Episode 60- "Set Yourself Apart with 6 New Sleep Methods & Our In-Depth Sleep Consultant Certification"

In this episode of the Sweet Slumber Podcast, host Meredith Brough discusses the benefits of her sleep consultant certification program. She highlights the program's unique, gentle methods that foster independence in young children without the need for crying. Meredith also covers the importance of understanding different temperaments, spotting potential health issues, and building parental confidence.

Her program is designed to support both consultants and parents in achieving peaceful sleep for children.

Topics

• Our unique and up-to-date Baby-Centered Sleep methods for fostering independent sleep in children
• Resonsive and intuitive approach to building healthy sleep habits
• Focus on creating a calm and pleasant experience for children
• Working with different temperaments 
• Identifying red flags for health challenges and sleep disorders
• Instilling confidence in parents to handle sleep issues
• Equipping sleep consultants with knowledge and skills to support exhausted parents
• Helping children thrive through supportive and nurturing sleep coaching approach

If you'd like to learn about the Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Program or Mastermind set up a call with Meredith HERE.

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Keywords
sleep consultant certification program, independent sleep for children, gentle sleep methods, nurturing sleep approach, confidence in parenting, children's fundamental needs, sleep progressions, sleep coaching, exhausted parents, nurturing approach, work-from-home job, job for moms, make a good living, flexible joy, stay-home moms, career moms, birth professionals, doula, lactation counselor, teachers, maternal health, in-home daycare owners, rewarding job, fulfilling work

The Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Certification Program Launches on November 11th, 2024!

Check out the links below & add your name to our waiting list so you can join our next session.

Learn More About the Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Certification Program HERE.

Learn about our Baby-Centered Sleep approach, methods and principles, hear from a few of our graduates, and get to know Meredith HERE.

Transcript

Meredith (00:51)
Hello everyone. Today I want to talk to you again about my sleep consultant certification program because it starts in less than a week and I'm really excited about it. And I just think, you know what? People need to know what's so incredible about this program and why they need to take it. So today's topic is why would you want to take another sleep consultant course that's teaching you the same old things when you can take a much better,

more up -to -date program that gives you advantages and I'll go into those advantages. I'll share with you what's different about my program, why I say that there's advantages and why you'll be so, so happy taking my course, what it has to offer, what the experience would be like for you. And this all comes from past experience and what my...

Sleep Consultant students have taught me, sorry, shared with me about their experiences working with me. It has to do with the advantages that I've had in my business being set apart from others and how that gives me a niche. And yeah, lots of really good stuff. Okay, so let's start out.

There's 10 advantages for you in taking my program that will help you be successful, give you an updated, scientific, science -backed, science -supported.

experience based on what we know now and what parents are looking for now and what other courses don't offer. So anyways, super, super excited to get into this. So let's dive in. So the very first one, and this is something that people tell me all the time. I don't brag about enough. I have six unique sleep methods and I don't call them sleep training methods. I call them independent sleep methods.

but even more specifically, they foster independent sleep. So I'm not forcing it. I'm not imposing it. I'm helping it happen fairly naturally, but not letting baby lead necessarily. It's more about moms and dads, parents leading their children towards independence or I would say shifting, because it's not really pulling and it's very supportive and loving, responsive.

nurturing intuitive. One of my past students graduates calls my methodology intuitive sleep methods. And I love that- intuitive sleep approach. I love it because I just really didn't recognize that before that it's all about being connected with the child and reading them and their signs and knowing when to stop and knowing when to go and being creative in how you work with the child and.

You know, even the parents should be coming up with ideas that work for them and we should be learning from them. That's how I came up with these methods. I have a few sleep methods on top of those six that are revised traditional methods and they are still intuitive and they're still loving and gentle. And they're actually just tools that I may insert into.

other methods that I use. I know that's confusing, but like the chair method, I've revised it and I might tack that on to a process that you go through in helping your little one become independent. My focus is never independence first. It's let's get that little one falling asleep in their bed. Cause that could be such a monumental step and independence can come later. We can baby step the whole process and sometimes baby stepping only takes a week or two weeks. So why not just go this nurturing responsive loving.

approach instead of the forceful one. Okay, so seriously, that's a huge advantage having all of these methods that nobody else is using. It's exciting and parents love them. Another advantage for you, you will learn how to support parents who aren't comfortable with crying at all. About 90 % of the time (or even higher,) my methods can be completely calm and happy, pleasant experiences.

