The Baby Sleep Connection: Holistic help for tired, responsive parents who don't want to sleep train

Ep 71: The Three Pillars for Better Family Sleep

How do I think about infant sleep as an occupational therapist and holistic sleep educator? What framework allows me to understand and address your family’s sleep challenges? In this episode, I outline the 3 pillars of my practice, and how I use these three pillars on our first call together to get a clear picture of what sleep looks like for your family.  Understanding these 3 pillars lets me start honing in on what we’ll focus on in our work together. The 3 pillars are: 1. Development (sleep and other milestones, temperament, sensory development, social-emotional development) 2. Environment (not just the physical environment, but the way the day is laid out, and how parents are doing, too!) 3. Attachment (the way your baby seeks attachment changes with development; finding ways to meet the attachment needs while also shaping and supporting sleep development) If this approach resonates with you, I’d be happy to connect with you on a 30 minute screening call.  Families often leave that call with more confidence that getting sleep coaching support is the right next step.  Even families who chose not to pursue coaching after the screening call still report feeling heard (sometimes for the first time in a long time) and more hopeful.  Mentioned in today’s episode: * Neufeld Institute: neufeldinstitute.org What you can do next: Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend!  Provide a review on Apple Podcasts.  It truly makes a difference to reaching families who would benefit from understanding their baby’s sleep better. * Sign up for weekly baby sleep emails.⁠ [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1 [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] * Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (Occupational Therapy receipts are provided for families from many provinces in Canada) Credits: 🎵 Music: Jordan Wood

Ep 70: Five Things to Love About Your Baby’s Sleep

There’s a lot to feel frustrated and run down about with your baby’s sleep.  But the flip side of the coin matters too. In this episode, we explore the positive side of baby sleep: what happens with sleep, what it can teach you, and what you gain from it (yes, truly!). If you’ve been struggling to see the positive side of baby sleep, have a listen while I explore: 1. Sleep development 2. Uncoupling sleep from problem solving. 3. Letting go, acceptance, and control 4. Forcing rest 5. Empowerment as a parent who knows your baby best Mentioned in today’s episode: * Harvey Karp * Sarah Ockwell-Smith What you can do next: Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend!  Provide a review on Apple Podcasts.  It truly makes a difference to reaching families who would benefit from understanding their baby’s sleep better. Sign up for weekly baby sleep emails.⁠ [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1 [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (Occupational Therapy receipts are provided for families from most provinces in Canada) Credits: 🎵 Music: Jordan Wood

Ep 69: 5 Things You Might Hate About Baby Sleep

Heather Boyd, Occupational Therapist and developmental infant sleep coach gets honest about the things that may be driving you mad about baby sleep.  And when the reality of baby sleep conflicts with what we’ve been told, the gap between what we want and what is happening can be wide.  Let’s get honest about what makes baby sleep hard because then we can shift to what can make it easier.   Honesty about how hard it is and understanding why sleep might be looking this way can give us a strong start to how to navigate it. So let’s dive in. Is there something that would make it on your top 5 list of things you might hate about baby sleep? Let me know!  I love receiving emails from Baby Sleep Connection Podcast listeners.  My email is heather@heatherboyd.ca And if you’re feeling like focusing on the negative is too much, stay tuned for the next episode where I’ll talk about the 5 things to LOVE about your baby’s sleep! What you can do next: 1. Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend!  Provide a review on Apple Podcasts.  It truly makes a difference to reaching families who would benefit from understanding their baby’s sleep better. 2. Sign up for weekly baby sleep emails (https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1 [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] 3. Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (OT receipts provided for families from several Canadian provinces; families outside of those provinces can work with me through my international sleep coaching practice) Credits: 🎵 Music: Jordan Wood

Ep 68: Is Calmness Overrated?

If you’ve been giving yourself a hard time for not staying calm, have a listen. Perhaps being calm is overrated. It feels so good to stay calm, but calmness doesn’t always fit the situation.  It’s also simply part of the human experience to go through challenges that throw us out of calm, dysregulate us, and leave us feeling off balance and stressed.  The Beatles may have sung about having “nothing to get hung about”, but the truth is there are things in life to get hung about. I am proud to say that my teenager edited and published this episode for me. In our excitement of working together (and my impatience to get it published after a 3 week delay). Congrats on a job well done, Roo! In this episode,  I talk about: * Is staying calm really the goal? * When things get hectic, stressful, or exciting, do we “stay” regulated?  Or do we match ourselves to the situation? * A 4-stage framework that is an alternative to “staying calm”: Recognize, Recalibrate, Reset, and Nurture * The analogy of squeezing a lemon * An incident this morning that gave Heather real world practice recognizing, recalibrating, and resetting. Mentioned in this podcast: * Lisa Carpenter, coach and previous guest on The baby Sleep Connection Podcast: lisacarpenter.ca [http://lisacarpenter.ca]  * Mitch Albom, Twice, novel.  * Ep 27: Sleep, Rest, & Support:…–The Baby Sleep Connection: Holistic help for tired, responsive parents who don't want to sleep train – Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ep-27-sleep-rest-support-are-you-cheating-yourself/id1735142551?i=1000673781238] What you can do next: * Provide a review on Apple Podcasts.  It truly makes a difference to reaching families who would benefit from understanding their baby’s sleep better. * Sign up for weekly baby sleep emails.⁠ [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1 [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] * Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (receipts provided for families in many provinces in Canada -email Heather at heather@heatherboyd.ca if you wonder if your province is covered) Credits: 🎵 Music: Jordan Wood

Ep 67: Parenting with Triplets, Adoption, and Disability

To start 2026, I’m joined by a guest whose story brings new perspectives around surviving and thriving in parenthood. Stephanie Woodward is a not-for-profit CEO, attorney, proud disabled woman, and mom to six children—including triplets and children adopted through foster care.  She and her husband went from family of 2 to family of 8 within a single year.  In this conversation, we explore parenting multiples, navigating NICU life, pregnancy loss, supporting older siblings through massive transitions, and why routine plus flexibility matters more than having a perfect plan. Stephanie also speaks candidly about disability, scrutiny, and the assumptions that still shape how society views parents, and disabled parents in particular —often without realizing it. This episode isn’t about one right way of parenting: It’s about responsiveness, creativity, advocacy, and building family life around what actually works. In this episode, we cover: * Parenting triplets alongside older children * Life in the NICU and transitioning home * Supporting big siblings through major family changes * Parenting as a wheelchair user and adapting routines * Misconceptions about disability and caregiving * Why “routine plus flexibility” is a powerful parenting framework You can find Stephanie and her family on Instagram at @WCTriplets, and learn more about her work with the Disability EmpowHER Network via the links below. Where you can find Stephanie: * Instagram, TicTok, and Facebook at WC Family @WCTriplets * Disability EmpowHER Network https://www.disabilityempowhernetwork.org/ What you can do next * Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (receipts provided for Ontario families) * Subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend! Provide a review on Apple Podcasts. It truly makes a difference to reaching families who would benefit from understanding their baby’s sleep better. * Sign up for weekly baby sleep emails.⁠ [https://heatherboyd.activehosted.com/f/1] * Book a screening call with Heather [https://familysleep.ca/] (receipts provided for Ontario families) Credits: 🎵 Music: Jordan Wood