RISE: Respectful infant
sleep education
Explore Anxiety Free Sleep Support with RISE.
I know how tiring it can be to have a new baby, with LOTS of unexpected nighttime parenting needs.
It can be especially challenging when we aren't getting good sleep ourselves!
As an Infant Sleep Educator, Id love to help you through education around normal sleep, and to guide you towards more sleep for your whole family. But before we dive in, it is really important to me that I am the right sleep support for you!!! With such a variety of opinions, research and programs available for families, I need you to first understand HOW I help new families, so you can be confident that working with me will get you the results you need!
The focus of an Infant Sleep Educator is not solely on changing your babies sleep or need for nighttime parenting. The focus is instead on finding ways to help you as parents get more sleep, and thrive while parenting your baby’s typically normal needs. I will also assess the possible causes for your sleep concerns that are outside of the normal expectations for babies. This could include feeding needs, environmental disruptions, or food intolerances. Once we have been able to discover you and your child’s true needs, we will then brainstorm ways for you to all find more sleep by addressing them. Every piece of advice I share, tidbit of education I provide, and plan we realize together will always come from an attachment-focused place that honors your infants connection to you, and their infant mental health and wellness.
How Am I Different from Most Sleep Consultants?
A majority of the sleep help available assumes that babies are experiencing bad habits, and use techniques to break those habits down. Consider an Infant sleep Educator the alternative to baby training! I give our tiniest humans a bit more credit than most others do. Babies like sleep, just like we do. Often the disruption lies within their sleep environment, attachment needs, parental expectations or physical barriers to good sleep. Most of the time something is causing unusual wakings, and when that has been figured out, sleep comes almost on its own! I get to implement my background as a lactation consultant and infant feeding expert, doula, and parenting coach with trainings in infant mental health and attachment to find your family the healthiest, most anxiety-free sleep possible! Not too many sleep experts have the wide background of certifications and trainings to allow for a truly holistic approach to sleep support.
Here is a great infographic on the difference between a typical sleep trainer and an infant sleep educator to break it down further.
A large focus of our work together will be on how to get your whole family more sleep, with us working towards shifting your adult sleep and lifestyle habits that may be leaving you too tired to parent normal baby behaviour. Much new research has shown that distress-based sleep training doesn't actually help babies sleep better, and doesn't change their own night waking intervals or wakeful time enough for the effort and disconnect to be worth it. Babies are born with the expectation that when they need you, you will be there, and traditional sleep training methods lead them to believe that you wont come when called. This training may create neuropathways which lead to avoiding asking for help when its needed, which infant mental health experts are beginning to feel is connected to the growing amount of childhood anxiety we are seeing. If behavioural modification methids don't actually teach your baby to sleep better or longer, and is more to meet adult needs of not being called for in the night, I invite you to first find other simpler and less upsetting ways to achieve the same goal! As your sleep educator, this is exactly what I will help you do!
If you would like to focus on interdependent children who know when to ask for help and when to attempt it alone, my alternative to sleep training is the answer. Together we can help your family teach interdependence while maintaining the trust needed to know that help is coming if it's needed. We can avoid possible unwanted consequences such as relationship and attachment concerns, and help you feel more rested at the same time. Many families simply feel strongly that their babies cries are meant to be responded to. If this sounds like you, know that your instinct and your baby’s ability to learn to trust are valid and worth protecting.
That was a lot to read... however it is important to me that you know exactly what I offer before we work together. This isn't the path for everyone, and that's ok. What I offer is an alternative to sleep training for tired families. As we focus on helping you find ways to feel better and sleep better, we also maintain your baby’s developmentally normal sleep needs. If this resonates with you, then I can't wait to meet you and guide you into anxiety-free sleep!
understanding sleep consults for infants and children
Parenting is hard, and is especially hard when everyone you know has babies who seem to sleep differently than yours! If someone has told you that your baby should be acting differently than they are. Or maybe you are loving all of the cuddles but aren’t sure if you should be doing something different at this point. Whether you have a new baby and want to set up good sleep habits, or have a toddler who loves to sleep with you and wake all night, this option is for you. In these general sleep-focused visits we aim to assess your baby and your family, to be able yo build a good understanding of your and your baby’s attachment, feeding and sleep needs. After this, we will talk in depth about your goals as parents, and then come up with plans and strategies to help us meet those goals in an attachment-focused way. Expect lots of insight into your growing baby or toddler, and some out of the box solutions to get everyone the best sleep and most joy out of your relationship! This support also includes text and email support for a month following our visit.
