A few months ago I finished my book, a 3.5 year effort of sweat, tears, and loneliness (writing is lonely business). But it was worth all the sweating and crying because now I am an author. When you are an author you get membership to secret underground writer clubs and everybody wants to be your friend because you are an author and are invited to all the best parties. Ok I’m making that up. But it’s still pretty cool. Being interviewed on Vermont Public Radio was on my “now I’m a new...

If you are like me you will avoid air travel with your children until they are old enough to vote. But most of you are far more courageous than I am in which case this podcast is for you! In this episode Elisabeth and Franny share their experiences and insights on navigating the friendly skies with a baby or toddler in tow including the following: * How many toys do you really need to bring with you? * Two words: hand sanitizer. * Have a plan but know that things won’t go according to...

Most people use the 9 months of pregnancy as a time to learn how babies work (generally) and stock up on essential baby gear so they’ll be ready when said baby arrives. The fact that you will become a parent, and this is likely the largest, most abrupt, and often challenging transition you will ever undergo in your life is barely considered. And let’s be clear, becoming a parent is a massive, wondrous, and immensely painful transition. It is a physical, mental, and emotional transition on the...

Podcasting is great because we basically get to opine on whatever topic strikes our fancy. But we’ve committed to periodically do reader/listener Q&A episodes to ensure that we’re hitting topics that are also interesting to you. While we get more questions than we can possibly answer, we’ve culled some great ones here that I particularly love because they’re so relatable and, frankly, funny. Sometimes, when you’re in the thick of it, it can feel like everybody else has figured out all...

I often see smart thoughtful parents getting tripped up by the same stumbles time and again. These sleep myths or pervasive beliefs, for lack of a better word, that push parents to do things that are at times unhelpful or even self-sabotaging. Or they over-complicate something which, let’s be honest, is already plenty complicated. And these come up constantly. I’m not sure where these sleep myths come from but they float around like a persistent moth trying to land in your soup. Some are...

Babies have multiple hurdles to good sleep but by the time they reach their first birthday they’ll be Level 5 Sleep Wizards and y’all will be sleeping like sloths from there on.   HAHA…no. Children are growing, learning new skills, have changing sleep needs, etc. and as such what worked one day might not work the next. Parenting is aiming at a moving target. In this episode Ashby and Elisabeth break down some of the big kid sleep stumbles that can creep up on you as your baby gets...

Increasingly parents are using infant wearable monitors. These wearable devices are worn as a leg band, sock, or pinned onto the diaper, and claim to monitor your child’s wellbeing by tracking their breathing, pulse rate, blood oxygen levels, etc. Although they can’t outright claim to prevent SIDS, the marketing material strongly hints at, “Buy this and we’ll let you know if your child stops breathing during the night.” And that my friends, is marketing gold. Because there is nothing more...

What do you do when you can’t find the energy to put together a fresh new podcast? ANSWER LISTENER QUESTIONS! Thanks to everybody who sent in questions, which were all thoughtful and interesting. I only tackled 5 today but keep sending in those emails because given the way I’ve been feeling there will be a lot of Q&A podcasts happening in the near future. Listener Questions * Joanna asks why her 7 month old still wakes up demanding to eat constantly all night even though she’s...

I’ve been using the term CIO or Cry It Out for years. I’ve never liked it. It’s pejorative. “Oh…you’re one of those CIO parents. Whelp I’m not, because, y’know, I’m a good parent.” It’s largely meaningless. And in some parenting circles even the faintest mention risks getting you banned from the group. It also doesn’t really mean anything. I’ve tried to define CIO or minimally bring some clarity to the discussion. But even with millions of readers annually, CIO remains a vague...

In this week’s episode, Elisabeth, Franny, and Emily talk about the logistics of feeding your child at daycare. Which seems obvious, you just feed them right? There’s pumping, and formula, and bottle feeding, and all the logistics needed to make those available in the right quantity. As your child grows you move on to solid food which means packing meal and getting them to actually eat it, etc. And there is the added complexity of the morning which involves feeding everybody, getting you...

For parents, going back to work presents the challenge of finding great daycare. Which seems like an enormous hurdle until you start daycare, at which point you realize the real challenge of daycare is getting your child to actually nap there. Napping at daycare (or not napping) is the bane of almost every working parent. Because it combines the not insubstantial challenge of fostering good naps with the bonus challenge of getting them to nap in a stimulating environment on a schedule that...

