Yes that's right, more Lucy! We had so much to say about second babies that we had to make it into a 2-parter.What if you can't imagine loving. your new baby as much as your first? How does the bond work?How do you do bedtime with two children (and one parent?)Are nap times always a disaster if your older child doesn't understand the concept of 'quiet! the baby is sleeping...'?

Are you ever ready? What might sleep look like the second time around? Is there such a thing as a 'perfect age gap'? How do you keep your sh*t together when sleep deprived AND looking after another small human? I talk to my very good friend (and fellow sleep consultant) Lucy Bagwell about what she's learnt since having her second baby and try to take in as much advice as possible now that I'm verrrry pregnant again... For more about Lucy, see https://www.secondstarsleep.com/ or follow...

What if there was no word for self-settling? How different would your parenting experience be if nobody expected your baby to sleep in a cot in their own room? This week I'm joined by Lenka Medvecová Tinková from the Durham University Infancy and Sleep Centre to talk about how our cultural expectations shape parenting decisions and ultimately how we feel about ourselves as mothers.For more information about Lenka you can follow her on Instagram: the English speaking account is...

A controversial question this week! There will be people who say that cry-it-out is always wrong/cruel/avoidable. And others that believe it is the best thing ever. But what about the space in between these two polarised stances? Kaitlin Klimmer and I are both sleep specialists who offer alternatives to sleep training, but where do we stand on the moral debate around infant sleep and controlled crying? We go deep into temperament, cultural expectations/norms, maternal mental health and...

Are you holding yourself to the highest standards as a mum? Have you noticed a cycle of self-criticism creeping in?What happens when perfectionists and people pleasers have babies? This week's guest, Catherine Counihan, is an Integrative Psychotherapist working in private practice in London. Cath specialises in complex trauma, perfectionism, nervous system healing, shifting dysfunctional patterns in our families and reparenting. One of her areas of expertise is how our own childhoods impact...

Just fill their tummies and they'll sleep all night, right? Is food under one just for fun? And what about adding rice or cereal to a bottle at 4m... where do these ideas come from?My guest today, Stacey Zimmels is a Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist as well as a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She offers feeding therapy plus breastfeeding and lactation support online, in the home or at a London clinic. Feed Eat Speak has a range of brilliant online resources as well - including courses...

Is your baby sleeping less than their peers? Are they cat-nappers with late bedtimes but... actually thriving? You might be surprised to learn that this is actually A Thing! The idea that all babies need long naps and 12hrs overnight is totally outdated and not backed by science. But if you have a low sleep needs kid, you might be struggling to find more information about this.I spoke to fellow sleep consultant Paula Morales McDowell about how she discovered her own son had low sleep needs...

My guest today is the relationship therapist and coach, Catherine Topham Sly who you may know from her Instagram account Insight and Connection. She is the expert in happy relationships after kids – and this is a subject that I have been desperate to cover for so long.In my opinion, how our relationships and partnerships change after becoming parents is still not spoken about widely enough. Especially in the lead up to birth itself. So when our relationship is adapting to this new stage of...

Making her very welcome return to the Sleep Like a Baby? podcast is the one and only midwife and lactation consultant Olivia Hinge! You may well know her from much-loved Instagram account (@olivia_lactation_consultant), I know I am a super-fan. In this week's episode we talk a lot about the pressures that mothers put on themselves and celebrate the importance of imperfection. If you think you're not a good enough mother because you find crafting torturous or you find life with a small baby...

Helen Davies is a health visitor, PICU nurse and sleep specialist as well as a mother of four. She has 22 years of parenting experience and also runs the very funny, very real Instagram account @Essential_Parenting. TW: domestic abuse and mental illness In this week's episode Helen shares her story of overcoming a toxic relationship and mental health challenges. With such generous (and often hilarious) honesty, she talks about how these things have shaped her professional life - having now...

This was one of the most enlightening, inspiring episodes I've ever recorded. Zoe Blaskey's Motherkind podcast is one of my favourite things to listen to and I just knew she would be the best person to talk to about maternal guilt and shame. We covered the intricacies of disagreeing with your partner over different parenting choices (what do you do when one of you really wants to sleep train?). As well as how to start giving yourself validation and recognition for the invisible labour of...

Can you be a responsive parent when you've got more than one baby? How do you get two or three babies to sleep at the same time? Do they 'have to' self-settle? Is it possible to co-sleep with twins? And what happens if you've got a big family and the youngest is a highly sensitive soul that needs a lot of extra support? Kathryn Stagg is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC for short!) and qualified sleep coach. She's also a mum of four and runs the brilliant...

