Hi! I'm Rachael.
✺
Hi! I'm Rachael. ✺
hi! i’m rachael. I live in San Francisco, California with my husband and our three little ones. i founded hsb because i was frustrated with the status quo baby sleep advice.
I’ve always loved working with children and families. I have a Bachelor's and a Masters in Elementary and Special Education, and worked as a K-5 teacher and Education Specialist for almost a decade. When my first baby was born in 2017, I became absolutely obsessed with his (lack of) sleep. My own sleep deprivation combined with outside pressure to get his sleep under control had me spiraling with undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. It was too much.
something just wasn’t adding up.
The messages I was receiving from friends, family, coworkers, doctors and social media had me thinking we were doing everything wrong. He should be able to sleep independently, definitely didn’t need to nurse to sleep, and should have been sleeping through the night from 4 months. All of this pressure led me to try a popular sleep training program- which we failed at miserably- 3 separate times. The emotional toll of listening him cry was too much to handle, so we eventually surrendered and let it go.
I finally decided to tune out the opinions of others and trust my baby to sleep when he was ready.
…and he slept 12 hours.
Without changing a thing, he slept 12 hours for the first time right before his first birthday, and continued to sleep through the night up to this day. I wished that I could have those weeks and months back once I was on the other side of our sleep “problem.” I felt so angry that I had been pressured to force something that was inevitably going to come in it’s own time anyway.
I knew there had to be a better way, and during a night of insomnia while pregnant with my daughter a year later, I started searching for alternatives and found my certification program. I decided right then and there (yes, at 3:00am!) to pivot my entire career to match my new passion, which was being a mother to little ones, and helping other mothers to thrive.
my qualifications & approach
In 2020 I decided to leave teaching in the classroom to pursue this new passion. I became a Sleep & Well Being Specialist through the Baby-Led Sleep Certification. Hungry for more, I continued my education with Lyndsey Hookway’s Holistic Sleep Certification Mini Course, as well as Circle of Security Parenting. I’ve done extra professional development with the Neufeld Institute, The Possums Clinic, and most currently with Bebo Mia to become a Certified Breastfeeding Educator. I feel strongly about having a well-rounded background and knowing about the intricacies of how sleep, feeding, and attachment all come together, and I love to learn!
My approach focuses on relationship and development before everything else. I do not use sleep training methods, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have tons of ideas for gently leading a baby toward better sleep. There are “baby-led” changes as well as “parent-led” changes, and I aim to equip each parent that takes my courses with the knowledge and confidence to decide the best path for them! Babies and families all function very differently. Infants have totally different needs, temperaments, and rates of development. Two babies the same age might require a difference of 8 hours in daily sleep for optimal functioning and health- and families all have different goals and values!
… So no Cry it Out?
No. Although I have total understanding and compassion for families that choose sleep training (been there!), you won’t find any traditional sleep training methods or CIO in any of my guides or programs. Knowing what I now know about infant brain development, neuroscience, sleep biology, feeding and attachment, I just can’t recommend separation based sleep training or crying methods.
Of course, babies cry- I know that (mom of 3 here)! Although there may be some tears from your baby if you’re making a parent-led change such as night weaning, you’ll learn how to support your baby through them rather than leaving them to figure it out alone. I will teach you about when and how tears are a necessary form of emotional expression for our child, so that you can feel confident in supporting them without fear of “spoiling" them or leaving them alone with their feelings.
Most of all, after going through one of my guides or courses, you’ll be armed with information. You’ll have such a deep understanding of your baby as a whole person- from their temperament and sensory profile, to the way they form attachments, to their sleep and nutritional needs. You’ll learn about practical things like when to ditch the swaddle, when to transition to one nap, and how to support your child through big changes like moving to their own bed. But really, once you’ve gotten that foundational understanding of who your child is as a person, the sleep piece will kind of “click” into place- you’ll be more confident, more tuned in, and more at ease about the whole thing.
Don’t you want to stop obsessing about your baby’s sleep? Wouldn’t it be great to just relax into parenting, confident that you’re already doing it right and your baby is just perfect? Wouldn’t you like the information you need to rule out any potential underlying issue that could be preventing good sleep, so that you can check off all the boxes and be sure you’ve covered the bases with your healthcare providers? Wouldn’t it be nice to just stop worrying about when your baby is going to sleep through the night, because you’ve got the real deal on how babies are meant to sleep? If yes, then hop over to my menu of offerings. I can’t wait for this to be you, too!
here’s what I see over + over in my dms 👇🏻
“You can never give a human infant too much love or connection.”
-Professor James McKenna