Thriving Parent-ing

In this episode of Thriving Parenting, Jen is joined by Dr Bianca Mastromanno, perinatal clinical psychologist, for a compassionate, grounding conversation that helps new mums feel seen and less alone. Together they unpack what postpartum anxiety can actually look like, why a degree of hyperawareness is expected, and how to tell the difference between normal maternal vigilance and anxiety that needs extra support.

They explore maternal preoccupation (Winnicott’s term for the brain shift that happens in motherhood), explaining why your mind may feel intensely focused on your baby’s safety, needs, and environment, especially in the first 6–12 months. Bianca reframes this hypervigilance as functional, evolutionary, and often temporary, while also acknowledging that for some parents, anxiety can become self-fuelling and get “stuck” in ways that interfere with daily life.

A big focus of the episode is intrusive thoughts: unwanted, automatic thoughts that often involve harm, safety, or worst-case scenarios. Bianca normalises how common they are (often close to universal), why they show up more when you’re sleep deprived, and why having intrusive thoughts does not mean you want them to happen. Jen and Bianca share real examples to reduce the shame and silence so many parents carry.

They also discuss modern triggers, including how social media can intensify fear and expand the “library” your brain pulls from, feeding postpartum hypervigilance. The conversation offers reassurance, practical tools, and clear guidance on when to reach out for support, especially if thoughts become frequent, intense, or start changing your behaviour in avoidant or compulsive ways.

This one is for the parent who’s quietly wondering, Am I okay? You’re not broken. You’re not alone. And help can be gentle, accessible, and deeply supportive.

1. Why the question Is this normal? is almost universal in postpartum
2. What maternal preoccupation is and why hyperawareness is expected
3. How postpartum anxiety can show up as vigilance, scanning, and constant mental checking
4. What intrusive thoughts are, why they happen, and what they do not mean about you
5. The difference between noticing a thought and acting as if it’s a fact
6. How sleep deprivation can worsen intrusive thoughts and nervous system sensitivity
7. The role of social media in amplifying postpartum fear and threat perception
8. Practical ways to “step back” from intrusive thoughts (without battling them)
9. When professional support is recommended, and why it’s safe to seek help
10. Resources like PANDA for support, information, and referral pathways
11. Small nervous system supports postpartum: hydration, nutrition, sunlight, movement, music, micro-moments

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 97 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here.

Until next time, Thrivers

Welcome back to the Thriving Parenting Podcast, where we explore the parent behind the act of parenting itself.

In this episode, Jen dives into one of the most accessible yet overlooked parenting tools we all already have, even on our most exhausting days: humour.

If parenting feels heavy, serious, or like you’re just pushing through the afternoons, this episode is a gentle reminder that laughter doesn’t have to be loud, performative, or natural right now to be powerful. It’s not about being funny or entertaining your child. It’s about using small, playful moments to regulate your nervous system, support your child’s emotional world, and bring connection back within reach.

Humour, even in its tiniest form, is nervous system medicine.

Jen explores how laughter helps complete stress cycles, supports emotional regulation, and brings the prefrontal cortex back online for both parents and children. When we laugh, we soften separation, ease transitions, and remind our children through our bodies that they are safe and supported.

This episode offers practical, real-life examples of how humour can be woven into everyday parenting without adding more to your plate, including:

1. Using playful connection during bedtime, mealtimes, and transitions
2. Gentle humour for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers
3. How silliness supports emotional regulation and rupture and repair
4. Why laughter models safety more effectively than lectures
5. Ways to access humour when it doesn’t feel natural or safe for you yet

Jen also speaks honestly about why humour can feel vulnerable, especially if you didn’t grow up with it, and how to rebuild your “humour muscle” slowly and compassionately. From shaking stress out of your body, to laughing at parenting mishaps, to building a “funny bank” of memories, this episode invites you to reconnect with the playful part of yourself without pressure.

Because parenting doesn’t need to be serious all the time.

Your child doesn’t need perfection.

They need your presence, and laughter helps you return to it faster than almost anything else.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 96 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here.

