The Sleepy Sheep

Alright y’all, listen….I tried social media. I tried really hard, for an entire YEAR. I did did things I said I’d NEVER do, and surprised myself at how much fun I had doing it. But, it just isn’t me!

Ultimately, my online presence didn’t bring me enough of a benefit to outweigh the ridiculous amount of time it took away from actually helping people, having discovery calls, checking in on past clients and maintaining relationships.

I will be more quiet online, but still ALWAYS open to answer DMs and help out. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the text I got last night with one of my easiest clients EVER. This stuff works guys…let’s talk soon!

✨BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL 👇🏽✨

At the one year mark, we took a step back to re-evaluate what went well for our business and what our fixable obstacles were. We were unable to find a way to fix inflation 🥴, so we focused on the biggest hurdle I have heard from my clients: “it’s a big investment”

Because this IS a new business and because we DO have so much to learn, we took your advice! Now, there’s an option to receive EVERYTHING included in our full-service options at a drastically reduced price, minus the ongoing the support from me.

If you’re a “do it yourself”-er, check out this option! What’s included 👇🏽

✨ Full 60 minute consultation where we address your specific concerns, I learn your goals are and a little more about your kiddo and family

✨Completely personalized sleep plan that works for YOUR child and family dynamic, plus options for what you can do if the day goes awry

✨Lifetime access to documents

✨Option to upgrade for additional support at any time

SO much of professional sleep training is the access to 24 hour support. If you don’t feel like you need that, don’t use it! And with the holidays around the corner, what better gift to give your family than the gift of sleep? 💤😴🛌❤️

✨BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL✨
Want to try it out? Take one for a friend too! Book a package through THIS WEEKEND ONLY and receive one for EQUAL VALUE completely free!! Share, save and tag a friend below!

One year to the day, I got my first email in my first ever business account 🥰 I remember it so well, I squealed when I heard the ding. Cherish your cheerleaders…they give you the guts to do the scary things (She’s still one of my #1 encouragers today! 🥰🥳👏🏽)

Happy Halloween from the Encanto trio 😆😂 I love these crazy fools! .sachtler

It’s always (sometimes 🤪) hard to leave your kids, even for much needed girlfriend getaways. It’s easier when you know bedtime is on lock 👌🏽
shout-out to Oma and .sachtler for keeping the tiny humans alive and on schedule for 4 days, to for letting me tag along on this much needed trip and to for this VIEW!!!

Let me say it again for the people in the back: your daycare is providing you with a service. You pay them, probably quite a bit, to do so. You trust them with the well-being of your children. If they aren’t willing to partner with you to form a plan with your child’s best interests in mind, they’re not the ones for you 🤷🏻‍♀️✌🏽But you’ve got to do your part, too!

✅ DO: communicate! Let them know you prioritize sleep, or if you’re struggling with it. If they don’t know, they can’t help.

✅ DO: ask that your kiddo be moved as far away from the noise as possible and bring familiar items from home for them at nap time. Their sleep sack, lovey, even a portable sound machine on low by their heads will add some elements they associate with sleep, and it will bring them some added comfort.

✅ DO: give their caregivers a cheat sheet! They’re already responsible for teaching and nurturing all those little minds, so them hit the “easy” button for your child’s nap. Write down when you’d *like* them to sleep and any details that might help. Sleep and hunger cues are SO similar…if you know your daughter twirls her hair when she gets sleepy, tell them!!

🚫 DON’T: expect all the special treatment. You should be able to present them with a plan that is concise enough not to take away from their daily task list or the needs of the needs of the 20-something other children in their classroom.

🚫 DON’T: be too rigid on schedules. Remember, it’s more important THAT they sleep for age appropriate times than WHEN they sleep. A little wiggle room is okay if it’s for the greater good of everyone.

Have you had the nap talk with daycare? Drop your success stories below! 👇🏽🤗

How in the world are we here? 🥹🥹 I ask myself on the daily how we got so lucky to have you. It’s different, the last time around. Knowing how fleeting the phases are, knowing how hard you pray for time to slow down. I have loved every single second with you, Isabelle Lauren. I love watching your curious self sit back and observe, SO much like your biggest big sister. You don’t care what we’re doing, as long as you’re on somebody’s hip. If you’re not, you DEFINITELY care...just like your littlest big sister 😉 You’ve found your voice in the last week or two (if anyone in Skybrook has been wondering, no one is being harmed in here, we’re just experimenting with octaves 🥴 making sure those preemie lungs get some work) . I’m definitely getting too old for some of this crap 😆 but the only way out of this “new mom” chapter was to end it with you, girl. I love you to the moon and back, Izzo 💕❤️

Pay more attention to sleep cues, but maintain a strict schedule. But not too strict because you have other kids. Also, the sleep cues might be hunger cues so make sure you’re differentiating, and if they ARE hunger cues, make sure you’re absolutely NOT feeding to sleep, but if you do feed to sleep it ends up being okay.

