Founder of Sleep For All, UK certified infant sleep consultant & mum of 3

Based in Wales, I provide UK-wide gentle sleep training support for a range of every day and specialist sleep issues.

My story

Before I had children, I thought I would nail it as a parent.

I’d worked with children for years. I was a dab hand at changing a nappy, and had always been ‘good’ with babies. Of course, I was realistic and knew it wouldn’t all be plain sailing. However, I had visions of maternity leave being filled with coffee mornings, walks in the park and baby massage classes. I even thought my house would be clean ... yes, you get the picture!

It was 2009. My husband and I had been living in Australia for a couple of years and I was pregnant with our first baby. We had made good friends, but like so many new parents today, we didn’t have any family support close at hand.

My son was born and I was lucky enough to be able to breastfeed him without too many problems. The first few weeks were pretty smooth. He fed and he slept. Easy enough!

Then on week 3, things changed. All of a sudden, he was awake more. He fed constantly. He didn’t want to be put down, ever.

I remember being at a new parents group at my local surgery, and everyone else was able put their baby on a blanket on the floor and make a cup of tea. I couldn’t even put my baby down, let alone walk away from him without him crying! I so wanted a cup of tea but there was no chance.

Quickly, my days became dominated by naps and sleep. If my baby didn’t nap well, he was whingy and it was hard to keep him happy. I tried feeding to sleep and having him sleep on me. I tried pushing him around the house in his pram for hours on end. I tried the sling. Nothing seemed to work for us.

As the weeks and months progressed, more and more of my friend’s babies started sleeping ‘through the night’. We were nowhere near. I wasn’t too worried though. I told myself, “when he’s 4 months he’ll sleep better”. He didn’t though. “Ok then,” I thought “when he’s 6 months old and eating solids, he’ll sleep more”. Of course, he didn’t.

At 9 months I was breastfeeding every 2 hours on the dot throughout the night. I was mentally and physically exhausted and was due back to work soon. I half joked about it to others, but inside I became increasingly worried - how was I going to hold down a job while I was hardly sleeping at night?!

Pretty much the only advice given to me was to put my baby in his cot and leave him to cry for 10 minutes. I was told he would then fall asleep and all my troubles would be sorted. Of course, when I put him down (even before I’d left the room) he would cry, and I couldn’t even manage 30 seconds!

Eventually, I was given one piece of advice that was a bit different to the rest. I called a parenting helpline, and the lady at the other end of the line asked what I was feeding him in the evening. Now, don’t judge me, but I was giving him a big chicken dinner straight before bath in the desperate hope it would fill him up and keep him going for at least a few hours at night! And then I was giving him a breastfeed half an hour later to get him to sleep!

This lovely lady tactfully suggested that maybe he was going to bed too full. “Try giving him a smaller amount of food in the evening, and give him a bit longer to digest it before bedtime”. It was completely counter intuitive, but I was willing to try anything.

The next night, I did as she suggested. And for the first time ever, he slept for 4 hours straight! Of course, it wasn’t the miracle of a whole night (that would have been a good story!) It was however, my first break through, and it gave me the glimmer of hope that things could continue to get better!

To be honest, it was such a haze that I don’t remember exactly what we did over the coming months. I think my husband did a lot of rocking and bopping! But by a year, he was pretty much sleeping through. And you guessed it - we got there without having to use the ‘cry it out method’.

It was this experience that sparked my passion for gentle sleep coaching. We returned to the UK in 2011 and I trained as a night nanny and sleep coach. The rest is history!

My unique blend of extensive training and experience means that I am never fazed by a sleep challenge, however complex it is! I have worked with a huge range of families over the years, including foster and adoptive families, bereaved families, and children with additional needs. I feel so very lucky to be doing a job I love. In hindsight, I know I have a lot to thank my (no longer little) boy for!

If you are going through a tough time with sleep at the moment, I would love to help you. Book your free 15 minute sleep consultation today and let’s start making things better.