One of us co-slept throughout the baby and toddler stage, and let naps happen whenever and wherever. The other sleep trained and held tight to nap schedules even through the preschool years. While our differences in the realm of sleep are worth digging into, just as interesting are the shared feelings we experienced, even at opposite ends of the spectrum. We both felt judged at times; we both made choices around our social lives because of how our babies slept (or didn’t sleep). Among our combined eight kids we experienced good sleepers, terrible sleepers, and several in the middle–plus a host of “sleep surprises” that cropped up later on. Join Meagan and Sarah for Episode 301, a look at infant, toddler, and kid sleep through the comforting lens of hindsight with a healthy dose of “It’s all gonna be OK.” Enjoy!
Sponsor Spotlight: StitchFix
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Sponsor Spotlight: Amaze.org
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Sponsor Spotlight: March of Dimes
January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month, and our sponsor March of Dimes is leading the way to ensure all moms have the support they need to get the best possible chance at a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby. Find out more at marchofdimes.org/themomhour.
Sponsor Spotlight: Gemmist
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This Is Solo Parenthood
This Is Solo Parenthood is a two-part podcast series, celebrating the joys and challenges of doing it alone. Head to themomhour.com/solo to meet the moms featured in Episode 01 of the series, hear solo parenting stories from our community, and learn more about WaterWipes, a dad-founded company leading the way in telling honest stories about what it means to be a parent today.
Links we mentioned (or should have) in this episode:
- We did a listener episode question on baby and toddler sleep, Listener Questions (Vol. 21): Episode 224 (listen around the 30 minute mark)
- Meagan liked The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, and Sarah liked Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Without Leaving Them to Cry it Out by Kim West (both links are Amazon affiliates), but we BOTH offer the huge caveat that it wasn’t about any one individual book for us; it was about finding what worked for our families
Photo by Vladislav Muslakov on Unsplash