WHAT?! Having access to too much information causes confusion, contradicting opinions and just plain NOISE 😱

What you’re looking at above is what we really need to know about sleep. When babies get nice full bellies, they’re happy, healthy and energized. When they’re happy, healthy and energized, they’re able to stay up for longer stretches and get that essential stimulation during the day. When they’re awake longer playing, they become more tired. When you take them to an environment that is conducive to sleep, they will be more likely to sleep solid stretches. If they sleep solid stretches, they wake up refreshed, ready to eat and ready to play and the cycle repeats itself. It really is THAT simple.

Don’t get bogged down in the details. Keep it simple; their bodies were made to adjust to this! Want to know more on how to set your baby up for sleep success throughout the day? Let’s chat!

1. Decide when “morning” is. Don’t make this earlier than 6:00, and keep in mind you’ll have
to wake up at this time on the weekends too 😐 If your babe wakes up before then, practice the sleep training routines you do throughout the night until you reached their desired wake time 👩‍⚖️👨‍⚖️

2. Try to delay feedings by 10 minutes or so. If they’re getting breakfast the minute they wake up, that’s great incentive for them to make sure you’re awake too. Delay that instant gratification (only slightly) to break the association they have with morning meaning something to get excited enough to wake the whole house up for 🍼

3. Check their daily sleep amounts as well as the time they’re awake. So, so often babies are not getting the right amount of stimulation and/or sleep, and tweaking things by just a few minutes could fix the entire problem 🤓📈

4. Adjust environmental factors. As adults, we can hear a siren or dog bark at 5am and realize it isn’t time to wake up yet. Until your kiddo is able to do that, try to keep external distractions to a minimum with white noise and blackout curtains 🤫

5. Be patient. I have never met a child that’s slept until the desired time of their parents every morning. It’s going to happen to you, and the changes you implement will take time as well. Allow 2 or 3 weeks for their body clocks to reset before trying new tactics 😌

💘 A recent study revealed you CAN still wake up at night to comfort your baby EVEN if you did not birth them yourself! Who knew?! It is totally reasonable to expect your partner to alternate trips to check on your baby, even if it’s one night a week or one time per night. They may have to get up early for work the next day, but so do you, and I’d bet their job isn’t more important than keeping a tiny human alive 🤷🏻‍♀️

💘 Pick something for them to be in charge of. If you ask me, Dear God, let them wash the pump and bottle parts! To make it easy for them, parts can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours (that’s one wash a day!), but choose something YOU would love taken off your plate.

💘 They can help you make decisions or support you in the ones YOU make. Your partner will not be as invested as you are in every single decision made regarding your kids and that’s okay! If he doesn’t feel as strongly as you do, he can still commit to having your back and implementing the strategies you’ve researched, thought about and decided upon when it comes to sleeping, eating, rules, behavior and whatever else you feel is right for your baby 🫶

💘 They can help you feed the baby. If your baby is bottle fed, great! That makes it super easy. If your baby is exclusively breastfed, they can still get up with you and change the baby’s diaper or help you get situated for what may be a long stent awake (it’s just JUST food babies need at night 😉)

💘 They can feed you! The only way to keep your baby healthy is to keep yourself healthy, so have a pep talk with your partner-in-parenting and ask that they just do this for you. Bonus points if they do it without being reminded, and especially if they choose foods you can eat with one hand 😉 via .app

Of course! I’ve got a package especially for multiples, but if I had to give one tip, it would be to keep them both on the same schedule! Sometimes, that means waking them BOTH up in the middle of the night 😬 click the link in my bio to read more on my siblings packages!

Check mate ♟😆

The influx of information when you have a new little on to care for can be so overwhelming and as soon as you have it all memorized, the AAP, your pediatrician, or Karen from your coffee and croissants group tells you you’re not doing something right.

With these two items, there’s really not much to debate. The practice of swaddling babies has been around for centuries, and for good reason. We swaddle newborns and infants because A, it mimics what they’re used to inside the womb and B, it helps restrict their arms and legs from the “startle reflex”, or the Moro reflex. Newborns have an involuntary response when they are startled or moved suddenly that causes them to jerk their arms and legs, often waking them up. Swaddling will keep your baby feeling secure and comforted while eliminating one of the big sleep hiccups in the first 3 months.