I just leave that little wiggle room there because there's not anything bad about crying. And once little ones are like toddler age and they don't like change at all, but say you want to set a boundary around when you feed your baby, maybe you're touched out at night and you want to set this boundary. There's nothing wrong with supporting and being there for a child while you make changes, like not breastfeeding to sleep. you know, not being attached to the boob all night.

It can be hard for little ones, but I always, always believe in these baby step changes that are not stressful. And I don't think it's good to change things overnight. In most cases, we don't. So this is just a really great fit for parents who don't want the crying involved, you know, for whatever reason, maybe it's because their child's very intense and they get worked up. Maybe they get triggered. It's just an amazing fit for the responsive, gentle parenting and parents who have issues with the crying. So.

I love that. It's awesome. So you'll be able to support parents who want to stay connected and be intuitive. A lot of people told me during my career that they would not use sleep training because it felt wrong because they couldn't disconnect. They didn't want to shut off their intuition. It didn't feel right. So kudos to those parents who were like, you know what? I'm either just going to struggle for years or I'm going to bedshare.

because it's working for us and I refuse to sacrifice my parenting values or what I feel really strongly about. And so one of my favorite things to do is say, hey guys, you don't have to just wait. There's this middle ground approach that you're going to love and my approach.

is really, really great fit for responsive parents- I support bed sharing and co -sleeping families. That's another thing. I know that the holistic side of things, they have options for this, but some of those families don't want to continue bed sharing or they're not really sleeping. It's a miserable situation or maybe mom and dad are having issues and they want to be back alone, back to being just themselves again. So.

I am a huge advocate for safe bed sharing and I actually have most of my clients room share until babies are one because that's the safe SIDS recommendation, right? And the reason I'm an advocate for safe bed sharing is that, and I say, I mean like as safe as possible, but the SIDS recommendations don't guarantee perfect safety either. It's as safe as possible.

So for families who either feel very strongly about bed sharing or they're just stuck in that situation because baby wouldn't sleep any other way. Or, you know, I've worked with families all over the world who feel very strongly this is a safe situation. And then there's also those parents who do this for survival or they would never get sleep and they'd only do it temporarily. Those are situations where I am a supporter and I'm not ashamed to say that.

I think parents should do what they feel strongly about, but they should always do it in the safest way possible. So I support a lot of families who keep a baby or a toddler in the same room. And then this can be one of the most challenging changes to make though, when you want to ease your way out of bed sharing. A lot of my students really specialize in this even more than me, and they're really, really good at it. So.

it's something that you can get experience with and work on and learn and learn and learn. In my mastermind, we have a mentor who specializes in this, and she's given us some pretty good guidance on it. And again, I'm just learning from my students and their intuition, their gifts, and their wisdom, and their experience helps me grow in this area too. All right, so anyways, that's one of the things you get though when you're...

meeting with us weekly or learning from other people and you can share your wisdom and your experience and things that you're learning.

All right, you can feel great about the things you teach and you can feel so good about these solutions and techniques that you will use them on your own kids. That happens a lot with my students. A lot of my students have come in and they really wanted to learn these things to help people, but they also have their own children with struggles and they found ways to help their little ones improve sleep. And that just says a lot because

if they'll come into my program and be very, very attached parents and very loving, nurturing parents, and they feel good about what I teach and then they feel good about how their little ones are thriving and they feel good about the process and how things are working for their own kids. It's going to be so much easier to go out there and be confident in what you share with others and even excited and lit up.

about what you're sharing with others. And that is a very typical reaction that my students have. One of my mastermind clients took a program that she didn't feel good about. She didn't realize how much it would be traditional and against her parenting style. But once we connected and she started learning about what I teach, she started realizing that this sleep consulting journey can be really, really.

