Welcome to season four. And yes — I’m going to say something that might sound too good to be true right at the start:

You can prevent sleep regressions.

Not manage them. Not white-knuckle your way through them. Not brace yourself every couple of months for the next one. Actually get ahead of them — so that when development comes in hot at six months, eight months, twelve months, it causes a blip and not a catastrophe.

I know that’s a bold claim in a parenting culture that treats sleep regressions like rites of passage. So let me explain exactly what I mean, why it’s possible, and what it requires.

The Sleep Regression Roller Coaster Nobody Should Have to Ride

Here’s the timeline that gets handed to new parents, usually with a well-meaning grimace:

Four months. Six to seven months. Eight to twelve months. Twelve to thirteen months. Fifteen to sixteen months. Eighteen to nineteen months. Twenty-four months.

A potential sleep disruption event every one to two months until your child is two years old. Welcome home with your new baby — good luck.

That’s not reassurance. That’s a sentence. And I don’t think parents should just accept it.

Here’s the truth about what’s actually happening during those windows: development is real. Sleep and development are genuinely, crucially connected. When babies are going through rapid growth — rolling, sitting, walking, cognitive leaps, language — it can show up in their sleep. You might see a few days or on and off for 1-2 weeks, shorter nap days, extra night wakings, some bedtime resistance depending on their age, earlier rises…that’s real, and it’s normal, but these are slight disruptions in their patterns, and they can still sleep. 

It is not the same as a full-blown regression that lasts weeks or months and sends sleep completely backwards.

The regression that lasts? That’s not development doing it. That’s development revealing cracks in the foundation that were already there. Sleep struggles lying dormant, waiting for a trigger. And when the trigger arrives — a developmental leap, a growth spurt, a tooth — the cracks become craters and parents are left wondering when it will end.

When there is a solid sleep foundation, development causes short pockets of disruption and then resolves. Because babies who have genuine sleep skills don’t just wake up one morning and forget how to sleep because they turned eight months old. Skills don’t disappear from development. What I always say — and yes, it sounds a little blunt — is this: babies don’t regress. Parents regress. I say this because only if we start to re-introduce sleep aids can babies actually regress in their skills. Sometimes this happens due to severe illness, there is not right or wrong, there just is. 

Not a criticism. When we gradually reintroduce sleep aids after a period of independence — a little rocking here, nursing to sleep during a sick week, the pacifier back in rotation — babies slowly stop using their independent skills and start relying on the help again. That’s a regression. It came from the reintroduction of aids, not from the developmental calendar.

The good news: when the foundation is solid, you can always get right back to it. And when you have the foundation in place from the start, you’re not waiting for the next sleep bomb to drop. You’re watching your child move through development with the tools to cope — and sleep comes out the other side intact.

What “Solid Sleep Foundation” Actually Means

I think of sleep as a puzzle. When I work with a family, I’m not just addressing one thing — I’m looking at all the pieces together, because almost always it takes adjustments across multiple areas to get sleep into a truly stable place.

Those pieces are:

Independent sleep skills. Your child can put themselves to sleep without feeding, holding, rocking, a pacifier, or any other external aid. This is the core. Without it, every developmental disruption becomes a crisis because the tool that was holding sleep together is suddenly less reliable.

An age-appropriate schedule. Wake windows, nap timing, and bedtime that match where your child actually is developmentally — not a generic chart, but a schedule adjusted for your specific child, including any accumulated overtiredness.

Efficient nutrition. Sleep and feeding are inseparably connected. A baby who is snacking through the day, feeding to sleep, or not getting full feeds is carrying a nutritional pattern that affects sleep quality whether or not it shows up on a growth chart.

A sleep-conducive environment. Darkness, temperature, sound, the physical sleep space — these matter more than most parents realize and are almost always improvable.

When all four of those pieces are in place, development doesn’t blow up sleep. It nudges it briefly, and then sleep returns to baseline. That’s the goal — and it’s available to every family, not just the lucky ones.

Introducing the Empowered Sleep Coaching Circle

I’ve worked privately with families in one-on-one coaching for eight years. That container — personalized assessment, a custom sleep plan, two weeks of direct support — works. It’s accelerated, it’s hands-on, and for families who want that intensive experience, it remains available.

But I’ve also known for years that there are families who want the education, the guidance, the step-by-step — just not in that accelerated, two-week sprint format. Families who need more flexibility. Who want to move at their own pace. Who are ready to do the work but need room to breathe around it.

After two to three years of sitting with that problem, I finally built what I couldn’t figure out before: the Empowered Sleep Coaching Circle.

Here’s what it is:

A five-week group coaching experience — self-led, online, at your pace. You get access to a full video library covering everything: schedule, sleep skills, associations, environment, nutrition, the coaching process itself. You move through it in the sequence that makes sense for your family.

A personalized assessment — still included. This is what separates it from any generic sleep course. I still assess each child individually so you can customize the experience for your baby, not a hypothetical one.

Weekly live sleep Q&A calls with me. Every week for five weeks, I’m available to troubleshoot, answer questions, help you pivot when something isn’t landing. This is the piece that makes it feel like coaching rather than just content consumption.

Two weeks within the five to implement. You choose when you’re ready to actively implement the coaching process. Life happens — illness, travel, a hard week at work. You’re not locked into starting on a specific day. You decide when you’re in the right headspace to go, and you have the five-week window to find that moment.

The magic of one-on-one coaching has always been the customization. The Circle keeps that at the center — personalized assessment, real-time support, a holistic approach — while giving families the freedom and flexibility that an accelerated two-week program can’t always accommodate.Check the show notes for the link to join. If you have questions about whether the Circle is the right fit for your family, DM me, shoot me an email, or drop a question on socials. I’m always happy to help you figure out what level of support makes the most sense for where you are.

Sleep Should Be Assessed — Just Like Everything Else

One more thing I want to leave you with: sleep should be assessed with the same regularity and intention that we bring to our babies’ wellness visits.

Your child is constantly growing, changing, developing. Their sleep needs are evolving with them. And when something feels off — when naps are short, night wakings are frequent, bedtime is a battle — that’s not a phase to wait through. It’s information to assess.

I offer Sleep Insight Audits for families who want that clarity without committing to a full coaching program. You fill out a detailed intake, I do a full holistic assessment of everything going on with your child’s sleep, record my findings and recommendations, and deliver it back to you within one to three days. You walk away understanding exactly what’s happening and what you can change.

A lot of sleep struggle is actually about perception and understanding. When you know what’s going on, when you have context for what you’re seeing, everything gets easier to navigate — whether or not you choose to make changes right away.

Ready to Get Off the Roller Coaster?

Sleep regressions are not a rite of passage. The foundation changes everything.

🎓 Free 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. Get the free masterclass here.

🎓 The Empowered Sleep Coaching Circle — A 5-week self-led sleep training experience with access to customization for your child and weekly live support. Explore 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.