Once the baby rolls from back to belly, however, you can imagine why having their arms and legs confined would no longer be safe. That’s where the sleep sack comes in! And it’s exactly that…a nice, warm, fuzzy sack for your growing baby to sleep in! There are hundreds of options available, but what’s standard in all of them is the “arms free” option for mobility and safety. You can use these bad boys until they’re 18 months – 2 years old (based on weight), and by the time they outgrow it they can have their very own “big kid” blanket to sleep with!

Watch this reel by jessey_thesleepysheep on Instagram lindseygurk • Two Little Shadows

Watch this reel by jessey_thesleepysheep on Instagram jessey_thesleepysheep • Original Audio

💥📣 FULL FEEDS!
There are lots of things to remember when teaching your little one good sleep habits, but if their bellies aren’t full, you’ll never get the long, full stretches of rest your baby IS capable of.

🌟The “standard” measurement is 2.5 oz per 1 pound in a 24 hour period (so if your baby is 10 pounds, that’s around 25oz a day 👍🏽). BUT, this is just a guidepost to go by. If you’re really struggling to get an appropriate amount of food down, make sure to talk to your pediatrician about tongue and lip ties or possible alternate formula solutions 🆘

The Sleepy Sheep is catching some zzz’s as we welcome our sweet Isabelle Lauren to the fam…6 weeks early! I’ll be a bit more quiet on social media, but feel free to reach out as usual for questions, evaluations or package options! In the meantime, sleep well!

and sweet Owen are the perfect example of how to ease into sleep training! You don’t have to wait until you’ve go a co-sleeper or a screaming toddler with separation anxiety to begin the process. A few simple, solid habits from day 1 is the key to setting the stage here. Trust me, the earlier you do this the easier it is!!

-Earplugs! My husband snores, and I almost left him over it (just kidding, I think) until I started shoving these suckers in my ears. Its just enough barrier to keep out the added noise from him, the garbage truck or our dog coming up and down the stairs, and I swear it hasn’t stopped me from waking up when my kids cry for me at night. Trust me, I’ve kept count and plan on using it as ammo one day for a killer Mother’s Day present.
-DRMTLGY Natural Lavender Linen and Room spray. Y’all this stuff…chef’s kiss. You can use it on your furniture, clothes, or as an air freshener but I like to use approximately 2-74 spritzes directly onto my pillow. This product is Greenleaf certified, made in the U.S., free of parabens, alcohol, sulfates, gluten and hormones, and never tested on animals. Best of all, this family owned company lets you try it for as long as you’d like AND keep the product if you aren’t satisfied while still offering you a full refund. https://www.amazon.com/DRMTLGY-Essential-Chamomile-Aromatherapy-Relaxation/dp/B07YVMDV2T/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=DRMTLGY+pillow+spray&qid=1638045483&sr=8-5
-If I had to choose one item, it would be these. My college roommate owned these, but at 20 years old it was a splurge for me to get name brand cereal. Of course they seemed like a dream compared to the parchment paper I was sleeping on and I figured it was just because I had nothing good to compare them to. Nope. My husband and I wore literal holes into our first set before we could finally stomach tossing them. Caveat: they’re discontinuing them!! So as much as that sucks, you can currently get some killer prices on the limited stock they have left
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/pure-beech-reg-400-thread-count-100-modal-reg-sateen-sheet-set/3257516
-ANYthing from the Stars Above brand at Target. This is one example for what I used after my girls were born, but these are what I LIVE in at night. https://www.target.com/p/women-s-beautifully-soft-notch-collar-nightgown-stars-above-153/-/A-54245030?preselect=54183156 =sametab

It can and will impact your babies sleep if you continue feeds after they’re necessary. When you child is ready and capable of sleeping through the night, they will take more milk during the day to accommodate for the calories and your body will learn to adapt. But, if you struggle with production or are worried about your supply, you can add pumping sessions before bed or incorporate “power pumps” to mimic cluster feeds. Pump during the night if needed, but try to shorten the pumping time and don’t fully drain your breast. This is a really scary thing for moms to trust in, but your body WILL adjust! Think of all it’s done already!

Welp…the night before last, Hurricane Charlotte went careening down our steep driveway and flipped over her tricycle handlebars. Busted nose, busted lip, and a mama at her wits end while .sachtler was out of town. So that night after lots of crying (from all of 3 us), they crawled into bed with me and we all fell fast asleep.

