The Sleep Mums WILL help your baby sleep. Non-judgemental, funny and always useful baby sleep advice. Hosted by broadcaster and parenting journalist, Cat Cubie, and paediatric sleep consultant, Sarah Carpenter.
Listener Questions: Comforters
Comforters are an essential part of a sleep routine. We all have things we do before sleep that set us on the path to the land of nod, we know some of them are useful and some of them are not so much.
In this episode we'll explore what a comforter is and answer some of your most common questions including:
1 - Is a swaddle is comforter?
2 - How do I transition my baby out of a swaddle.
3 - How can I introduce a dummy/soother?
4 - How can I get rid of a dummy/soother?
5 - Is my baby just sucking on their hands for comfort?
6/7/2023 • 22 minutes, 27 seconds
False Starts
It’s bedtime, everyone’s calm and settled and suddenly 40 minutes later your baby is fast, fast AWAKE! In this podcast we’ll help you get to the bottom of this ready steady wake routine.
We’ll cover:
1 - What is a False Start?
2 - Why do they happen?
3 - What can I do about them?
4 - Why are they more common at night?
5 - Do False Starts just happen to babies?
Plus, we answer one of your questions about why a toddler consistently wakes after they’ve gone to sleep.
5/24/2023 • 27 minutes, 43 seconds
Morning Routines
People talk about baby and children’s bedtime routines but what about a morning routine?
At it’s simplest, a morning routine is a few steps that you take you from nighttime to daytime. But it’s not just a process, having a positive morning routine can have a biological effect and help to reset you and your child’s circadian rhythm.
1. What is a morning routine?
2. Is it something we need to do forever ?
3. What does a good one look like?
4. What are the benefits?
5. It is just a trend?
Plus, we’ll answer your listener question about an early waking 4 year old who plays in his room and the impact it has on their morning routine.
5/10/2023 • 26 minutes, 4 seconds
Bedtime Boundaries [for Parents]
Boundaries are such an important tool to help our children feel secure in their surroundings and with other people, but they’re also really important for us as parents.
If we want to show our children the importance of them, we need to model them ourselves and one place they can really come in handy is sleep.
We'll also answer our listener Laurie's question about putting boundaries back in place after the kids have been at the grandparents.
1 - What are boundaries and making a plan 2 - Discipline? 3 - Routine 4 - Goals and rewards 5 - Results
4/12/2023 • 44 minutes, 2 seconds
Baby Sleep Tool Kit
‘They don’t come with a manual’. If you're a parent it’s likely you’ve heard this more than once. The reason they don't is because there is no one right way. So, in place of a manual we have created a Baby Sleep Tool Kit.
We are your biggest sleep supporters, however, as they say ‘it takes a village’ so as well as us, here are some of the most useful things to help your baby to sleep better.
4/5/2023 • 42 minutes, 10 seconds
New Year, New Routine
Sleep is generally not something associated with New Year - it’s all about counting down the minutes to staying up late.
But once the holiday hangover, be that from too much mulled wine, mother in laws or mince pies, subsides everyone is all about making a fresh start.
A change in routine isn’t a resolution, though, a good routine grounds you, giving you stability to deal with the mountain of other shit we have to do on the daily as parents.
In this podcast, we’ll help you to make a plan to get there.
1 - Here and Now 2 - Where to start 3 - Getting Back on Track 4 - Reaching Milestones 5 - I’ve not slept in three years, surely a routine can’t change that?
12/29/2022 • 27 minutes, 51 seconds
How to Settle Your Baby
Settling is the word we use to talk about how to help your baby to sleep; all the time… but especially when it seems like they really don’t want to!
This episode will arm you with a tool belt of settling techniques you need to help your baby get to sleep, firstly with you and then ultimately by themselves.
Well also give you some coping techniques to get you through the toughest of nights as well as answer our listener Hannah's question about settling her baby without feeding her.
1 – What is settling? 2 – What is cry it out? 3 – Settling techniques 4 – Settling techniques by age 5 – How to survive a settle
12/15/2022 • 28 minutes, 59 seconds
The Sleep Mums’ Golden Rule
The most important piece of baby sleep help you’ll ever hear?
This week’s episode is all about The Sleep Mums Golden Rule. We know some of you don’t like rules when it comes to parenting but this one will give you more freedom, not less.
We’ll answer our listener Kerry’s request for help on moving her 4.5 month old baby from her Moses basket to a cot.
This whole episode is a gold mine of baby sleep chat!
1 – Sarah’s Favourite Word 2 – The Sleep Mums Golden Rule 3 – Coping with Changes 4 – Staying on track 5 – The Golden *Golden* Rule
This is an updated episode in 2022
11/24/2022 • 25 minutes, 21 seconds
Split Nights
Split Nights are when your baby or toddler suddenly starts waking for an extended period of time during the night. It can feel like they have forgotten how to sleep, and no amount of persuading will get them back there.
