Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Smith
Hi Sarah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My oldest daughter was born in 2017. I was in the depths of postpartum depression and anxiety and felt exhausted, lost and defeated.
When my daughter was 2 weeks old, I filled out the standard postpartum depression questionnaire given by my provider. Every single one of my answers was a red flag except for wanting to harm myself or my baby. I told my provider I didn’t feel like myself. Their answer was that someone would call me in a couple weeks to “see if [I] felt better.”
No one called. I didn’t feel better. I assumed I was being dramatic.
My PPD/PPA went undiagnosed for 10 months. During that time I frantically dove into research about baby sleep to try to find a sense of control. We did our best during that time, and our daughter began sleeping better, but I was incredibly obsessive about her sleep. It was unhealthy and unsustainable for our family.
As the fog lifted, I realized how severe my depression and anxiety had been and finally sought help. Around 1 year, we decided to support our daughter further in sleeping independently in a way that felt healthy and right for our family. She’s been a great sleeper ever since then.
When our son was born in 2020, I felt very confident in approaching his sleep.
Famous last words, right?
He was a pretty great sleeper the first few months and I was patting myself on the back (ha). The 4 month regression hit, teething hit, and everything went off the rails. The strategies that worked for my daughter, did not work for him. Where she was flexible, he was sensitive. Where she needed space, he wanted closeness. His sensitivities are different, his preferences are different and it was a whole new learning curve. We really tuned into him, and found methods that worked for him, and for us, and became a great sleeper too!
Throughout my early years of parenthood, I’ve helped friends, family and acquaintances with their kids’ sleep, and in 2022 decided to finally make the jump toward doing it professionally. I got certified through The Collective for Family Rest and Wellness, hit the ground running and haven’t looked back.
What I’ve learned in his sleep journey is that our children are just little humans. Of course they are, right? What I mean specifically is that they each have their own temperament, their own preferences, their own sensory and sleep needs, their own special wake time needs and preferences.
My privilege as a pediatric sleep consultant is to educate families, to empower parents to tune into their specific child, to listen to what each little one is trying to tell us, to help them find the individual approach that is best suited for their family, and to support them while they support their child through these changes.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There’s always trial and error when opening and running your own business. My husband and I have owned businesses together in the past, but running one by myself that’s completely virtual was a new learning curve.
I think the biggest challenge was learning about myself, how I wanted to present myself to the world, and the type of sleep consultant I wanted to be.
My goal was to help families find better and sustainable sleep, even if the road to get there was unconventional. The only right way is the way that works for the specific family I’m working with.
There’s always a trust exchange that needs to happen with services like these. Families are trusting me with their greatest treasure, their child, and if there’s no trust there.. it’s challenging to find a road to success. The bumpiest part of the road for me was learning how to communicate with each different family in ways that helped them trust me. Trust is earned, and learning how to adjust my communication was a challenge at time.
With a virtual business, most of my word of mouth has come from virtual presence. Learning how to navigate that, and maintain a work-life balance was also really challenging. I’m learning as I go and doing my best along the way.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m certified in pediatric sleep from birth to age 8.
I offer a range of services to fit different families and their needs, but most commonly I am hired to help families get better sleep in a holistic way from start to finish.
This begins with families filling out an extensive intake form to help me understand what’s going on with sleep currently, what their sleep goals are, what their family dynamic is like, how they respond to stress, their comfort levels about methodology, their child’s temperament, and other relevant information I need. This is my favorite part – learning about the ins and outs of each individual family.
From there, I make a sleep plan for the family. This is typically a 20-30 page PDF document that is their road-map to better sleep. After they review the plan, I support them in carrying it out. In my most popular package, I do this in real time, essentially messaging them in real time to guide, support and adjust the plan as needed. I do this through a sleep logging app I use, called Rested.
I specialize most in schedules and sleep timing. Optimal sleep timing is such an important and often overlooked aspect of baby sleep. I work *with* a child’s physiology to help not only optimize their sleep, but make our attempts at shifting them toward independent sleep more successful and less stressful for everyone. I’m known for being able to pinpoint a child’s unique sleep needs and find a schedule/wake windows that work for them and optimize their sleep.
I think another thing that sets me apart is that each plan is completely, 100%, individualized to the specific family and child that I’m working with. It goes through individual schedule, routine, environment, and sleep training methods and has other relevant information pertaining to the family. I also pull from over 20 different sleep training methods, ranging from very slow/gentle to more hands off, to make a systematic approach to sleep changes that, again, is customized completely to each family and child.
I find it an exciting and fulfilling challenge to make these plans that feel good to families’ hearts and minds, while we move through something really vulnerable together. Sleep is so healing. Everyone deserves sleep, and they deserve to get there in a way that feels good.
How do you think about happiness?
It sounds cliche, but I love helping people. I think when I was struggling so much postpartum, I was constantly seeking a life raft that I never really found. It’s really healing and beautiful to me to be able to offer families that life raft that I was always looking for.
I love the outdoors, I love spending time with my family, and I love reading.
Pricing:
- Troubleshooting Session – $45 for 30 min
- Schedule Support (for independent sleepers) – $149/week
- A Custom Sleep Plan (support not included) – $199
- A Custom Sleep Plan (1 week of email support included) – $249
- 1:1 Sleep Support (2 weeks of guidance in real time + a custom sleep plan) – $499
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.swallowtailsleep.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swallowtail.sleep
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swallowtailsleep
