Hi, we're Cat & Con
Welcome to the Baby Sleep Team Family!
We are the proud Mom and Dad to Annabelle and Evelyn, and we live in a beautiful beachy town on the East Coast of New Zealand called Mount Maunganui. For the past 6 years, we have been selling baby products online in the USA called Margaux & May. We make crib mattress protectors, crib sheets, swaddle blankets and sleep sacks. We have also experienced first-hand the consequences of sleep deprivation which has been the inspiration behind Baby Sleep Team!
Our eldest daughter Annabelle was a textbook sleeper and we thought we hit the sleep jackpot. Although it was something that was never spoken about out loud (as to not jinx it!) Annabelle slept through the night from 8 weeks old…right until she was over 2 years old coinciding when baby Evelyn arrived.
We hired a sleep consultant when Annabelle was 6 months old as we had to travel overseas for a business trip with Margaux & May. Although up until that stage, we were happy to feed Annabelle to sleep, the realization quickly became apparent that this would not work when Granny had to look after her for a few days and Annabelle needed to learn how to fall asleep on her own.
Along came Evelyn 2 years later and we soon realized that although we thought we knew all of the tricks of the trade with getting (and keeping) a baby to sleep, it doesn’t work for every baby! Little Evie became affectionately nicknamed from the midwife as our velcro baby. She could not be put down…for 5 months! Two little girls from the same parents, born the same weight and looked nearly identical at birth were complete opposite ends of not only the sleep spectrum but across everything. Breastfed vs. bottle fed, co-sleeping vs. sleeping in a bassinet, multiple wakes in the night vs. sleeping through, etc.
Since we have had Margaux & May before both of the girls were born, the business could not stop and we NEEDED both of the girls to sleep and be in a predictable and consistent routine in order to keep the daily operation of the business. We quickly learnt that sleep is not a luxury. It is a necessity! Thank goodness for naps as we run Margaux & May during the lunch naps and after the girls go to bed at 7pm!
Between the two girls, we spent over $1000 on sleep consultants, books and sleep guides using various methods and techniques. Although there is a lot of universal information, there is also information at complete opposite ends of the spectrum with conflicting advice making it exhausting and overwhelming to navigate through as a sleep deprived parent.
Being fanatical about sleep, we wanted to make information easy to digest and understand and to combine multiple techniques and methods that we had used and learnt that could be adapted and implemented depending on the temperament of the child. Additionally, we are very passionate about the format that the information comes in. When you're operating in a sleep-deprived state, your concentration ability completely disappears.
In the process of making sense of the conflicting advice, I became a certified pediatric sleep consultant and wanted to immediately share my knowledge to other sleep-deprived families. One early morning after Con came back with the reusable coffee cups still on the roof of the car, he agreed that it was a great idea!
We both have the common goal of empowering parents to equip them with knowledge so that they feel confident to adapt methods and create a plan that will work for each baby and family. Ultimately, we want everyone to be able to get a good night’s sleep so they can be the parents they want to be!
Please let us know if you have any questions! We are always here to help! xx