positive and happy and joyful for her if she learns my methods. And so what we've discussed is that what she learned in the past from the other program will be really useful and helpful

 for her easygoing kiddos and babies who learn in a nice, smooth, simple process, you know, not complex. And then when she runs into more challenging cases, that my approach will be really, really good. And some of my students who've taken multiple trainings or certification programs have meshed things together. They've taken tools from all the programs, from what I've taught them, and they've meshed something.

really creative together. I love that. So taking my program will also help you learn how to work with different temperaments, aka kids that are really challenging when it comes to improving their sleep and fostering independence. And, you know, like I just said about this other program, a lot of the programs out there in the old ways are geared towards easygoing textbook little ones and

You're missing a huge number of clients-lots and lots of babies if you're only focused on these easygoing textbook little ones. And I wish I knew statistics. I don't. I don't know how many babies out there are angelic or textbook. I have heard that about 30 % of babies are sensitive. And that's one of my specialties. And the spirited ones.

I think it's safe to say that that's only going to be like 10 or 15 % of little ones, but some of their traits are pretty common. And that would be, you know, an intense cry or, hard to calm down, need to be held to calm down very, very active. And you have to almost coerce them to go to sleep. And most of the advice that's out there just doesn't work at all. So yeah, I equip you to work with all the temperaments, all of the different needs that are out there.

And I am constantly learning and growing. And as I learn and grow and adopt new tools or create new tools, I'll be sharing them with you. You have lifetime access to this program. All right. You'll also be learning from me how to spot red flags for health challenges and sleep disorders. So you and your clients don't get stuck. I had a lady come to me in February, March who said, "you know what? I've been doing this for a while. And what I want is to know.

when my clients need something different. I want to know that early. I don't want to be guessing and trying different things for weeks. I want to go into these situations and know what tools that I need. If I need to send them to the doctor for a health reason or to somebody that can help with the sleep disorder signs. I want to do that early. I don't want to wait. I don't want to look bad. I don't want to be confusing. I don't want to overwhelm my clients with lots of different ideas and

things to try and I don't want to have to go around and ask everybody for advice when I get stuck. And honestly, all of those concerns and needs that she has, that's what I offer guys. You come into my program and I teach you how to assess the situation, how to look for all those red flags, how to know what's going on, how to know what baby needs, how to know so many things in the beginning. Sometimes we find out things as we go along.

And that's okay. We are not meant to solve every single problem in the world. And that's a hard, hard thing for you. If you go into this work thinking that you have to bear everyone else's burdens and you have to be perfect and you have to solve everyone's problems. It's not that I want you to feel that way or to deal with that. It's that I'm going to set you up and equip you with so much knowledge and insight and give you so many tools that you're going to be.

extremely successful and you're going to be able to help families as much as you possibly can and you're going to be teaching them about normal sleep expectations and you're going to be teaching them about their little one's nature, their temperament and helping the parents understand that we can't control everything and in some cases their little one needs more time. I've just had one of my students express to me recently.

She's a graduate- I don't know what to call her-  but she's very successful in her work, but she just expressed to me recently that now that she's finally adopted the idea that she doesn't have to carry this load, she doesn't have to be the savior to everyone, she doesn't have to solve every single case, she doesn't have to feel responsible for everyone's success. She says, I feel so much better, more relaxed and at ease and.

I know that I'm just offering people the very best tools that are out there and I know that they work and it's on the parent to do the work and it's on the parent to understand if it's bad timing for the child and be patient and.

I guess it's just, you know, kind of like I have a superpower, but it's not a hundred percent perfect and I can't do it all. The parents have to do it, you know? So anyways, this is just one of those pearls of wisdom that helped my sleep consultant students understand. We definitely talk about this a lot and

we talk about the nature of babies when it comes to being a signaler or self -soother. Guys, I'm so confident that being in my program is going to set you up to be so confident and so happy and pleased with your experience and the things that you learn and the tools that you gain. I just could go on and on forever. But it's just so exciting to be able to foster independence for little ones who are.

not independent, who are very, very attached to their moms. So that's the next advantage. The most sleep deprived moms need your help. And so I don't want you to go out there and take a course that doesn't really equip you with the knowledge and the skills that you need to help them.

