about me + my approach
I’m Emily– highly sensitive person, wife, boy mom x2, and baby-led sleep and well being specialist.
Motherhood has seen the most challenging, and most beautiful days of my life. Every day my boys provide me an opportunity to recognize my triggers, work on self-regulation, and heal parts of myself i didn’t know were broken. i am learning to mother as nature intended by using my instincts. when i trust my instincts everything shifts. I feel lighter, more purposeful, and a sense of peace that is often hard for me as a highly anxious person.
children are actually quite simple, the most important thing they need for their development is, YOU! When I learned about parenting from an attachment perspective it was a breath of fresh air. I want to share that with you through Natural State Attachment.
I was full of fear, overwhelm, and questions when I first became a mom. I spent my pregnancy focusing on L&D rather than planning for the fourth trimester. Breastfeeding was hard, not just hard, mentally and physically excruciating. I suffered from PPD, and on top of it all felt pressure to get my baby on a strict “eat, play, sleep” schedule and sleeping soundly in his crib. I remember endless nights of us both crying, and trying anything to get him back to sleep in his own space. It all felt so unnatural and heavy on us both.
we nursed through countless lactation visits, mastitis/thrush, pumping, nipple shields, and a frenectomy for oral ties. we nursed through toddlerhood, trying to conceive, and my second pregnancy. my breastfeeding journey is the first time i trusted my instincts, despite western societal noise and several people telling me i should stop.
my second son continuously struggled with his sleep, and would wake frequently throughout the night. my instincts told me something wasn’t right. after a long journey for answers, we found out he was anemic and had enlarged adenoids causing restlessness due to obstruction in his airway. thanks to lauren at isla grace sleep i was able to recognize his symptoms & advocate for a diagnosis. through first hand experience i realized this approach to sleep and parenting is so impactful, and unfortunately not widely recognized in western society despite its alignment with children’s neurological & biological development.
In our modern society, we often rush children to independence before they are developmentally ready. sleep training can feel like a rite of passage in the western world where priority is often on the parent’s mental health due to little or no village of support. mothers are forced back to work as early as 6 weeks postpartum while they are still healing themselves. with stress high and support low, it makes it incredibility difficult to tune into our natural instinct to guide us. mothers need support and a conducive environment to enable them to understand their young ones’ sleep and, this is where I come in.
i knew this approach needed to reach parents far and wide, so i completed my baby led sleep and well being certification (more on that below), allowing me to offer support with sleep and parenting struggles using connection over separation. although my degree is in marketing, and my career in consumer product goods, motherhood has ignited my true passion. i long to share my journey & knowledge with other moms, so they too can learn to trust their instincts rather than following the mainstream narrative when it comes to parenting choices.
at natural state attachment, my work is deeply rooted in attachment theory and neuroscience when considering child development. no one child is the same, and as such, i take a holistic look at sleep and tailor a unique plan for every family rather than following a one size fits all. i help mothers identify and explore the root cause of their children’s sleep patterns by looking for any red flags, assessing the child’s age and unique temperament to provide sleep education on what parents should expect and, if possible, methods to help them get more sleep while using connection and proximity.
my certification covered 18 weeks (and over 80 hours) of intense course study learning from amazing experts across multiple fields. see below for some of the course topics:
- lifestyle + culture
- temperament & stress
- rhythms, routines, patterns & predictability
- sleep environment
- sleep science
- common sleep interrupters
- development
- nutrition
- maternal mental health
- conscious parenting
- birth trauma
- play
- the emergent process
- the adaptive process
- vulnerability
- attachment theory
- sleep challenges & solutions
“as parents we know our baby better than anyone else, and parenting them may look different than what a book or ‘expert’ says is normal for that age. my goal is to support parents by taking a holistic look at sleep. i educate on biological baby sleep, attachment and its crucial role in our children’s brain development, and how the answer we are searching for is found in connection rather than separation. parents ultimately hold the answer to how best support their child. i wish to be a guide along that path, and instill trust when it’s found.”
-emily, natural state attachment
i empower mothers to reclaim, trust & unapologetically follow their motherly instincts, while allowing their children's development & independence to unfold on nature's timeline.