Split Nights can be one of the most challenging things to deal with in terms of baby and toddler sleep, particularly for the adult who doesn’t get to nap during the day.
But what are they? Why do they happen and what is the best way to deal with them? Plus, we’ll answer one of your questions about how to approach a Split Night with a ready-to-party 10 month old.
1 - What are Split Nights 2 - Why do they happen? 3 - Are they bad? 4 - Are they a new 'Thing'? 5 - How can you prevent them?
9/29/2022 • 28 minutes, 33 seconds
Co-Sleeping
There are a lot of opinions about Co-Sleeping from those who swore they’d never do it to those that question those who don’t.
We're judgement-free here on The Sleep Mums so we wanted to chat through the reasons to do it and those not to, how to do it safely and what to do if you’re ready to switch it up.
We'll also answer our Listener's Question about how to continue co-sleeping safely with her 6 year old once a new baby arrives.
1 - What is Co-Sleeping? 2 - To Co-Sleep or Not to Co Sleep 3 - Safety 4 - Is it All or Nothing? 5 - How and When to Stop
9/15/2022 • 45 minutes, 22 seconds
Season 5: Trailer
⚡️🎙We’re BACK!🎙⚡️
The Sleep Mums podcast returns THIS Thursday!
It’s a jam-packed, SLEEP-full season with of all your favourites! From Co-Sleeping to Nipple Confusion, we’ll leave no pillow unturned!
Listen on wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.
9/14/2022 • 41 seconds
How to Drop a Nap
When people talk about babies and toddlers dropping a nap it sounds as though you simply chuck it on the floor and shove it under the bed with the long forgotten toys. It rarely feels that simple though. Do they need a nap? Don’t they? Is it making overnight sleep worse? Or Better? What if I take the nap away and it changes everything? What if I take the nap away and it changes nothing!
In this brand new episode we’re here to answer all these questions and help you drop a nap without losing sleep over it.
Plus we’ll answer our listener Emma’s question about whether dropping a nap will impact overnight sleep.
1 – When do babies drop a nap 2 – What are the signs? 3 – Nap drops by age 4 – Power naps 5 – Trouble-shooting naps.
11/10/2021 • 37 minutes, 59 seconds
A to Zzz: E for Emotions
Parenting is a massively emotional experience, you can go from feeling endless love to boundless frustration in an instant. It's daunting and exhausting because the feelings can be so powerful. There are no right or wrong emotions though: there's just a lot of them!
In this episode we talk to psychotherapist Sarah Wheatly from Birth and Beyond who launched Parent Kind after experiencing PND after the birth of her son. We chat through the rainbow of feelings you can have as a parent, how to cope, when to seek help and how it can impact partners.
11/3/2021 • 47 minutes, 38 seconds
A to Zzz: Series 2 [trailer]
⚡️NEW SERIES ⚡️STARTS TOMORROW ⚡️
Tune in tomorrow 25th August wherever you get your pods and SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an episode.
In our first episode of the new series we talk M for Motherhood with Anna Mathur: what it’s like to survive on 45 minutes sleep and why it’s ok to not be good enough.
8/24/2021 • 1 minute
A to Zzz: E for Expectant Dad
There are lots of books, references and social media accounts for mums but not nearly so many for Dads and, even then, they can be a bit mum-sided. It often leaves Dads feeling like they shouldn’t be the one to ask the questions, either because it’s not their’ job’ or because, like lots of parenthood stuff, they feel like they should know it all naturally. But we're not born parents, we learn how to be them.
So, this week, expectant Dad, Ed turned the table on us and asked us five questions; from sleep to mental health. We talk ab
1 - When will my baby sleep through? 2 - How does sleeping environment affect babies? 3 - How to cope in terms of mental health? 4 - Is routine a British thing? 5 - What bad habits should I be aware of slipping in to?
3/17/2021 • 38 minutes, 2 seconds
The Sleep Mums: A to Zzz
Everything you ever wanted to know about parenthood, from allergies to getting more Zzz, via deja poos, niplash and Velcro babies. Funny, irreverent and always useful. Cat and Sarah from The Sleep Mums podcast and a range of experts and people talk everything and anything that will help you get through the long nights and short years.
Each episode will focus on five tips from a different professional, sharing their own experience and expertise.
2/17/2021 • 1 minute, 24 seconds
The Sleep Mums Trailer
This is a baby sleep podcast for parents; (mostly) functioning humans who want sensible, non judgmental, funny and easy to follow advice.
Hosted by BBC broadcaster Cat Cubie and child and baby sleep expert Sarah Carpenter.
Each episode shares five simple tips that will help your baby sleep as well as a listener's question, that puts Cat and Sarah's advice to practise in the real world.
7/16/2020 • 2 minutes, 7 seconds
Meet Cat and Sarah
Find out who The Sleep Mums are, how comfortable they are in spandex and, more importantly, how the best baby sleep podcast on the internet came to be.