I mean, they're going to be the most grateful. They're going to be the most anxious to hire you. They're the people you want to work with. And that gives you an advantage. Instead of being scared or intimidated or overwhelmed by some of these difficult situations, you're going to be like, yeah, this is what I do. Sure. I can help you. It's pretty exciting stuff. All right. Another advantage for you. You are going to be able to fill your clients with confidence, confidence and handling sleep.

and understanding their little ones and normal sleep expectations, helping parents feel very clear on what their little ones need from them, knowing how to navigate tough sleep regressions, feeling great about everything they're doing. And I don't know if you're a parent or if you can think back to what it's like, but especially in that first year, parents/moms can be so, so hard on themselves and think they're not measuring up, that they can't.

do anything right or everything's their fault and they're to blame. And my clients that have these tough temperament kiddos, they, this is a story that they tell themselves a lot. They deal with these burdens and hardships and mental barriers and burdens the most out of all the people I worked with. It's just really hard when you have a child that isn't sleeping well. It's hard when you have a child that's not

easy to work with and is a signaler. Because a lot of the people around these parents are raising a little natural self -soother. These are the two different sleep temperaments that scientists have researched. And I mean, if all your friends or all your family have these natural self -soothers and then you have a signaler who takes longer to sleep well, who's very, very dependent and not at all interested in independence,

I wish it wasn't so- that they blame themselves or they thought that they did something wrong or that it was their fault. But it's my favorite thing to help parents feel good about all the good things they've been doing, about how they've been following their intuition, about how they had to work so much harder for their answers. And so if they've made progress with sleep, maybe they're figuring out their child's different sleep signs that nobody talks about or the wake windows are different than what everybody else is using.

How exciting, you know? And if they're using sleep crutches or associations that people are shaming them for, but they're doing it because it's what's worked. Again, I just really love to help parents feel good about that.

All right,

I can help you become a heart -centered mentoring coach who changes lives and lifts parents above and beyond where they started out when you met.

 I can teach you all the things to work on. I can teach you the things that parents need, the things that have worked really well for me, I can share those experiences with you that I've had with parents that have been so meaningful and just help you, you know, as you go through the process of becoming a sleep consultant, a mentor and a coach.

help you through the difficulties that you might face, the struggles that you might have, and help you grow in this area. And that's really gonna make a difference in your work because it will feel more rewarding and fulfilling. And you'll get more of these thank yous from your clients and they'll talk to their friends and their family about you more. So it's just another thing that a lot of programs don't focus on, just how important it is to be.

an incredible mentor, an incredible coach, an incredible guide who thinks of everything, who can really equip parents to the best of their ability, not expect too much, not put pressure on them that makes them feel bad. There's just so much to know in this area. And I really love the idea of being able to pass that on to others, because I've been doing this for a really long time. All right. That was a good list, and I didn't want this to be a long episode.

So I'm going to leave those thoughts with you. And I just want you to think about how wonderful this opportunity could be for you. And remember that this is a program for moms staying home, moms who are working outside the home and want to come home. For sleep consultants who are already certified, for health and birth professionals who just want to add tools to their toolkit and do more for their clients. This is an incredible program and I hope that you'll sign up.

You have until June 8th to sign up and join us. It's a self -paced program that could take 16 weeks if you're able to devote a few hours a week to it. And there's 20 weeks of mentoring. So towards the end, you're able to come to meetings with your questions, helping clients, asking for help from me, from others, and going out into your

future work as a sleep consultant, feeling more equipped and confident. And it's just a really beautiful, wonderful program. So I'm really excited to share it with you and give you all of these advantages that will really set you apart as a sleep consultant or coach and help you be able to solve all those tough cases and support babies and moms in the best way and feel really great about it. So go to sweetslumbertime.com, click on certification to learn more and sign up. And you can connect with me on Instagram at @sweetslumbertime or @babycenteredsleep to ask questions. You can even set up a call to meet me and talk about the program. All right, guys, thanks for being here. Until next time, I'll see you soon.