Initial sleep consults (80-min) start at $200 in my office or virtual, or $250 at your home.
Follow ups (45-60 min) start at $125 in my office or virtual, or $175 at your home.
Please expect up to 3 hours together for our first meeting, adding $25 per each 15min additional time. Follow up visits are usually 1 hour.
If we choose to set up weekly or monthly phone check ins as part of our plan, the fee is $2/minute.
INFANT Feeding and Sleep Package
When working out a sleep concern with babies 0-12 months, I typically recommend an airway and feeding assessment first. To get the best results, we begin a series of two visits focused on sleep. In this initial visit, we walk through a full feeding assessment and rule out common feeding issues such as intake, timing, structural feeding challenges, and more. We can almost always improve sleep when a feeding challenge is involved, by managing your breast- or bottlefeeds differently. It may be surprising, but even well-gaining babies can have feeding patterns that interfere with good sleep. And the good news - it is something we can try to shift! Physical causes of poor sleep are assessed, addressed, or ruled out.
The second visit is all about finding YOU more sleep, while we work through the long term plan to reach your sleep goals. We will also discuss the science of infant sleep, and how to help your baby fall into anxiety-free sleep as much as possible. Stress and distress around sleep is reduced, and your ability to model good sleep habits for your baby are improved. If you are desperate for more sleep, we can switch the order of these visits to find you much needed rest, while we work out the possible environmental causes of your sleep concerns. second.
The investment for this package is $400 (virtual, or at my office) or $450 (your home). This fee covers our initial visit and one follow up.
Please expect up to 1.5 to 3 hours together for our first meeting and 1-2 hours for our follow up.
If we choose to set up weekly or monthly phone check-ins as part of our plan, the fee is $2/minute.
If you prefer that I come to your home, please add a $50 out of office fee, and $0.75/km for locations over 50km from my office.
help me now! phone support
Sometimes, we need help YESTERDAY! If you are feeling desperate for change right now, and need some quick tips to feel better until we can have our proper initial visit, a phone consultation can be arranged. We book 30-60 min to start, and 15-30 min follow ups. In these calls I will hear your story, and put the pieces together using the most common challenges and experiences as a guide. We will come up with an immediate plan of action to help you get more sleep today, and start to feel better. There are so many things you can implement right away, to feel more rested and to give time to recoup before making big decisions about your next steps. Phone calls are scheduled as needed, or can be planned as a monthly call to help prevent anxiety and stress as you enter new stages and changes around your child’s sleep.
All phone consultations cost $2/minute. Clients are charged for the duration of our booked call plus any overage.
Initial phone consultations are booked for 30-60 minutes. Follow ups are booked for 15, 30 or 60 minutes as needed.
Monthly calls ($90 for 60-min) can be booked in 4 month blocks, and include text and email support between our scheduled phone time.
CLASS: UNDERSTANDING INFANT SLEEP: ANXIETY-FREE SLEEP FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Infant Sleep is the topic of most mommy blogs, drop in groups and online threads... And when trying to learn about sleep, there is a world of conflicting information and advice. It can be so hard to determine what's right for your own family, especially when we don't yet know what normal is! Setting expectations that are realistic and workable is the foundation of anxiety free parenting! By the end of this class, you will have an understanding of why babies sleep (or don't sleep) the way they do, what is happening through different sleep phases, and how you can get your entire family the best sleep possible while maintaining strong, secure attachments.
Specifically, we will discuss:
Infant sleep, biological norms and cultural expectations
Brain growth, brain wiring and how responsiveness plays a role in brain development
Tricky times to watch for (sleep regressions, progressions, and disturbances, etc)
Various safe sleep environments and options
How to respond to outside pressure and advice that may not represent your own goals
How to determine if there is a sleep problem, and what you can do
Tips to help the whole family find enough healthy sleep
You will receive emailed handouts. Babies welcome. This class is best suited for pre-natal families to the first 12 months.
One family private class - $200+hst
Four or more families semi-private class - $50 per family
No classes scheduled at this time. Private classes or semi-private groups available, please contact me and we can organize it.