Lovingly-Led

07/02/2020

Local mamas to be - check this out!

Imagine having your birth companion support you through labour and birth, knowing exactly the right things to say and do to make you both feel empowered in the birthing experience! 🙌⠀
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In this one night workshop, you will both learn the mindset shifts that are essential for fostering a sense of connection and safety in the birthing room. 💖⠀
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This workshop is ideal for an expectant mama and any partner joining her in the birthing room (ex. Spouse, Sister, Mother, Friend). 👩‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👩⠀
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I am partnering with Robyn Synnott Registered Physiotherapist and C-E-RYT500 yoga teacher, for this one of a kind workshop. ⠀
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Learn about the function of your central nervous system, how to empower yourself with visualization, ideal birthing positions and breathing techniques, and most importantly the partner’s role in helping a birthing mother feel safe. 🤗⠀
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Empower your birth companion by registering you both for this essential pre birth workshop. Women at any stage of pregnancy are welcome! 🤰⠀
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PM me with questions 💁‍♀️ or register here: https://www.beyogawellness.com/workshops
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Tell me in the comments, who will be, or who was, in your birthing room? 👇

20/01/2020

Bonding through movement with your little one 🧡 Register soon, spots fill quickly!

20/01/2020

The seasons have changed.
A marriage truth; you will not always be in the same season.
While most of you reading this aren’t here for marriage insight I feel compelled to be a little more vulnerable and raw with you.
We have three kids; 7, 3 and 18m. The date nights are few and far between. We are tired from the hustle and bustle, the chores, teething nights and we had fallen into a marriage that we weren’t nurturing.
Everyone says parenting is hard but so is marriage - or at-least for us at times. We have struggled, we communicated and we choose to invest our time, energy and thoughts into US. We went on a marriage retreat and connected like we never had.
What I want YOU to know is that while us mamas balance the never ending to-do-list, remember, we sometimes need to step back and prioritize what matters most.
I love this space to connect but I was feeling unauthentic not sharing how life is for me so I paused for a while.
Are you in a wintery season of marriage? Could you use a little reset to focus on the two people, that out of love, brought giggles and tantrums into your home?
Share your story with me because I want to connect deeper; I want to be your village 🧡
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via .app

07/12/2019

The growth of the baby’s brain “literally requires positive interaction between mother and infant, The development of cerebral circuits depends on it.”

This is WHY separation based sleep techniques are NOT good for our children. Yes it works but it is because the brain learns quickly that cueing (crying) for a caregiver is no longer working and so the brain makes new pathways and those circuits die off. Sleep training comes at the cost of our children’s neurological development!

You do not have to sleep train to get sleep!

X-ray images show the brain of a loved 3-year-old is twice as big as the brain of a neglected 3-year-old What’s the difference between the 3-year-old brain on the left and the 3-year-old brain on the right? Love. The child whose brain appears on the left had a caregiver who …

05/12/2019

My first printed article is available for Pre- Order!! This magazine is a must have for mama’s from all walks of life 🧡 Christmas is around the corner and subscriptions are available! Treat the mama in your life with relatable, helpful and honest advice!

14/11/2019

Let’s talk boundaries!
My mentor wrote this beautifully and is something many of my families are having challenges with now.
A lot of what parents come to me with has nothing to do with sleep but more an inability to set boundaries and loving limits with their children. A got a great email this morning in my inbox from “Our Children Crave Boundaries – Permissiveness is Unkind
There are parents like me who would rather avoid setting boundaries. We fear that conflict or disagreements with our kids will amount to a net loss for us. You’ll stop liking me. You’ll leave. You’ll be too sad, angry, broken spirited.We’ll feel ashamed, doubtful, blame ourselves.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It can feel safer to swallow up our own needs and wants to avoid making waves, even though this invariably means we’re the ones left drowning in a sea of resentment, anger, self-pity.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
At some point, if we’re lucky enough to recognize this demoralizing pattern, we might come to the realization that there’s nothing helpful, noble or loving about permissiveness. And with that comes the revelation that our children not only need the boundaries we offer them, they actually crave them. And sometimes, sometimesour kids will even be so wise as to let us know. If you get even a faint whisper of this message, grab it and use it to fortify your heart forever for all the many moments you’ll feel reticent, uneasy, tentative, doubtful, torn, or afraid to stop your child and say some version of no when yes feels so much easier.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To children, our boundaries mean we see you, we love you, we care enough to make the effort, an effort that children always sense and appreciate. Never doubt that.”