Until next time, Thrivers

In this gentle baby bitesize episode of Thriving Parenting, Jen invites you to pause and reflect on a pattern many parents know all too well. Rushing through the day, counting down to bedtime, and only truly delighting in our children once they are asleep, through photos, videos, or the baby monitor.

Jen explores why this happens, especially during busy seasons like Christmas, and how the mental load, invisible to-do lists, and survival mode can pull us away from real-time connection. While this is completely human and deeply common, she offers a compassionate reframe. What if connection didn’t have to wait until the day was over?

This episode gently reminds us that connection is a core human need, for both parents and children. When children feel seen, heard, and delighted in, it can support cooperation, ease transitions, and make parenting feel lighter.

Jen shares five simple, intentional moments of presence you can weave into everyday life. From eye contact during feeds, to fully listening to their stories, to noticing their little hands in the shopping trolley. These small pockets of connection matter more than we realise.

This is not about doing more. It is about being more present in the moments you are already in. A beautiful reminder that your presence is the most precious gift you can give your child. Especially at this time of year.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

If sleep or parenting feels overwhelming right now, Jen also shares details about her free Sleep Clarity Sessions, offering calm, pressure-free support to help you move from surviving to thriving.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 95 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here.

Until next time, Thrivers

Airway health is one of those invisible pieces of the parenting puzzle that can quietly shape everything, from feeding and sleep to behaviour, development, and long-term health. In this episode of Thriving Parenting, Jen dives into what many parents are never told to look for early on: the spectrum of airway dysfunction that often starts long before a child would ever be diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea.

Jen is joined by Dr Shereen Lim, a pioneer in dental sleep medicine and author of Breathe Sleep Thrive, whose work centres on early intervention and helping families understand how breathing, feeding, tongue function, and jaw development are all deeply connected.

If you’ve ever wondered why your baby mouth breathes, snores, struggles to feed, seems restless at night, or avoids chewing, this conversation will help you connect the dots in a way that finally makes sense.

1. Why obstructive sleep apnoea is often the tip of the iceberg, and what can show up years earlier
2. The early signs of airway dysfunction that can be easily missed, especially in infancy
3. Why mouth breathing is never “normal”, and how early awareness can change a child’s long-term health trajectory
4. The powerful “rapid growth window” in the first year, and why jaw and facial development matters for the airway
5. How modern feeding patterns (purees, pouches, processed foods) can keep kids stuck in the “suck phase” and reduce jaw strength
6. What parents can do if breastfeeding didn’t work out (without guilt), including practical ways to support oral function and chewing from six months
7. What to look for if your baby is snoring, noisy breathing, or sleeping with an open mouth
8. A grounded, individualised take on tongue ties, why release isn’t a magic fix, and why support matters before and after
9. Red flags beyond sleep, including feeding struggles, “reflux-like” symptoms caused by air intake, picky eating, gagging, speech delays, and teeth grinding
10. Why airway issues aren’t only an ENT problem, and how adenoids and tonsils can be a symptom, not the root cause
11. What “good sleep” should actually look like: silent, still, mouth closed, and truly restorative

Book: Discover How Airway Health Can Unlock Your Child’s Greater Health, Learning, and Potential

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 94 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here.

Until Next Time, Thrivers!

Welcome back, Thrivers, to another baby bite-sized episode. This short and gentle conversation is for the parents who don’t often feel seen in baby sleep spaces. The ones whose babies settle well with space, sleep independently, and don’t always need to be held to drift off, yet somehow feel guilt or quiet shame because of it.

In this episode, we explore why it’s not only possible, but completely healthy, for some babies to feel safe and secure outside of arms. We unpack the many reasons this can happen, from early exposure to multiple safe sleep spaces, emerging self-soothing skills, and temperament, to regulation, responsiveness, and the emotional tools parents bring into the relationship.

This episode gently challenges the belief that secure attachment is measured by exhaustion, constant proximity, or how much a baby needs you at night. Instead, it reframes attachment as responsiveness, trust, emotional availability, and meeting needs when they arise, not forcing closeness when it isn’t needed.

