happen when we find perfect conditions and a perfect sleep window) but usually doing the above and helping baby in the newborn stage leads to the habits needed to self settle (ie. put self to sleep) in the later months. What props did you find helpful in the first 12 weeks ? Share this post with a new mum that might find it helpful

04.01.2022 4 Month Sleep Regression It’s likely you’ve heard of it. It’s likely you anticipate it. It’s likely you’ll try to ride it out, call it Leap 4 and expect to go back to that newborn sleepiness from months one, two and three. It’s not always the same for everyone, but if it’s gotten hard all of a sudden, you don’t have to fear! Around 15-20(ish) weeks is a time I hear from many mums because hourly wakes are exhausting, and take a huge toll on parenting, especially when i...t continues for weeks (or months! ) The increasing wakes are usually due to one or more of these: short sleep cycles, overtiredness, chronic catnapping, overstimulation, heavy sleep associations, out-grown settling methods used. My plans are created to help baby learn new associations and adapt with their changing sleep needs as they mature and develop. They also aim to benefit mums who are sleep deprived and needing more rest, as it is possible to help baby learn to sleep well at night again. But! We need to consider their needs differently to newborn babies. Here’s my favourite message from this week! After 3 days of support, this beautiful 16 week old has moved from hourly/two-hourly night wakes and 20-30 minute cat naps to a much more restful night and a blissful 2 hour lunch nap! I don’t make this stuff up; this mum was so ready and so was baby Go little J #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #sleepingthrough #restedasamother #fourmonthsleepregression #yourenotalone #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep

02.01.2022 Self-Settling Relief My newest little self-settler has Mum celebrating and loving naptime now that he’s not so dependent on the dummy. They are brilliant tools (dummies) during the newborn phase and often beyond, but can also be a challenge when babies haven’t yet (or they aren’t developmentally ready to learn) the motor skills to replace it themselves (usually around 8 months!) Using a consistent settling method, adjusting to an age appropriate routine, and follo...wing my personalised plan has allowed this little 4 month old to fall asleep himself and stay asleep beyond one sleep cycle, saying good riddance! to chronic catnapping! #toowoombasleepconsultant #sleepconsultant #sleepislife #toowoombamums #mumlife #dummies #sleepingthrough #restedasamother #fourmonthsleepregression #yourenotalone #babiescansleep #sleepisaskill #strongmums #morningmerciessleep