Episode 194: Highly Sensitive Children and sleep

I'm so delighted that Belynda Smith is back on the podcast, after she interviewed me about The Emotional Life of Babies in episode 151. Belynda is an Aware Parenting instructor and a Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor. She is also the Editor of my trilogy of books. In this episode, Belynda shares about her passion for – and deep experience with – the vital importance of receiving lots of listening if we are wanting to listen to our children's feelings. Belynda shares about the details of Listening Partnerships, which is a term from Hand in Hand Parenting and which offers specific parameters to create deeper safety and healing. Belynda shares about her experience of coming to Hand in Hand Parenting when her children were in early childhood, after experiencing both frequent night waking (every 40 minutes) and, once her second child was born, her own unexpressed feelings starting to bubble up. She shares the breakthrough experiences she had when she first came across Hand in Hand Parenting, and when she had her first session with a Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor and Trainer, Ann Hefferan, which inspired her to go on and become a Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor herself. Belynda shares about the next part of her journey, and discovering Aware Parenting. She also talks about the process of having lots of LP support when editing the books. She shares about her experience of Aware Parenting and sleep and her teens, and the subtle difference between Hand in Hand Parenting and Aware Parenting with sleep. We also discuss what we experience is the vital foundation in parenting. Belynda has a new free offering on play coming up. She also has a monthly online listening circle and offers 1:1 Aware Parenting support. You can find out more about her and her work at https://belyndasmith.com.au/ and https://belynda-smith.newzenler.com/aware-parenting

I'm so delighted that Kim Cousins came back on the podcast again. Kim was on episode 136 and 176 and I so highly recommend listening to those episodes if you haven't already. Kim is an Aware Parenting instructor who used to work in a perinatal mental health unit and has an abundance of experience of working with mothers and babies and families in general. In this episode, she also shares her own experience with sleep as a mother, with experience of being taught sleep training, then moving to Classical Attachment Parenting, and then to Aware Parenting. We'd love to send so much compassion if you are feeling exhausted and desperate for sleep, and if you have used sleep training. Throughout the episode, we highlight the importance of deep compassion for parents. Please check in with your willingness to listen to this episode, and reach out for listening support if it helps you connect with painful feelings. The focus on this episode is knowing that there really is a third choice, and that parents really don't need to choose between secure attachment and sleep. Kim shares about how when her daughter (who is now 8), was a baby, she slept very little in the day, and Kim had someone visit from a sleep centre to teach some sleep training. Kim shares about how painful the experience was, and how she didn't want to do it afterwards, and thought that she was a failure and that her daughter wasn't sleeping because she was not reading tiredness signs accurately or missing sleep windows. Kim shares about all the pressure and the lack of support that led to a diagnosis of postnatal depression and anxiety. Kim dived into understanding attachment theory, and when her son was born, she practiced Classical Attachment Parenting with him. When he was 12 months old, he was waking lots at night and she decided to do my sleep course. She listened to him crying in her arms for about 45 minutes to an hour and he slept through the whole night! Kim shares moving stories about supporting mothers to listen to their babies crying in arms, and what a difference it makes to receive that kind of support. Kim also talks about the importance of support, our own inner work, and lots more fascinating parts of listening to feelings and the relationship of that with sleep. You can find out more about Kim and her work at: https://www.instagram.com/kimberley.cousins/ You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD

In this episode, I share the first chapter in my upcoming sleep book: Sound Sleep and Secure Attachment with Aware Parenting: Transform sleep for your baby, child or teen with this compassionate, trauma-informed approach to deep relaxation. There is still some more editing to go, but I don't imagine anything huge will change! I'm so loving this book, that I wanted to share this first chapter with you to give you a little taste of it. If you'd like the opportunity to hear me share more from it, or to be a beta reader, doors to my sleep book collective and workshop are open! Here are more details: If you'd like to really deeply understand sleep from an Aware Parenting perspective, and also ask unlimited questions in a FB group about your own family's sleep situation, plus hear excerpts from my upcoming book on sleep and Aware Parenting, become a beta reader (if you want), and join a 6 hour workshop in two parts (recording available afterwards), I have limited places for my sleep book collective and workshop. You can find out more here: https://marionrose.samcart.com/products/sound-sleep-and-secure-attachment-with-aware-parenting-book-collective-and-workshop/ Big love xoxo

In this episode, I talk about the differences Highly Sensitive Children can experience with sleep. You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/theawareparentingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD

In this episode, I talk about the power of laughter to help us release fear from our bodies as parents. In it, I include a two minute segment of me laughing, in case that helps you laugh too! You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/theawareparentingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD

In this episode, I share about how it's possible to heal a rupture with our child, even if that happened many years ago. You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/theawareparentingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD

