1. Sleep is a learnt behaviour and not a given. If you start out by rocking your baby to sleep, your baby will associate this with sleep and will continually expect this process. It is much more beneficial to adopt other gentle methods to help guide your baby to sleep independently without any associations.

Think of your back and posture in the early days when your baby is tiny. You won’t notice this so much in the early days, however as your baby starts to gain weight you may start to notice that you have developed some joint pain.

2. Babies naturally make noises in their sleep; they grunt, groan, root, fidget, little cry outs, pass wind all sorts this is totally normal. What we tend to do as parents in the early days is immediately attend and assume our baby is waking for a feed, this isn’t always the case, babies will have between 0-6 partial wake ups a night. Exactly as I have stated this is a partial wake up, just like many adults have just enough to get comfy again. When this occurs I suggest you just wait and see what your baby will naturally do, you will know if your baby is going to resettle or not, or if a feed is due.

3. Babies have many sleep cycles, it isn’t always the case that once asleep they will remain fully asleep.

Babies will go through the following:-

Drowsy stage

Light/REM sleep

Lots of eyes flickering, very light sleep. If your baby is quiet at this stage try not to intervene, move and maybe re-swaddle, we don’t want your baby disturbed during this period otherwise your baby may become alert at the wrong stage and then find it difficult to resettle.

Brief awakening

In that he/she may do a couple of small cry outs, this is all fine.

Deep sleep

Perfect!

You may then find your baby returns to a light sleep, another brief awakening and so the process starts again. You should find comfort knowing this is a normal cycle and that brief awakenings will, and do happen. Try to realize that a noise or a little cry doesn't always mean an immediate need, after all your baby will probably not even know he/she has done this.

" I asked Deearna for a week’s help with my 11 month baby whose sleep seemed to be getting worse and worse. Deearna gave me lots of advice and support at any time, day and night! After a week my baby went 10 hours through the night, something I thought was impossible! Thanks for getting me through this Deearna and for the free extra days. I would highly recommend her to anyone who needs sleep support with little ones. "

Priya - 11 month old

"I have triplet girls who are 2 years old and are complete nightmares, I have tried many techniques and sleep trainers advice and nothing has worked. I was then recommended Deearna. Deearna came to my home in the afternoon and spent 12 hours with us.Deearna picked up immediately what the problem was and what we needed to do.The girls apart from a couple of moans slept the whole night, we didnt ! we kept waiting for the usual games to start. To encourage and reassure us that we could do this on our own Deearna came back the next night FREE to NOT watch us but to simply be downstairs if we needed her. WE DIDNT WE DID IT . I now have 3 little girls who go to bed at 7.30 and then wake up between 6-8, We now never have less than 10 hours sleep a night. Deearna is discreet,non judgmental,professional,immensely calming to have around,she is a complete breath of fresh air to anyone who is privileged to meet her.Deearna is a true baby whisperer."

Tanya Curlings

Around the age of 2 to 3 months your baby may have started to settle into a more predictable sleep pattern. Sleep problems can develop even in the best sleeper who has been sleeping through the night up until that point especially if he is teething, celebrating a milestone such as as rolling over or standing up, or going through a change of routine. There are a number of common reasons as to why your baby's sleep has changed. Between 3 and 4 months, 8 and 10 months, and again at 12 months babies will go through a phase called sleep regression. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A REGRESSION WE DON'T REGRESS WE PROGRESS - simply put your child's needs have now changed to what they were...

New babies get tired very easily especially if they've had a lot of stimulation. For some very determined and social older babies sleepiness is annoying and they'll start to cry when they are tired. Babies can move in and out of different states when they are drowsy; irritable, fussy, frustrated, crying, quietly alert, drowsy, active and quiet sleep. You can tell which state they are in by the noises they make and by the way they breath and move.

Ask me about my bath/bedtime routine suggestions.

" A cuddle before bed is key- your body naturally produces oxytocin - this is the feel good factor hormone, helps to relax you and will help to relax baby, this is also known referred to as "the cuddle hormone" so ensure you have a nice relaxing cuddle always before putting your baby or toddler down.
Did you know Melatonin which is the sleep hormone is released when the lights are dim and temperature drops, hence the importance of a good bath/bedtime routine and the importance of not stimulating at this point otherwise the reverse happens and cortisol is released which is the main stress hormone that is released when a baby is over tired, which then results in multiple wakeups/disturbances. "