Ever since I had my mum on this podcast, I've been desperate to ask her mum more about parenthood. Did she choose to cry-it-out? Was she obsessed with how her baby slept? What were her generation's expectations of infant sleep? This episode is a super special one to me as my 90 year old grandmother and I reflect on early parenthood - what do we have in common and what can we learn from her generation?

We really don't hold back in this week's episode! Is it ok to live sleep train a 4 month old baby on Instagram? Do paediatricians have the right to tell new parents they should leave their baby to cry it out? Are we shaming other mothers by saying controlled crying isn't for us? Rachael runs HeySleepyBaby - the largest biologically-normal infant sleep account on Instagram - and as a result, she receives a lot of DMs from people who think differently to her. So I knew she'd be the perfect...

Sometimes the biggest change we can make to our family's sleep situation is to find acceptance and surrender to the present. I sat down with Ana from The Octopus Club to talk about how she found peace and patience over her own son's sleep (and frequent waking) over the last 3 and a half years. If you have a very wakeful baby or toddler, it can feel so lonely... and you might even blame yourself. If we can let go of that extra burden of responsibility and guilt over how our children sleep -...

If you co-sleep with your baby now, will you have to do it forever? Are you holding your child back from independence? And what if you WANT to do it long-term - how do you cope with other people’s opinions about that? We also get into sex and bed-sharing, cosleeping when you have a baby as well as older children and establishing your own boundaries. This week I was lucky enough to spend an hour in the company of Tiffany who runs Cosleepy - my favourite website and Instagram account all...

Have you ever wondered if your child's sleep is influenced by their gender? Do baby boys wake more? Do little girls take longer to fall asleep? To explore this I sat down with Kirstie from Sonshine Magazine, a proudly feminist quarterly publication that explores the challenges and the joys that come with raising boys in the modern world. If we want the world to be a more equal place for everyone, we need to think about how we raise our sons as well as how we raise our daughters.

Greer Kirshenbaum is the world's first neuroscientist doula and in this episode she shares her expert knowledge about the superpower that is nurture. We cover so much: How sensitive, attuned caregiving meets a growing brain's needs Why your baby or toddler settles differently in a childcare setting compared to home Why you don't need to feel guilty about childcare and going back to work Highly sensitive babies and strong sleep preferences How we can repair a rupture with our child if we have...

This week's chat is super personal! My mum, Jan, shares her experience of having four very different babies (born in the 70s, 80s and 90s) - we discuss breastfeeding, bed-sharing and responding to cries in the night. In 1978 my mum was 21 years old and had just given birth to her son. Six weeks later she found herself moving from a small town in NW England to the Yemen.She was breastfeeding and sharing a bedroom her her baby, and her own mother was appalled. I wanted to talk to my mum a...

Do you have to bed-share, breastfeed and baby-wear in order to have a securely attached child?Can your little one be TOO attached? Are you making them clingy by contact napping and feeding on demand?Is it your fault if your baby or toddler has a strong preference for one parent over the other?These are really common questions that come up all the time, and there are also a lot of claims that sleep training will impact attachment as well - but what should we believe? What do we need to know...

Have you experienced unwanted intrusive thoughts as a new mum? Why does the arrival of (very normal) maternal rage feel like such a shock to so many of us?I sat down with perinatal psychologist Dr Caroline Boyd who has written a beautiful, incredibly helpful book called Mindful New Mum as an antidote to all the parenting manuals out there currently prescribing a ‘right’ way to mother. Instead she takes a holistic look at the transition into matrescence with a focus on mindful compassion,...

Have you been warned against making a rod for your own back by carrying your child? Has someone told you that slings and carriers are just a new trend or something used only by a certain 'type' of parent?What about the idea that they won't ever learn to walk if they are always carried?Zoe Woodman from The Sling Consultancy joins me for this week's episode to dispel these ideas and share her knowledge and expertise all about carrying, child psychology and infant neural development. We discuss...

Sam Meachin is a hypnobirthing coach with a difference and in this week's episode she shares her two very different birth stories that lead her to creating The Wonderhood's online courses.We talk about how birth can lead to feeling like we have lost control over ourselves and how this can then impact how we feel about sleep, feeding and other areas of parenthood. When we cling onto control, and things then don't go to plan, lots of new mothers label themselves as failures. Sam's story is one...

What kinds of sleep challenges do people with training in infant sleep face? The same ones as anyone else, of course!In the last year Lucy and I have navigated dummy drops, cot to bed transitions, separation anxiety, parental preference, dropping naps and bedtime battles. So we wanted to get together and talk about how we have personally figured these issues out as mums.Lucy Bagwell is a holistic sleep consultant also based in South East London and is the mum to a spirited 3 year old. She is...