infant sleep

Solid Food Introduction by Carol Gray at MamaSpace Yoga

Eat

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 Parents ask me about solid food introduction all the time. Here’s my take on it. Babies Need Iron Babies store iron in their bodies while they gestate. Milk has next to no iron in it. At some point after birth, babies’ iron stores begin to diminish. This is often when they show signs of interest in iron-rich solid food. Hopefully, this occurs around

Cry by Carol Gray at MamaSpace Yoga

Cry Baby

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I recently had a conversation with parents about crying babies and toddlers. They were apartment dwellers who were concerned about disturbing the neighbors. CRYING! It is, after all, a distress call. It’s disturbing — like having a shrieking smoke alarm in your living room. It’s supposed to attract parental attention. Crying is one of the baby’s main survival skills. It helps a baby

The Things We Do (After Birth) To Prevent Babies From Moving by Carol Gray at MamaSpace Yoga

Things We Do (After Birth) to Prevent Babies From Moving

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I can’t leave The Stuck Baby Series without describing baby immobilization and container lifestyle. In this article I outline the most significant ways in which we prevent our babies from moving after they are born. It seems like the perfect preparation for a sedentary life in a recliner in front of a screen. Developmental delays are on the rise. It’s estimated that 15%

How Fetal Constraint Adversely Affects Babies: Things We Notice After Birth by Carol Gray at MamaSpace Yoga

How Fetal Constraint Affects Babies: Things We Notice After Birth

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 This is part six of the six-part Stuck Baby Series. In part one, My Baby Dropped!, I explain why engagement is pathology. In part two, Why Did My Baby Get Stuck?, I describe the maternal factors that cause babies to get stuck. Part three is Fetal Factors: How Babies Get Themselves Stuck. Part four explores Fetal Constraint: How Culture Immobilizes Babies. Last week,

Carol Gray Writes About Plagiocephaly and CST at MamaSpace Yoga

Flat Spots

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I see lots of babies who have flat spots on their heads (plagiocephaly) in my Craniosacral Therapy practice. Container-Baby Culture and Flat Heads The most common variety is the broad flat spot on the back of the head – an artifact of the Back to Sleep Program, swaddling for sleep and time spent in car seats, baby seats and swings that have a

Feeding the New Family by Kimberly Bepler art MamaSpace Yoga

Feeding The New Family

By Guest Blogger, Kimberly Bepler, IBCLC, CPD, CLE, CNPE Who has time to make nutritious food when you have a precious new baby? Real food takes time to prepare. Newborn families have little time to spare. As a postpartum doula I love creating food for hungry and tired parents. Over the years, I’ve developed a few winning approaches to help the families I serve get nourishing food into their bellies.

The Importance of YOUR Village (not your kiddo’s) by Olivia Spitzer at MamaSpace Yoga

Your Village Built By You

By Guest Blogger, Olivia Spitzer We have all heard the adage, “It takes a village to raise a child.” As new parents, a big piece of your work is identifying who will be included in your child’s village. During (and even before) pregnancy, you are already thinking about which grandparents will be available to you for support. You know which friends will serve as aunties or uncles. You find a

This Can’t Be Normal (but it is) by Caitlyn Martin at MamaSpace Yoga

This Can’t Be Normal (but it is)

By Guest Blogger, Caitlyn Martin You’ve wanted this baby so badly… You (or your partner) carried them for the better part of the year, through the ups and downs of pregnancy, and now you get to hold them in your arms. All the love you have been storing in your heart is spilling out into this sweet bundle of joy and you can’t believe you get to keep them with

Questions to Ask a Homebirth Midwife at MamaSpace Yoga

Questions to Ask Homebirth Midwives

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 With more people considering home birth or planned out of hospital birth these days it’s good to know what kinds of questions to ask while searching for your perfect birth attendant. I wrote and published these questions on my website years ago when I was a homebirth midwife. I’ll never forget the one time a pregnant couple who interviewed me pulled out my

Carol Gray at MamaSpace YogaShares an Informative Podcast About Normal Infant Sleep

I Hate Podcasts

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I guess I’m not an auditory type. However, I LOVED this podcast – every minute of it. I listened to ALL of it! I love James McKenna! I really do! I LOVED his books – especially his most recent one: Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions by James J. McKenna. Ph.D. Dr. McKenna hit another home run with this book.