You know you want your baby to sleep. You know something has to change. But somewhere between that knowing and actually booking a sleep coaching call, there’s a pile of questions sitting in the way.

Will my baby have to cry? What if it doesn’t work? I’ve tried things before and they haven’t worked — what makes this any different? I’m still nursing — do I have to stop? What if my baby is in daycare? These aren’t small questions. They’re the questions that keep you Googling at 2am instead of sleeping, the ones you rehearse before you ever reach out to anyone.

I’ve been doing explore calls with families for eight years. Somewhere north of a thousand calls. And in that time, the same questions come up again and again — because they’re the right questions to ask. So here they are, answered honestly, so you can stop wondering and start deciding.

“Will my baby have to cry?”

This is almost always the first thing families want to know, and I want to answer it with the respect it deserves — because the answer isn’t simple, and anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t being straight with you.

The short version: I can’t promise you no crying. What I can promise you is no crying in vain.

Here’s what that distinction actually means. When families come to me after attempting cry-it-out or Ferber, the most common experience is extended, difficult crying that didn’t lead anywhere — and left everyone feeling worse. That happens when a baby is placed in their crib without the conditions being right. If a baby fell asleep on the bottle at bedtime and lost their sleep pressure, if their schedule is off, if their sleep environment isn’t set up correctly — then we’re asking a baby to learn something new without giving them the setup they need to succeed. That’s crying in vain.

Holistic sleep coaching is different because everything that happens before we ever put your baby in their crib is equally as important as what happens during coaching. We protect sleep pressure. We get the schedule right. We make sure nutrition is supporting sleep, not working against it. We look at the sleep environment. And then we put your baby down — awake, aware of where they are — and we coach them through it together. You are in the room. You are not abandoning your child. You are supporting them with verbal cues, with gentle physical touch, in ways that are specific to their age, their development, their personality.

Will there be some crying while your baby learns this new skill? Yes, in most cases. Learning something new is uncomfortable, and babies communicate through crying. But there is a real and meaningful difference between a baby who is frustrated because they’re learning and a baby who is crying because nothing is set up right and no one is helping them. One leads somewhere. The other doesn’t.

“What if this doesn’t work for my baby?”

Every parent I’ve ever worked with secretly believes their child is the one it won’t work for. That their baby is more stubborn, more sensitive, more attached than the families I’ve worked with before. I hear this all the time. And I understand it — when you’ve been living in sleep struggle, it’s hard to believe that sleep can actually be different.

Here’s my honest answer: the power of holistic sleep coaching is in the customization that happens in real time. Before we start, I do a thorough assessment — your baby’s schedule, their development, their personality, your family dynamics, your sleep goals. I deliver a sleep plan built around all of that before we ever start night one.

And then during those two weeks, if something isn’t working the way I expected, we adjust. That’s the art of the coaching process. I’m reviewing your tracking data daily. I’m in communication with you every day. If I see something that tells me we need to pivot, we pivot. It’s never a fixed script — it’s a responsive, ongoing assessment of your specific child.

The only time I’d share a concern is if I felt something was outside my scope as a sleep coach. I’m not a pediatric sleep doctor, and I would never pretend to be. But in eight years of working with 700 families, that scenario has been genuinely rare. The overwhelming majority of the time, when we do a thorough assessment and implement consistently, we get your baby sleeping.

“I’ve tried to get sleep on track before and it hasn’t worked. What makes this different?”

This is one of the most common places families come from when they reach out to me — carrying some version of “I’ve already tried” in their back pocket. They’ve read the books. They’ve taken the courses. They’ve been through three different schedules. Something always seems to fall apart.

And I get it. But here’s what I see most often when I look at those past attempts: not failure — missing pieces. Usually families had three or four of the right elements and one or two crucial ones missing. Sometimes it was a schedule that was close but not quite right for that specific child. Sometimes it was a sleep environment issue that no one flagged. Sometimes it was inconsistency — not because parents weren’t trying, but because they were trying too many different things, switching before anything had time to work.

Sleep doesn’t improve from one night of trying something new. Routines and foundations take one to two weeks of real consistency to cement. That’s not a long time, but it’s longer than most families give a method before doubt creeps in and they try something else.

What makes coaching different is that you have someone reviewing everything, adjusting in real time, and keeping you on track through the stretch where it’s hard to trust the process. That daily connection and accountability is often the piece that was missing before — not intelligence, not effort, not the right intention.

“Do I need to be home? What about daycare?”

The honest answer is yes — the more home time during coaching, the better. For the 10-day core program, being home gives you the most control over schedule, environment, and routine. The most common start day is a Friday, which lets you have the first weekend at home.

That said, most of the families I work with have babies in daycare. That’s just the reality of modern parenting. And yes, we can absolutely work with that. Daycare doesn’t derail coaching — it just adds a communication layer. I have a document I share with families specifically about daycare: what to ask, what information to gather, how to understand similarities and differences between the home sleep environment and daycare so we can coach effectively even when naps happen somewhere else.

What I do ask is that you try not to start coaching during a week that’s unusually hectic — heavy travel, back-to-back events, everyone out of town. Not because those things make success impossible, but because reducing unnecessary variables in that first stretch just sets everyone up better. We look at your calendar together and find a start window that actually works.

