Taking Cara Babies Newborn Class

Hello. Welcome to Will I Ever Sleep Again? I'm Kara, founder of Taking Cara Babies. Before we officially get started, I just want to tell you a little bit about who I am. I have been a nurse for the last 18 years, and I have dedicated my career to helping new moms, new dads, and new babies. I started my nursing journey off in the neonatal icu, which is sick and premature babies. From there, I cross trained over to labor and delivery. I loved it. I was one of those nurses that I couldn't believe they were paying me to be a part of a miracle every day while I was working in labor and delivery. There was this one pediatrician that was very interested in the babies I was delivering. And to make a long story short, I married him. There might be a little bit more to that story, but for today, that's all. So I am a wife of a pediatrician. And when you take a pediatrician and a baby nurse and you put them together, it's probably no surprise to say that two people who've made careers out of babies, we have four of them. So I'm a wife to a pediatrician, a mom of four, and a baby nurse. After our fourth was born, I traded in the delivery room for the OB office. And it was while I was working here that I felt like, oh, my goodness, I'm finally seeing women after they deliver. They would come in for their postpartum checkup, and I'd see them at two weeks, four weeks, eight weeks out. And I thought, I want to go home with her. And she's so tired. I know I could help her because I knew what it was like to be tired. You see, when I brought my first daughter home from the hospital, I was kind of like, how hard could this be? I'm a baby nurse, he's a pediatrician. Between the two of us, we've got this down. Fast forward eight months, and this little bundle of joy was tucked in between the two of us every night and felt that nursing all night long, totally acceptable. And I know that works for some families, and if it does, great for us. It didn't. But that kind of set me on this journey. Like, I've got to figure out infant sleep. I've got to figure out baby sleep. And here's what I found. It's so much easier to set up healthy sleep habits and create healthy sleep habits than it is to try to correct sleep problems. So I made a vow with our next babies. We are doing this from the beginning. I don't want to ever go through that again. That was so hard. And so I did. I did it with our next babies, and it was easy, and they were great sleepers. Let's talk about you. Why are you here? Well, I'm assuming that it's either because you're A, exhausted or B, hoping not to be exhausted. I think as parents, we kind of think sleep is a luxury. You know, it's like a pedicure. If I get sleep, great. But if I don't, well, I'm a new mom. I'm a new dad. I'm not supposed to be. But our bodies just can't survive on sleep deprivation. So I want to help prevent that. And that's what this class is about. We know that exhaustion can lead to postpartum depression, maternal anxiety, marital problems. So if we can prevent that exhaustion, great. But what about for our babies? You all have babies here today, so let's talk about sleep for them. You know, we often think that sleep is like a time where they just turn off, but that's not the case. Their little bodies don't just shut down when they're sleeping. When they're sleeping, all. Everything they're exposed to during the day is connecting in those little synapses in their brain. So learning is actually taking place while they're sleeping. Memory is consolidated. While they're sleeping, the growth hormone is released. We know that babies who sleep well are less fussy. Babies who sleep well have better awake times, and so then they nurse better, they eat better. We know that when the family is rested, the most effective bonding possible is. Can take place. Well, my very first assignment with taking care of babies, I was hired by a family who was about to have twins. So the four nights I was there, I said, okay, this is what I'm going to do. And on the three nights you're here, here's what I want you to do. The same thing I'm doing. And during the day, here's my recommendation. And here's what happened. Eight weeks later. These little twins were sleeping eight to nine hours every night. I worked myself right out of a job, so. Which was a great thing. However, the mom said to me, kara, I have all these pregnant friends. Can I invite them over and you teach them what you taught us? Because nobody can believe that my babies are actually sleeping eight to nine hours each and every night. So I did. And that was the very first will I ever sleep again class. Everything I taught them, I'm about to teach you. And so now, today, this is a very special edition of Will I ever Sleep again. We're filming it from my living room so that moms and dads across the nation can watch it in their living rooms because it's great locally, but I feel like parents all across the nation need to see this information because it truly is life changing. So you know all of those books that you were supposed to read on baby sleep while you were pregnant that you were just going to get to. It's okay, you can relax. I've done the research and what this class is about is taking all that information and presenting it to you in a practical way. It's all evidence based research. So that means we're not just going to try something and see that it works. This is based on true evidence. I'm going to give you seven tips and they fit together like puzzle pieces. And in the end you're going to have this puzzle put together and it's healthy sleep habits. But if you take one tip and you decide, okay, I'm not going to use that one. And it's like having a puzzle with a missing piece in it. So we're going to walk through these seven tips and you're going to see how they all fit together. Before we do, let me just tell you what this class is and what this class is not. Okay? This class is going to teach you how to calm your baby and help set up healthy sleep habits. This class is not going to tell you just let your baby cry. That's not what this is about. Okay? This is one way of doing things that works. But it's not the only way of doing things that works. Okay? This is help setting up your life with structure in those first few months of your baby's life. But it's not about a strict routine that's impossible to follow where you're denying your baby food. That's not what this class is about. And finally, this is not medical advice, it's education. However, the neonatologist, the head of neonatology here in Scottsdale, Arizona took this class. He has a fabulous sleeper and he sends all of his patients to this class. So even though it's not medical advice, I haven't had a pediatrician or a neonatologist disagree with it yet. However, don't take it as medical advice. Feel free to run everything by your pediatrician. So let's get started. Sam.