Some days, sanity doesn’t mean rulebooks or schedules or routines. It means throwing it all out the window and doing whatEVER your family needs. That night, all of us just needed snuggles 🤷🏻‍♀️And the best news is, once you’ve got a good foundation of healthy sleep skills implemented, a night or two (or three, or four) will not ruin them! Put the hard work in first and then lay your head down at night (literally) guilt-free when exceptions need to be made 🛌🥱💤

It’s almost time to spring forward! Swipe for your guide to making this a smooth transition 😎
1. Best bet here is to pretend like DST doesn’t exist! Don’t change your clocks yet and put your little ones to bed the same time as normal.
2. Don’t stress if your kids wake up “late” the next morning. Change your clocks and go about the day as normal
3. Starting today and for the next 4 nights, nap time and bedtime back by half an hour. So, if bedtime is at 7:00 normally, make it 7:30! Doing this for a few days will help them adjust gradually to the time change. If they’re itty bitty and can’t hang for an extra half an hour, try as long as they’ll let you without getting overtired.
4. On night 5, it’s back to your regular schedule!
5. No matter how you much you prepare, there will probably be some hiccups. Be consistent when early wakeups happen and chances are you’ll all be back on track within a week!

This doesn’t have to be an all inclusive trip to Mexico. It can be something as easy as a bubble bath with your favorite book or podcast, lunch with friends or a date night with your husband (my favorite date nights even take place in our living room 🤷🏻‍♀️). Can’t think of anything? Plan it! It’s easy to fall into ruts when all we do is wake up and fill our time with the things we have to do. Making time for the things you want to do will give you that little extra pep in your step on the days you fantasize about burrowing into your bedsheets and letting your kids fend for themselves 🧖‍♀️💆‍♀️

Maintain your friendships. Lets face it…in this season of life, this is a tough one (and shout out to all my low maintenance ladies out there for getting this!). But these gems are the lifejackets that keep your head above the laundry loads, diaper piles and teary tantrums (some of them even being your children’s) during this season of life. They remind you that the chick who traveled through Europe or started a business or out-sassed a bouncer for skipping you in line is still in there somewhere, and that the cold coffee and toddler tantrums will not last forever.

Talk to yourself the way that you’d talk to the people you love. This is a HUGE work in progress for me. Would you tell your best friend she’s an idiot for forgetting to pack her kid’s lunchbox one day? Would you tell your son or daughter to suck it up of they were exhausted and just wanted to rest for 20 minutes? Would you tell your husband you didn’t have time to listen to him vent about a bad day because there were more important things to address? Of course not! Give yourself a break and be as kind to yourself as you are to the people most important to you ❤️

Get outside! Feeling tired, sluggish and moody? While these are often just the side effects of being a parent, vitamin D deficiency is also extremely common among women. Just take the activities you enjoy (reading 📖journaling📔, ‘gramming 📲) outdoors. The Cleveland Clinic suggests 15-20 minutes 3 times a week will do the trick 👌🏽

Is your little one fighting naps and/or bedtime 3-4 times a week? Waking up early? Are they around the 3-3.5 age range? Then girl, get yourself some ribs and ice cream because it’s probably time to drop naps (name that movie 🎬😂) Instead, implement “quiet time” or independent play. Kiddos still need that restorative, restful time (almost as much as you do 😉) and it will give everyone a much needed break in the day to keep the pre-bedtime meltdowns at bay. Check out my “quiet time tips” posted last week for some ideas on how to make this a successful change for everyone 🙌🏽👌🏽

.sachtler and littlest big sis giving our caboose a run down of the day 🥰 This 3rd pregnancy has been the toughest by far but man, I’m going to miss these sweet moments 😭😍

✨Save certain toys or items to be used ONLY for quiet time. Pick some of their favorite books, coloring activities, dolls, etc. and keep them in a laundry basket reserved for when it’s time to implement the “no-nap” break in the day
✨Divide the time into blocks. Lets be real…our kids have the attention span of gnats. To make the best use of this time, choose split it into sections. Part can be quiet time in their room, another can be independent play in their play room (or with a sibling if they’ve got one skipping naps too), and another screen time. Yes girl, I said it…screen time.
✨Start small. We cant expect our littles to entertain themselves for a solid 2 hours a day right off the bat. For the first week, try 20 or 30 minutes (or as long as they’ll let you!) Once they know that this will be the new norm, stretch the time by 10 minutes at a time.
✨Don’t feel guilty! You are not neglecting your children for expecting they entertain themselves for an hour or two during the day. They may not be tired enough to sleep, but their little bodies still need some restorative time. Also, by putting things you need to do on the backburner, what you’re teaching your kids is that their entertainment takes precedence over all the other obligations you have in life. Allowing them to experience varying levels of stimulation throughout the day does not make you a lazy parent, it helps make you a well-rounded one 💯

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