“Will sleep go backwards if we travel or my baby gets sick?”

This is one of my favorite questions because I get to answer it so confidently.

When your baby has a real sleep foundation — meaning they have genuine independent sleep skills, not just habits that are working right now — sleep doesn’t just go backwards. It doesn’t regress because your baby hit a new month, or because you took a trip, or because they cut a tooth. What you built is real. It’s theirs. It travels with them.

Can travel disrupt sleep? Yes, temporarily. Can illness? Yes. Teething? It’s real and it lasts three years, so we plan for it. But the wrap-up document I give you at the end of coaching includes a full breakdown of exactly how to navigate these situations — what signs to look for, how to respond, how to get back on track if things shift. You leave coaching with a sleep plan and a toolkit, not just two good weeks and then you’re on your own.

And even in the unlikely scenario where something gets off track further down the road — you still have your sleep plan. You still have the education and the understanding of your child’s sleep. Getting back on track is possible because the foundation was real. That’s the difference between sleep that works and sleep that just happens to be working right now.

“What does working together actually look like?”

Let me walk you through it, because this question matters.

It starts with the explore call — about 15 to 20 minutes, free, zero pressure. We talk through what’s happening with your baby’s sleep, I give you some initial insight into what I’m seeing and what I’d recommend, and we talk through what working together would look like. After that call, I send you a follow-up email with everything you need to move forward.

Once you book, you get a welcome email and fill out an intake form. Then we schedule a coaching prep session — usually about an hour to an hour and a half. I do all the work in that session: asking the questions, taking the notes, building your picture. You just show up. After that session, I deliver your sleep plan before your agreed-upon night one.

Once coaching starts, you have me for two weeks. Depending on your support package, that means daily Voxer communication with voice notes, text, and photo support — and in the Empowered Plus package, it also includes support calls and me on call with you bedtime on night one.

The goal is never for you to feel like you’re figuring it out alone in the dark at 2am. Every part of your baby’s day and night has a plan. You go into each night knowing what to do.

“You say you guarantee sleep — how is that even possible?”

A fair question, and I’ll answer it honestly.

The guarantee is on my top package, Empowered Plus, and here’s why it exists: when we have daily tracking, daily communication, and I’m on call with you for night one — I have full visibility into what’s happening. I can see if the plan is being followed. I can see the data. I can adjust in real time. I am never going to let you reach the end of two weeks and just shrug.

In eight years and 700 families, it has been extremely rare that we reach the end of the coaching window and there’s still significant work to do. When that happens, we extend. We figure it out. The investment you make in coaching is my investment in your family, and I take that seriously.

“I want to keep nursing. Do I have to choose?”

No. You do not have to choose between breastfeeding and a sleeping baby. I say this clearly and I say it often, because this is one of the places where so much unnecessary guilt lives.

Both of my sons had a feed-sleep association. I was a human pacifier. I knew I wanted to get them sleeping, and I knew I wanted to keep nursing. I did both. And I help families do both every single week.

What changes isn’t whether your baby nurses. What changes is when and how nursing happens in the sleep equation. When nursing is happening as your baby falls asleep, it becomes part of the association — the thing their body connects with drifting off. We shift that feed to happen upon waking instead of before sleep. They still get to nurse. They still get to have that relationship with you. They just learn that nursing and sleeping are two separate, wonderful things.

“I’m the only one who can get my baby to sleep. Can my partner ever do it?”

When your baby has independent sleep skills, it genuinely doesn’t matter who does the routine. You. Your partner. A grandparent. A nanny. Because the skill lives in the baby — not in what you do to get them there.

I have seen the look on a partner’s face when they report back that they were able to put the baby to sleep for the first time. It’s not a small thing. For parents who have been on the outside of bedtime, who have wanted to be more involved but felt like they were making things harder, this shift is huge. Coaching gives the whole family its footing — not just one parent.

What’s Waiting on the Other Side

Picture a bedtime that starts and ends the way it’s supposed to. A routine that anyone in your family can do. A baby who goes into their crib awake and puts themselves to sleep — not because something forced it, but because they know how. A night where you get to sleep without listening for the sound that tells you you’re needed again.

That’s not a perfect, hypothetical family. That’s what I watch happen with family after family, week after week. The questions that feel so big right now — the crying, the nursing, the daycare, whether it will work — those become the questions you used to have. What’s on the other side of them is rest. Real, consistent, foundational rest.

You’ve already stayed up long enough wondering. Let’s talk.

You Don’t Have to Do This Alone

If you are looking for more personalized support, that is what we are here for. 

🎓 Holistic Infant & Toddler Sleep Masterclass — Watch this free masterclass to understand what holistic sleep training really is, how it works, and what age-appropriate sleep looks like for your baby right now. Watch the free masterclass here.

🔍 Sleep Insight Audit — Not sure if you’re ready for full training? Anne will do a personalized assessment of your baby’s current sleep and give you specific, actionable recommendations. No commitment required — just clarity. Book your Sleep Insight Audit here.

📞 Book a free Explore Call — Ready to talk through your baby’s sleep and figure out the right next step for your family? Let’s connect. Schedule your free call here.