If you’ve ever felt triggered by online conversations about baby sleep, questioned yourself because your experience looks different, or wondered whether you’re doing it wrong because things are actually going well, this episode is for you.

You’re not doing something wrong. You’re responding to your baby.

And that matters more than the noise.

Inside this episode:

1. Why some babies genuinely sleep better with space
2. How temperament and regulation influence sleep
3. The hidden identity shifts that come with easier sleep
4. Why secure attachment isn’t about where or how your baby sleeps
5. Letting go of guilt and trusting your baby as your guide

Book: Discover How Airway Health Can Unlock Your Child’s Greater Health, Learning, and Potential

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 93 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here.

Until next time, Thrivers

In this grounding and deeply validating episode, Jen unpacks one of the most misunderstood parts of modern parenting: the difference between co-regulating and controlling. On the surface, our responses can look the same, but underneath, the energy is completely different — and it’s often our own nervous system, not our child’s emotions, driving the moment.

Jen walks you through why young children cannot regulate on their own in the early years, what true co-regulation looks like, and the subtle ways we may accidentally slip into control when our own triggers, childhood patterns, or overwhelm take over.

Inside the episode, you’ll learn:

• Why co-regulation was never meant to burn you out
• How generational patterns shape the way you respond to crying
• Why trying to “fix” emotions actually makes things harder
• What your child really needs during big feelings (hint: not perfection)
• Five simple, practical ways to support emotional regulation without losing yourself

Jen also explores how our instinct to stop tears — in children and adults — often interrupts the emotional release our bodies are designed for. She shares how shifting from fixing to anchoring can change the entire experience for both you and your child.

This episode is full of compassion, clarity, and real-world tools to help you respond with presence rather than pressure, attunement rather than anxiety, and confidence rather than exhaustion.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 92 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here. 

Until next time, Thrivers

In this deeply honest and emotional episode, Jen sits down with mindset coach and soon-to-be mum, Breanna May, to unpack the side of IVF that doesn’t make it onto the glossy brochures. From being labelled “high risk” after multiple cervical procedures, to navigating distrust in the medical system, fear of needles, and the grief of failed transfers, Breanna takes us inside the reality of trying to conceive when it wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

Breanna shares how she moved from resisting IVF to finally surrendering to support, the mental gymnastics of reframing daily injections as “baby juice,” and the moment everything changed during her second transfer – from a shooting-star embryo on the screen to reading “pregnant” on a test while camping with her husband. She also reflects on how IVF impacted her identity, body image, relationship, and ultimately, her belief in her own body again.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Breanna’s journey from “I’ll fall pregnant easily” to years of unexplained infertility
• How past cervical surgeries turned her pregnancy into “high risk” and complicated embryo transfer
• The mindset shift that helped her finally accept IVF and reframe injections as an act of love
• Practical tips to survive the wait after transfer (and why staying busy matters)
• The power of surrender and belief: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

If you’re walking the IVF path, feeling like you “shouldn’t” be here or wondering how much more you can take, this conversation is a tender, validating reminder that you’re not alone – and that hope can still live inside a really hard story.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 91 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here. 

Until next time, Thrivers

In this baby bite-sized episode, Jen breaks down one of the most common modern parenting dilemmas: “Does that quick car nap actually count—and what should I do next?”

If you've ever rushed home for nap time only to face a failed transfer, a full-blown nap protest, or a suddenly wide-awake baby, this episode gives you the clarity and calm you need.

Jen explains why on-the-go dozes and mini car snoozes can completely reset sleep pressure—especially for babies under six months and why heading straight to the bedroom often backfires. Instead, she guides you through what actually works: slow transitions, gentle interaction, and watching for fresh sleep cues rather than watching the clock.

You’ll learn:

• Why a 10–15 minute car nap can wipe out more sleep pressure than you think
• When a transfer might work—and when it absolutely won’t
• How to create a short “adjustment window” at home so your baby can reset before the nap
• What to do differently if they only dozed off versus slept for 20+ minutes
• How to honour your baby’s nervous system and your own, so naps feel less stressful for everyone
• Why flexibility and compassion matter far more than perfect timing

Jen also shares her own relatable “please don’t fall asleep yet!” car moments because we’ve all been there, and gives you permission to adapt, reset, and trust the process.

