Your Sleepless Baby

Book excerpt: Being a parent is like being on a roller coaster ride. There are plenty of ups and downs, enjoyment and frustrations. As a parent I have experienced my share of testing times along with the many joys of parenting. The most challenging times were when my children were babies, toddlers and teenagers. I was already a registered nurse and midwife by the time my children came along. As a result of having personally experienced the demoralising effects of post natal depression I wanted to help others who found the early years of parenting a struggle, and so I decided to train as a mental health nurse and later as a child health nurse and lactation consultant. For the past 17 years I have been employed as a child health nurse in an early parenting residential centre, where my role primarily involved assisting parents to resolve complex baby and toddler care problems. I know that the families who gain admission to these centres are only the tip of the iceberg. There are countless other parents out there desperately searching for answers to their child's feeding or sleeping problems. About 10 years ago I started an online parenting consultation service, BabycareAdvice.com. I have enjoyed a high success rate, and a great deal of pleasure, assisting parents world-wide to find solutions to baby or toddler care problems that match their circumstances. Problems that their local healthcare providers were in many instances unable to resolve. The reason for my success is because my expertise lies in resolving behavioural problems; the most common of all problems experienced by healthy babies and toddlers. I knew I could reach more parents though books than individual consultations. In 2012 I published Your Sleepless Baby: The Rescue Guide, the first of what will become a series of baby care books. After 37 years as a nurse I now live and work from home on the glorious Sunshine Coast of Queensland with my husband, Bruce and dog, Ruby. We get to reap the rewards for being parents and the joy of being grandparents!