We recorded this episode a few weeks ago. I'm so delighted to share this episode with Laura Pires Brammer. Laura is an Aware Parenting instructor in Germany, and she shares about her experience with Aware Parenting and sleep. She talks about the powerful connection she had with Aletha Solter's book 'The Aware Baby', and now she started to listen to her baby's healing-feelings after only reading a couple of pages. Laura explains so beautifully how she saw the differences in her daughter once she started practicing Aware Parenting – being more present during the day, more relaxed while sleeping, and sleeping for longer periods, as well as the beautiful connection and eye contact between the two of them. Laura then shares about the process of increasing her understanding of Aware Parenting and embodying the practices more and more. Laura talks about the deep inner work that Aware Parenting invited her to do, as is common for most of us practicing this way of parenting. She shares about the contrast between feeling the power of having this information, and the powerlessness of at times not knowing how to put it into practice. We then talk about now common it is that, once we start practicing Aware Parenting, our own unexpressed feelings from our own childhood come bubbling up to be heard. Laura talks about how a lot of her feelings bubbled up in the night time, and how, as a result, she saw improvements in her own sleep. We talk about the difference in ourselves between the sleep after crying or laughing, and the sleep after distracting and dissociating. Laura sharrd how different her experience was with sleep and listening to feelings with her second born daughter. I so highly recommend Laura's beautiful work. She works in English, German, and Dutch. You can find her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/laura.rpb and Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/laurapiresbrammer/ She has an offer called Magical Nights, for mothers with babies, who want to apply Aware Parenting to their sleep journey. She also has offerings for parents with Corinne Sprecher, another Aware Parenting instructor, about practicing and embodying Aware Parenting.

In another episode in the second sleep series, I share about my own experiences with sleep as a mother. I talk about the way I changed thinking about sleep before becoming a mother. I share about how I helped my daughter sleep for longer chunks when she was about 9 months old. I tell the story of the two challenges I had with sleep - one when my daughter was a toddler, and one when my son was in his early teens, and why those were related to some nuances of Aware Parenting that I hadn't yet understood. I share about how Aware Parenting helped me respond to my own feelings differently when I woke up in the middle of the night. I still have mentoring places for the second half of 2024, for people who deeply resonate with Aware Parenting, and with The Marion Method for their reparenting. Message me on IG https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ or FB https://www.facebook.com/marion.badenoch for more details and to see if we're a beautiful match. If you'd like my free PDF to learn more about sleep, secure attachment, emotional release and Aware Parenting, you can sign up for it here: https://marion-rose.myflodesk.com/ssgsvngo66 My Sound Sleep and Secure Attachment with Aware Parenting Course is available all year round as a self-study course. Here's the link: https://marionrose.samcart.com/products/sound-sleep-and-secure-attachment-with-aware-parenting-course/ You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/theawareparentingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD

This is a special episode that was recorded three years ago and that was on my Psychospiritual Podcast, about Aware Parenting and homeschooling. If you know Chiara Rossetti and haven't heard the news yet, I invite you to pause and have a friend close before reading more..... ...... ...... ...... Chiara is no longer with us. If you knew her, I'm sending so much love to you, however you're feeling now. Chiara was an Aware Parenting instructor who lived and breathed Aware Parenting. She was an attachment play genius. I shared about her, the profound effect she had on the Aware Parenting community, and my friendship with her on my social media recently. She and her children had the most amazing Aware Parenting and natural learning journey. She supported so many parents with Aware Parenting and attachment play in particular. She supported so many Aware Parenting instructors. We had talked for years about creating an attachment play book some day, and had reconnected with that again recently. I am so deeply sad and will miss her so much. I felt so called to share this episode with you, where she shares about how she came across Aware Parenting (when her son was waking up every 45 minutes), and then talked about her journey with Aware Parenting and Natural Learning (this was part of a series of podcasts on AwP and homeschooling). She also shared about sleep, and teens. So much of what she said is so poignant. If you want to watch the FB live we did on attachment play together that we mention at the end of the episode, you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/100063796862144/videos/246519440294072 So much love to you. xoxoxo

In this episode, I share listeners' questions and my answers, for toddlers of one year old to children who are seven years old. The questions include: "How can I help my one year old release big feelings before and during sleep without making her feel powerless? Is me holding her helpful?" "I'd love to hear you talk about breastfeeding to sleep and night wakings and night weaning. (My little one is 15 months old.)" "Why is my 23 month old breastfed co-sleeping toddler waking at 12, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 am?" "How can I help our three year old who needs to be in a certain position with a certain parent in order to sleep, and cries if that changes (while also supporting her to stay securely attached)?" "I feel resentful lying next to my 4 year old to help her go to sleep and I also have a baby. What can I do?" "What would you suggest as a gentle encouragement for a 5 year old to begin sleeping in their own bed so I can get up early before he does? "I'm a nanny and the seven year old I look after in the evenings refuses to go to bed when I am baby sitting and her mum goes out." If you'd like my free PDF to learn more about sleep, secure attachment, emotional release and Aware Parenting, you can sign up for it here: https://marion-rose.myflodesk.com/ssgsvngo66 The live round of this year's Sound Sleep and Secure Attachment with Aware Parenting Course is open. Details are here: https://marionrose.samcart.com/products/sound-sleep-and-secure-attachment-with-aware-parenting-course/ The reduced fee code is on my social media posts. You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net You can also find me here: https://www.instagram.com/theawareparentingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ https://www.instagram.com/awareparenting/ www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD