Bedtime

She has two short 40 to 45-minute naps at roughly 9.15 a.m. and 2.15 p.m. She self-settles for most of them and is happy and content through the day with three solid meals.

Bedtime's around 7 p.m. after dinner, a bath and a breastfeed with two to three breastfeeds overnight.

She wakes around 5.15 to 6 a.m. with the first feed held until 6.15 a.m.

The tricky bit is a wake around 10 to 10.30pm where she's very distressed and hard to resettle until about midnight when they finally offer a feed.

So let's get into it.

[upbeat music] Welcome to After Bedtime, where the house is finally quiet, but the real noise begins.

The thoughts, the questions, the wondering if you're doing any of this right.

We're Kristen.

And now she serves as scientific advisor to Maketime Wellness, helping translate the science into something women can actually use in their real lives every day.

And that combination, Emma's deeply personal experience and advocacy, alongside Dr. Nicole's decades of clinical and scientific expertise, is what makes this conversation so powerful.

Emma, Nicole, welcome to After Bedtime.

I am beyond excited to have you and cannot wait to learn with you today.

Dummy's gone.

Bedtime's now taking longer.

When did things really start to go downhill?

Within about a year.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

Welcome back to After Bedtime, and today we're playing a spicy little game called Would You Let Your Kid? Would you let your kid forget their homework and deal with the consequences? Would you let them eat candy for breakfast? Would you let them quit a sport halfway through the season? And let me just tell you, Kristen and I do not agree on all of these.

And that's exactly why I feel like today's episode is exactly the conversation every single one of us parents needs to engage in in here.

Because we are getting into why the

I promise.

Let's dive in.

Welcome to After Bedtime, where the house is finally quiet, but the real noise begins.

The thoughts, the questions, the wondering if you're doing any of this right.

But, like, rule over desires, like, I, I...

Bedtime, bro, when it...

I, if I say I'm going to bed at 10:00, I'm going to bed at 10:00.

That's why I joke at the end of all these podcasts, I'm like, "It's 10:15.

All of the pushback that they were getting throughout the day was actually no different than the pushback they were getting at night.

But Bedtime and overnight sleep are high stakes.

Parents can handle their child giving them a hard time about brushing teeth or putting their shoes on when it's time to get out the door and go to daycare.

But when it comes to bedtime, this is really where parents break.

And last week, I talked about your morning routine and how to get those drop offs to be calmer.

So today I want to close that loop and talk about the other frustrating time in the day, which is bedtime.

So bedtime is one of those routines that feels like it should be simple, right? Pajamas, brush teeth, read a book, quick snuggles, lights out.

But then it always seems like by 840, you're like, okay, time for bed.

And you've said it four times and someone's crying about a stuffed animal and you're standing in the hallway and you're like, how did this become the hardest part of my day? And I had a client recently talk about it and she calls it the gauntlet, which I loved.

The way I used to think about it is like I'm diving under for bedtime.

So there is a reality that bedtime is challenging.

And I don't want to discount that or give you false hope.

I love to help parents find solutions.

This is How Long Till Bedtime.

Hey there, Allison here.

Welcome back to How Long Till Bedtime.

In the last two days alone, I had four new clients come to me with a child who will only let mom do bedtime.

Four in two days.