14 | Dr Brewer | Is Sleep Training Safe? The Science Behind Infant Sleep & Baby Sleep Tips

Sarah had no idea that stopping breastfeeding could leave her feeling so low, and nobody had warned her. She only found out when she Googled it. Sarah is a mum of two under two, and for months bedtime with her toddler, Charlie, could take up to three hours, sometimes ending in screaming tantrums while she had a newborn in her arms. She’d tried two sleep consultants, car rides and the TV, and people kept telling her the gentle approach she wanted wasn’t possible. In this episode, Sarah talks about the post-weaning low that hit when she stopped breastfeeding, which she compares to her postnatal depression, and why she thinks more mums should be told it can happen. She also shares how role-playing with toy trucks during the day helped prepare Charlie for his own room, how bedtime went from hours to around an hour and a half on the very first night with his dad in the room, and how it now ends with “Mummy working” and straight to sleep. This episode explores: Post-weaning depression and the hormone drop after stopping breastfeeding Mood changes after weaning with a history of postnatal depression Two under two: looking after a toddler and a newborn Gentle sleep training for toddlers Toddler bedtime battles and bedtimes that take hours Using role play to prepare a toddler for sleep changes Moving a toddler into their own room Breastfeeding to sleep and parental preference at bedtime Bed sharing and co-sleeping with a toddler and a newborn Partner-led bedtime and settling Mum guilt, and stepping away for five minutes when you’re overwhelmed

Lory had a Taylor Swift playlist for labour. A birth version, and a separate one for a C-section, just in case. What she didn't plan for was her blood pressure spiking to 190, an emergency caesarean, and 24 hours in and out of consciousness while her newborn son went to NICU without her. Lory is a mum of one, and she thought the hardest part would end there. It didn't. Months later, she was diagnosed with postnatal depression, after telling herself for weeks that she was "so good at masking" how she felt that even she didn't notice how bad it had gotten. Then, just as she started to recover, she learned her husband John had been diagnosed too, after a moment that broke her heart: their baby smiled at him, and he couldn't smile back. In this episode, Lory shares what preeclampsia actually looked like from the inside, how a couple can end up fighting over who's "doing it harder" when they're both drowning, and how couples therapy became the thing that held their family together when neither of them could. This episode explores: Preeclampsia and emergency caesarean birth Postnatal depression and antidepressant medication Paternal postnatal depression Adult ADHD diagnosis Masking mental health struggles, even from yourself Resentment and disconnect in a relationship after baby Couples therapy and relationship repair Returning to work after maternity leave IVF and fertility treatment If you've ever felt like you had to hold everything together while the person next to you was falling apart too, or you've masked how you're really doing so well that even you stopped noticing, this conversation is for you. Follow us at Awake at 3am and Sophia's Sleep School for more real stories of motherhood, sleep and survival.

Some nights, Sabrina was waking every thirty minutes to an hour. She'd assumed she'd hit the jackpot, a newborn sleeping eight hours a night, barely one wake. Then four months hit, and it never really stopped. By seven months, some nights she was waking six to ten times. She told herself it was teething. It wasn't. Before any of that, Sabrina spent ten years chasing a diagnosis for pain doctors kept dismissing. Stage four endometriosis, found only after a routine 45-minute surgery turned into eight hours on the table. In this episode, Sabrina shares what it actually took to fall pregnant after that diagnosis, the night she sent a photo of herself to two friends because she couldn't say out loud that she was struggling, and the unusual setup she and her partner used to finally get her daughter sleeping through, one that involved a spare apartment two floors down. This episode explores: Stage 4 endometriosis and delayed diagnosis Trying to conceive after endometriosis surgery Newborn and infant sleep regressions Frequent night waking and feeding to sleep Postpartum mental load and isolation Recognising when you need to ask for help Sleep training when breastfeeding is the only thing that works Partner-led settling and parenting through sleep training If you've ever been too exhausted to say the words "I'm not okay," or you're stuck wondering whether your baby's sleep is ever going to change, this conversation is for you. Follow Sabrina here and follow us at Awake at 3am and Sophia's Sleep School for more real stories of motherhood, sleep and survival.

For three months, Jess convinced herself the night terrors would just pass. Every night, roughly two hours after bedtime, her daughter Floss would start screaming, kicking, thrashing, eyes wide open, completely unreachable. Sometimes it happened every thirty minutes until 1am. In the morning, she had no memory of any of it. Jess's own GP had never heard of a link between night terrors and tonsils. In this episode, Jess shares what actually led her to push past "wait and see," the nasal spray that worked for a month and then stopped, the moment an ENT said her tonsils were graded a three out of four, and the brutal, unexpected recovery that had her convinced, days after the surgery, that they'd made a huge mistake. Because it doesn't get better in three days. For Jess and Floss, it took closer to a month, and then everything changed. This episode explores: Night terrors in toddlers Toddler sleep and frequent night waking Teeth grinding and night sweats in children Restless, disrupted sleep and its causes ENT referrals and long wait times Surgery recovery in young children When to push past "it's probably nothing" Mood, appetite and behaviour changes tied to poor sleep

This episode discusses infant loss, extremely premature birth, and a newborn's life-threatening illness. Please take care while listening. Hannah carried her daughter out of the hospital in her arms. Olive had died two days earlier, at 22 weeks, after Hannah's waters broke and her medical team told her there was nothing more they could do. Hannah is a midwife and mother of three girls. After a normal first pregnancy, her second ended when her cervix failed at 22 weeks, too early for her daughter Olive to survive. Hannah and her husband made the devastating decision to let her go peacefully rather than pursue interventions with almost no chance of a good outcome, and spent 24 hours with her before saying goodbye. Two years later, her third daughter Nora was born at 28 weeks after months of preterm labour and a second cervical stitch. Nora survived, but contracted meningitis three separate times in her first months of life, spending weeks in NICU and undergoing multiple surgeries before finally coming home well. In this episode, Hannah shares what it actually looked like to carry a pregnancy knowing her baby wouldn't survive, why she started making ceramic urns by hand for other bereaved families, and how she found her way back to feeling like herself after loss most people can't imagine surviving. This episode explores: Infant loss and pregnancy loss at 22 weeks Cervical insufficiency and cervical stitch Extremely premature birth and NICU Meningitis in newborns and premature babies Retained placenta and postpartum complications Grief, memory making and honouring a baby who died Explaining loss to an older sibling Rebuilding a family after infant loss If you've experienced the loss of a baby, are navigating a high risk or extremely premature pregnancy, or simply want to understand what this kind of grief actually looks like, this conversation will stay with you. Support is available. 🇦🇺 Red Nose Grief and Loss Support: 1300 308 307 SANDS Australia: 1300 072 637 🇺🇸 Star Legacy Foundation 🇬🇧 Sands UK: 0808 164 3332 Follow Hannah and Olive & Kin, and follow us at Awake at 3am and Sophia's Sleep School for more real stories of motherhood, sleep and survival.