Most of us are going to go back to work at some point. Some of us return to work sooner than we would like. But across the US and the globe, 60-80% of parents will head back to work eventually. And most people who go back to work will find themselves, at some point, freaking out about: * Finding great daycare * Coordinating with daycare providers * Providing adequate food/milk/formula for their child at daycare * Getting their child to nap at daycare * Getting their child to not nap on...

Will changing the clock for daylight savings time muck up your child’s sleep? In a word: yes. Changing the clocks 1 hour means our body clock and clock time are no longer in sync. However there is a lot you can do to help you and your child navigate daylight savings with minimal disruption. In this daylight savings survival podcast we discuss evidence-based strategies to address the two major issues associated with fall/spring DST namely: * TOO early morning wake up (Fall DST) *...

Looking to help your child sleep better? Well I’ve got the solution for your sleepless woes! Step right into my tent here and take a gander at my surefire remedy for whatever sleep problem you have. Baby can’t fall asleep? Try essential oils! Lettuce baths! Teething got you a bad case of the crabby kiddo? Give amber beads or homeopathic teething tablets a try! Is baby hungry all night? Put a little cereal in their bedtime bottle! What? You don’t believe these will work as well as I claim?...

Got a question? Great – we have answers! We recently asked parents for questions and got ~70 but only had time tackle 12. Luckily, when you manage a Facebook group of 20,000 people you get a really good sense of the types of questions that are common to MANY PARENTS. So we guarantee that at least one of the questions addressed in today’s podcast is something you’ve wondered about too. Reader Mailbag Ashby and I tackle the following questions (they’re all great questions, but #7 is my...

There’s been a theme running through our podcasts and no it’s not my propensity to say “um” a lot. It’s that establishing independent sleep is crucial. Not easy, but essential. While there are many methods to foster independent sleep, this episode focuses on two: the swing method and Pick Up Put Down (aka PUPD). The Swing Method Baby swings for sleep are not sanctioned by the AAP and shouldn’t be used for preemies or particularly small newborns, so check in with your pediatrician first. But...

Before you had a child, you were probably vaguely aware that kids woke up early. I mean, kindergarten starts early and children must get dressed because nobody is naked on the school bus. Then you had a baby. And you realized that early meant four in the morning. And this? This is too #$%* early. What can you do when baby wakes up too early? Why does baby wake up too early? Why does your toddler wake up too early? When does this nonsense end and what can you do about it? In this podcast, we...

This podcast is essential listening. Full stop. If you want to figure out why your child isn’t sleeping this podcast is going to provide the foundation in sleep to diagnose your specific issue. The world is awash in baby sleep advice. You probably have 3 baby sleep books in your home as of this second. This is the 5th baby sleep website you’ve visited today (YES I KNOW YOU ARE CHEATING ON ME, I’VE MADE MY PEACE WITH IT). Facebook groups, Babycenter, Reddit, etc. we are drowning in resources...

This podcast is a continuation of the Baby Sleep Power Tools Part 1, focusing specifically on sleep schedules and wake times. Many parents will bemoan the fact that in giving birth, they’ve become full-time Nap Police, a job that is unpaid, unrewarding, and unwanted. Being the Nap Police is also enormously isolating: you can never leave the house because it’s always time for the next nap. If being the Nap Police is such a terrible job, why would you agree to become one? Because it’s...

Raise your hand if you are or have been a new parent who is surprised at how hard it is to get your newborn baby to fall asleep and stay asleep. I thought newborns were like a loaf of bread, you carry them around and they’re cute and squishy and they just sort of…fall asleep periodically. (I was wrong about a great many things.) The truth is that for most of us, getting a newborn to sleep is enormously difficult. However it becomes vastly less difficult, when you embrace the Baby Sleep Power...

I often do sleep consultations with families who are literally not sleeping. Like at all. Nobody is sleeping and everybody is crying. And yet when I suggest a change of strategy, that they need to do something different from what they’ve been doing, they balk. “Oh no, we can’t do that.What if things get worse.” Because no matter how bad things are, we’re terrified of making things worse. So I launch into the intellectual argument, “There is no worse, you’re living worse.” Which I, as a...

In this episode we discuss newborn sleep, although why would be because let’s be honest here, newborn babies don’t sleep. At least not in the way you might hope. Newborn Babies are Mysterious When my first was born I was given the advice, “Follow his lead! He’ll let you know what he needs!” Really? Because he was generally fussy and I could never tell if he was hungry, tired, bored, gassy, or some combination therein. Truthfully the whole thing was baffling and I spent my first few months...