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Do you struggle with setting boundaries? Comment below and let me know! Remember that boundaries are individual, they are unique in each family. What I see as a boundary in my home is not what you will see/need.
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08/11/2019

“Even though I’m a parent....”
My beautiful friend and therapist wrote this so eloquently 🧡
Someone started a rumour at some point, that once you become a parent, life should probably stop being about you, and you should do all the selfless things that are rooted in your new identity as “parent”
And I must admit that I fell victim to this mindset myself. I stopped thinking about me, what made me laugh and what I looked forward to, and instead focused my complete attention onto what my child liked and what made them excited.⠀⠀
There will be naysayers who think your only role is to serve your child, and if this is what truly makes you happy than “you go, friend”.
But,for those of you who have crawled out of the infancy survival fog, are rubbing your eyes and standing up finally, only to face toddlerhood...find your old/new self ! Take time to rediscover YOU.
Just because I’m a parent doesn’t mean I don’t still love to :⠀⠀
- go to the gym, take baths alone, eat a whole bag of popcorn to myself without sharing - buy cute outfits to wear on a date night or friends night out, receive birthday and Christmas gifts, listen to hard rock and gangster rap, have sex,feel sexy, swear, mindlessly watch a show that isn’t Peppa pig or The Wiggles,dance the night away, spend time away from my family to remind myself that I love all these things, want my mommy when I’m sick, be pampered, read a damn book for pleasure, rock the entrepreneur life⠀⠀
What are the things that you wish you didn’t stop doing after becoming a parent .. or maybe things you continued to do that are rooted in your identity as YOU. ⠀⠀
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01/11/2019

This couldn’t ring more true - my oldest is also 7 and we also sleep trained her and it came at a cost, but it doesn’t have to be 🧡

“There is a high cost to playing the separation card:insecurity.” Dr. Gordon Neufeld
I am 7 years into this ‘parenting thing’ and I can PROMISE YOU that NOTHING in parenting is a quick fix. Parenting isn’t about extinguishing behaviour, it is about building a relationship. I look at all the guarantees out there for a baby, to be sleeping through the night, some as soon as 14 days and I can tell you right now that the way it works is by using separation. Which is 1000% a quick fix. Will it work? Yup, for most it will. Did you ever wonder why it works? That is the question you should be asking yourself... Did you extinguish the behaviour? Yup. But how ...? You need to always remember that attachment = survival, separation is our preeminent threat. What we do when we use time outs, sleep training, etc is we are pushing the baby/child’s face into separation. We are teaching them that they are not invited to exist in our presence unless they are good, we teach them that we are not safe to depend on. When we use separation, we trigger, at the same time, alarm, intensified pursuit and frustration. Do this enough and the defences come up - the child shuts down and becomes defended against. We use what wounds them most (separation) against them to do what we want them to do :( They want to always preserve the relationship, so they will likely do it (quickly) but what did we teach them about relationship? Neufeld
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I love this quote by Dr.Neufeld, “If we simply treated every problem as a separation problem, whether we knew it or not, we would have the greatest probability of making a difference in the life of a child. There is no downside to doing this, no cost to the treatment... If there is one thing to learn it would be to become an agent of attachment in a World that is coming undone.” This is why Baby-Led Sleep Coaches are different - we understand attachment, we help families to add MORE proximity, MORE connection and to help their child find ways to hold on when apart.

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31/10/2019

boundaries - not the ones with our kids - the ones with ourselves.
I've been on pause for a while but wanted to share why - boundaries. I set them with my children; I hold them, I adjust, I support their emotions and I continue being the best mama I can be. But I am more than a mom.
I am a wife, a friend, a daughter, sister, a business owner, an employee and the CEO of my little humble abode.
The last 6 weeks have ROCKED me. I am a people pleaser which usually means I give more than I receive - but it fills my bucket MOST of the time. The last couple of weeks I wasn't practicing much self-care - which I tell my families to do ALL the time! So while I reset, focused on ME and got myself aligned I took a break from social media.
I love Instagram - I can speak my truths, share my knowledge and connect with people I wouldn't ordinarily have the opportunity to. With that being said I was getting lost and the real reason I am here is to speak to YOU - so if you follow along THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart🧡.
I like to hit pause in certain areas of my life when I feel I NEED to - and I highly encourage you to do the same. You cannot give to others if you are empty - so do whatever it takes to protect yourself first and always!
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via .app

14/10/2019

Cookies, front yard vs backyard, the way you cut the cucumber- the list is endless 🤣

You win some, you lose some. 😜