You’ll walk away knowing exactly what to do after an on-the-go snooze, how to prevent a nap battle, and how to stay grounded when routines don’t go to plan.

A gentle reminder to take with you:

A short car nap doesn’t always mean an easy transfer. Give your baby time to adjust, follow their cues, and trust your own instincts. You’re not failing—you’re finding your rhythm.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 90 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here. 

Until next time, Thrivers

In this episode of Thriving Parenting, Jen dives into pram sleep and motion sleep – the good, the tricky, and how to set pram naps up so they support both your baby and your sanity.

She starts by revisiting her popular “10–10–10 Rule” for pockets of connection, sharing real stories from families who’ve used it to transform challenging behaviour and create more harmony at home. From there, she guides you through the world of pram naps: why they work, how they support your baby’s nervous system and body clock, and how they can give you some much-needed breathing space in your day.

Drawing on her own experience with three children (including seasons of multiple kids under five and life overseas), Jen breaks down practical, compassionate steps to help you feel confident using pram naps without guilt, fear of “junk sleep,” or pressure to get it perfect.

• How the 10–10–10 Rule sets up cooperation, eases tricky moments, and helps you feel more like the parent you want to be.
• Why naps on the go are not junk sleep, and how motion, gentle rocking and outdoor light support your baby’s nervous system, circadian rhythm, and sense of safety.
• How pram naps looked different with each child, from “nice to have” with her first, to essential with a toddler in tow, to ultra-flexible naps while living in South Korea.
• Six practical steps to make pra naps work
• How to tell the difference between tired/frustrated cries and “this is too much” stress, when to keep gently supporting, and when to pick up, reset, or transfer.
• Why shorter pram naps as babies grow are normal
• What to expect as your baby becomes more aware, and how to work with changing nap lengths without panicking.
• How a simple pram nap – a walk outside, a quiet coffee, a few minutes to actually breathe – can reset your nervous system and increase your patience for the rest of the day.

Jen closes with a reminder that neither you nor your baby are robots, and that flexibility, repetition, and self-kindness are some of the most powerful parenting tools you have.

Get the Free Awake Times Guide: https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

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Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 89 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here. 

Until next time, Thrivers

In this heartfelt episode of Thriving Parenting, Jen is joined once again by Dr. Bianca Mastromanno, clinical psychologist and mother of two, to explore one of the most powerful skills we can develop as parents — helping our children (and ourselves) feel safe with big emotions.

Together, they unpack why feelings can be so hard to sit with, how our own upbringing shapes the way we respond to emotions, and what it really means to emotionally coach our kids — without trying to fix, rush, or rescue their feelings.

From real-life motherhood stories to practical, compassionate insights, this episode helps you embrace imperfection, build emotional trust, and navigate those intense moments with more calm and connection.

In This Episode:

• The impact of our own emotional history on how we respond to our child’s feelings
• Why “good girl/boy” or “stop crying” messages affect emotional safety
• What emotion coaching really means (and why it starts with your own awareness)
• How to validate your child’s emotions without rewarding unwanted behaviour
• Understanding guilt vs shame and how self-compassion transforms parenting
• The balance between empathy, boundaries, and allowing healthy discomfort
• Why repair after rupture matters more than getting it perfect every time

Parenting isn’t about eliminating your child’s big feelings, it’s about being their safe place while they learn to move through them. When you show them that emotions are safe, you teach them resilience that lasts a lifetime.

Would like to access tailored 1:1 sleep support but don’t know where to start? Jump on a FREE sleep clarity session with Jen here https://sleepthrivegrow.com/

For more information on this topic, head to the show notes: Episode 88 Show Notes

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Come and connect with me on Instagram at @sleep_thrive_grow.

And click the +Follow button to never miss an episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday!

To find out more about how I can support you, visit my website here. 

Until next time, Thrivers