My Story To Sleep Support
My story
It all started in a small village settled in the beautiful Somerset countryside. As a child my family gave me the space & opportunities to explore my own interests. I was able to spend hours bug hunting, playing in the stream & exploring all the environment had around me. As I grew up this passion for learning about the world didn’t seem to fade. It was then that I decided I wanted to share this enthusiasm for nature with other families as a career. I was 14 years old when I first heard about Norland Nanny College. As soon as I knew what it was I knew this was my opportunity to combine my love for developing excitement about the world with working with children. Whilst the huge number of placement hours & intense learning was hard at Norland I loved every minute of it. I graduated in 2019 with a first class honours degree & a distinction in my Norland Diploma. Since then I have been working with families, fulfilling my dream of helping and supporting children grow. It was during my time as a Nanny that I became aware of how many families feel lost when it comes to their baby’s sleep. Having the opportunity to work with multiple families & hear the different sleep techniques they used outlined to me the miscommunication amongst parents & lack of knowledge of the gentle approach to sleep.
From these hands on experiences with multiple families I’ve been able to form my own personal view of the best approaches to sleep. My personal ethos is that in order to make positive impacts to sleep whilst still nurturing your child you need to use a combination of ideas. All the methods I recommend to clients provide love & support to the entire family whilst also ensuring clear directions & boundaries. This ensures that you see improvement in sleep whilst also nurturing family relationships.
How I became a sleep consultant
Through my experience in the early year sector I knew that my ethos when it came to guiding families would need to involve a gentle approach & the flexibility to make changes to suit individual situations.
During my research I came across the wonderful Lyndsey Hookway. Lyndsey is not only a leader in the field of sleep she is also a qualified breast feeding coach & midwife. She combined her knowledge across all of these fields to create a course for sleep practitioners that is based on scientific research but also considers the complexities of family life.
I started the Sleep Coaching course in October 2021 & qualified 6 months later. The course involved weekly lessons, check ins, exams & drop in calls. It also involved lots of hands on experience with clients to ensure that by the time I actually started working with the lovely families that I do today that I really was prepared & knowledgeable. The past few years have been crazy but absolutely amazing. I now work on Diddi Dreamers full time, sharing my passion for sleep with families & meeting many wonderful people along the way.
The Gentle Approach
Diddi Dreamers has a gentle approach to sleep. This means that at every opportunity I provide ease & support to you and your little one. As your sleep coach I will work with you to create a plan that works around your whole family. To get the best results consistency really is key so by creating a realistic & achievable sleep plan for your lifestyle the likelihood of long term sleep improvement greatly increases.
I will never recommend a ‘cry it out’ method where you leave your baby distressed and without assistance but instead use solutions where gradual adjustments and habit stacking can create change. This does mean that results may not be as instant as other sleep coaches offer but it ensures the parent child relationship is not at risk of damage. Despite our gentle approach I cannot guarantee no crying from your child. Crying is a normal body reaction for children and is more likely to occur with change. However, I do promise that in the event your child does cry our plans always allow for you to comfort them.
I completed my Sleep training qualifications with Lyndsey Hookway, a world renowned specialist in the field who has been at the forefront of ‘the gentle sleep movement’ since she created it 20 years ago. Her books Holistic Sleep Coaching, Let’s talk about your new family’s sleep & Breastfeeding the brave are all fantastic resources for those looking for an introduction to her approach.