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Hello, my name is Tianni, I’m the founder of Dream A Little Dream Baby. I am a gentle sleep advisor for infants 0-18 months old as well as a maternity practitioner for newborns+. I have been working in the childcare profession for the last 18 years, I worked in a private nursery for 6 years and then have been in the nanny industry for the last 12 years. In 2020 I started working with a family who had a 7-week-old son, while he developed and grew, I helped get him into a sleeping routine, he also had a younger cousin whose mother I became close with, I offered advice with sleeping and weaning, and this is when I decided I wanted to develop my childcare career.
After spending months researching and talking to family, friends, and my bosses too about what I could do, I then decided in 2021 I wanted to understand the science behind infant sleep. I remember the day I told my boss and she expressed to me that I was more than just a nanny and she thought this was a brilliant idea for me to develop my career further. I’m passionate about what I do and the goal for me is to help, support, and empower parents in a new and exciting way for me.
So, what do I do? I offer 2 different services, firstly I help families improve infant sleep, this could be to help day naps, night time sleep or any sleep challenges they might be struggling with. I truly believe there is no one size fits all, each baby is an individual and they have their own temperament. I work closely with each family, taking time to get to know them, their environment, situation, parenting values and lifestyles and the personality and temperament of the baby. I help families overcome sleep challenges in a secure and gentle way, I implement methods and techniques that has yours and your child’s emotional well-being at the centre of everything, supporting and respecting your parenting values and lifestyles, encouraging attachment and responsive parentings, and never using cry it out methods. I work with you and alongside side you as a supporter and we will discuss things like how we can optimise your little ones sleep to their biological capacity, how I can empower you to make your own judgements and trust your instincts and if we can tweak and optimise your child’s sleep environment.
Secondly, I work as a maternity practitioner and my passion is to provide you with support, guidance, and confidence to care for your new baby and to educate and empower you during your new journey, when you need it the most. During my time with you I will assist and advise you and take care of all aspects of the baby’s care and duties, I will sterilise nursing and feeding equipment, make up bottles, bath and change the baby and take care of the baby’s laundry and nursery cleanliness. Along the way I will guide you with breast/bottle feeding and positioning techniques, winding techniques and support you with reflux, colic and allergies should you need it, help implement gentle sleeping habits plus assist you when giving your newborn their first bath. During my time with you I will help you establish healthy sleeping and feeding patterns for your baby, following your baby’s sleeping and feeding cues. When the time comes for me to leave, I can ensure you, you will be confident to continue without my help and guidance. You will have the confidence to continue the gentle routine we have implemented together. If over the next few weeks you feel like you need some extra support, I will be there to support you via phone calls or text messages should you need it while your journey continues.
Testimonials
Tianni came into my life at the perfect time, after having a traumatic birth with my first son during the 2020 pandemic I was extremely apprehensive for the arrival of my second son. Tianni helped me two days a week for 24 hours and one night for 14 weeks, giving me support throughout the night so I could catch up on sleep between feeds.
Tianni oozes warmth, compassion and importantly authority when it comes to guiding you with your newborn. I instantly felt relaxed with her and she became a part of our family overnight. Both boys took an instant shine to her, and I was able to leave either one in her sole care, enabling me to give both boys important 1-1 time, which was invaluable to me.
On Tianni’s first day when my son was 4 days old, she drove us to a clinic in London for a tongue-tie division, during the procedure she was calm and reassuring, I couldn’t have done it without her support, she attended several appointments during her time with us. Tianni navigated the first bath with my newborn, at 6 weeks I thought my son had reflux, but Tianni observed him and reassured me he wasn’t showing any signs of reflux.
As my son got older by 6 weeks, Tianni helped establish a feeding and sleeping pattern following my sons feeding and sleeping cues, by the time he was 8 weeks old he had formed a 3-hour feeding pattern and 1.5-hour wake window between naps. Tianni created a guide only routine based on my sons feeding and sleeping cues for me to follow when she wasn’t with us, I continued to follow my sons feeding and sleeping cues in case some days they were different as Tianni explained at such a young age it’s important to feed on demand.
At night-time Tianni helped create a pre bedtime routine, she would prepare all my pump equipment and sterilise all equipment too. I was able to pump at night, we introduced a bottle for the night-time feed, this was all new to me and it was very reassuring to be guided through the entire process.
Leaving your baby with somebody is a big deal but having someone like Tianni whom I trusted has been wonderful. I highly recommend Tianni to anyone who needs a friendly, warm and loving addition to their family dynamic. She will walk in without hesitation, take control and give you a helping hand. We share many memories now such as my sons first bath time, first bottle, the smiles, first tummy time, it’s been special and I am sad to see her move on.
I contacted Tianni at Dream A Little Dream Baby when my little boy was 5 months old, and I felt that I was in desperate need of some help. Otto would very rarely nap during the day, he would wake up every couple of hours in the evening, unable to settle himself and would often be wide awake from 4am. To say that I was sleep deprived and constantly on the edge would be an understatement.
It was evident throughout the time that Tianni was working with me that she is extremely knowledgeable and very much focussed on what was best for Otto, as well as taking into consideration the things I still wanted to do, as his Mum. There were various follow up sessions where we reviewed any changes to Otto’s sleeping pattern and if there was something that wasn’t quite right, Tianni provided other personalised recommendations which would then work perfectly. I went from having a child who hardly napped and who would wake up every couple of hours, to having a child who now has a regular morning and afternoon nap and who is a lot more settled at night. We’ve even had some nights where he’s slept through until 6am!
Not only is Otto now sleeping much better, myself and my partner are able to get a good night’s sleep which has had such a positive effect on our family. The work that Tianni has done with us has been instrumental to this happening. I would wholeheartedly recommend that any parent who is struggling with their child’s sleeping to get in touch with Tianni at Dream A Little Dream Baby.