A woman with blonde hair smiling outdoors with two young boys, one in a blue shirt and the other in a light green shirt, in a park with green trees in the background.

Hi, I’m Lara!

And I’d love to share a bit about myself and Lara’s Little Dreamers. After all, making a decision about whether to work with somebody on anything related to our little ones is huge! And everybody doing so should feel super comfortable with who that person is.

First things first, I have two little boys of my own whom I love dearly and despite any title or certification, “Mum” is by far my favorite role! My husband and I are originally from South Africa, but we have been living in The Netherlands for several years with our extended golden retriever family (we have 2: Summer and Zazu and I love them to bits). Living abroad and raising our little family here has been amazing, but the expat life definitely brings its fair share of challenges. It’s 100% true that it takes a village… and expats can be desperately in need of those.

I worked on my boys’ sleep the hard way - learning by doing, by myself, before any of my certifications or official training - and I sleep trained both of them too. So believe me when I say I’ve been through the sleep struggle myself! I know the exhaustion, the frustration, and even the mixed emotions that come with loving your child so much but still feeling completely drained. It can be quite a rollercoaster at times, especially when you’re deciding whether or not to start sleep training. 

For me, sleep is an absolutely essential building block of our, our children and our entire family’s happiness and wellness. We simply cannot thrive if we’re not sleeping well. And that counts as much for a 4-month old as it counts for a teenager as it counts for a parent at work. And that makes me extremely passionate about sleep (who isn’t, right?)! Especially when it comes to babies and children. In addition to sleep I just love helping people and love babies, and I want everybody to experience that joy too. Which is how I found my calling in the world of sleep coaching and support, because as a sleep specialist I get to touch on all those different parts.

As far as my official certifications are concerned, after learning what I could scrolling and searching, I officially became a certified pediatric sleep consultant and newborn specialist through the Institute of Pediatric Sleep and Parenting (but all of that sounds way too formal, so I prefer to just call myself a Pediatric Sleep Specialist). Earlier in my life I also qualified as a Montessori preschool teacher for 2 to 5-year-olds, which is helping me a lot today in taking a more open-minded approach to sleep that looks beyond hard schedules at topics like nutrition, stimulation and the parent-child connection.

I would love to meet you in person (virtually for now) to talk things through, so please go ahead and book a free online online meeting where we can get to know one another and talk about how we can solve your sleep struggles together.

Speak soon,
Lara

Let’s have a free 20min talk

A woman and two young boys playing and hugging on a picnic blanket in a park with green grass and trees, with a cityscape and mountains in the background.

My philosophy when it comes to sleep

is based on the belief that your little one’s sleep is only a problem if it is a problem for you. As parent, it is up to you to decide how important it is, what your definition of perfect is, how structured you’d like it, at which pace you’d like to go and what you would like to achieve. Within those boundaries, I provide judgement-free support and will be realistic about the possibilities.

I take a multifaceted approach when it comes to healthy sleep, ensuring that your little one develops lifelong healthy sleep habits from the moment that we work together and my view of sleep is really best described using my Little House Of Sleep.

Within my work I essentially offer 2 paths:

  • Sleep training for parents who want their children to be able to fall and stay asleep completely independently without the parent as sleep association (like only feeding or rocking to sleep, or needing to sleep in a stroller or parents’ bed) and want faster results.

  • and Sleep Shaping for parents who are OK with them being a sleep association to some degree (like waking up once a night and feeding back to sleep) and do not want to venture into sleep training right now.

In both cases, my work - whether a toolkit or 1:1 coaching program - is always based on understanding what exactly is going on, then preparing the foundations that lead to sleep, and then supporting the child with learning how to sleep independently (whether fully or partially, through sleep training or shaping).

And what exactly is sleep training? For me, sleep training is the process of supporting our little ones with the space to learn how to fall and stay asleep by themselves. It is a fully supported process, which relies on the instilling of boundaries and the parent always being present (PS - I do not at all support methods like cry-it-out or Ferber). It’s similar to how we teach a child to walk: we are present, we hold their hand in the beginning, and then we need to step away and support them with the space in which to take their first steps by themselves.

Sleep training is also not the only answer to all sleep struggles and it differs from parent to parent. In sleep shaping I focus on putting the building blocks in place that enable independent sleep to take place by itself without the need for the parent to put boundaries in place. This approach can take slightly longer and is also ideal for a more self-paced way of working. Some parents also start here and do some sleep training later on.

By working closely together, our goal is to achieve more consistent, better, restful sleep for the whole family. It's not just about getting your baby to sleep better for their own development; it's about ensuring you get the rest that you need too. When you're well-rested, you can be the best parent possible, giving your little one all the love and care they deserve. And this is what truly brings me so much joy.

If you’re ready to make a positive change in your little one’s sleep, please reach out to me today. Together we can create a personalised path to bring back those restful nights that you and your family so desperately need and deserve. 

Book a free Quick Consult

Explore My Solutions for little ones of: 0-4 months, 4-12 months, 12-24 months, 24-48 months

5 random facts about me you definitely need to know

  • Two young children with blond hair standing outdoors and smiling at the camera.

    Since the moment I could say my first words I wanted only to be one thing: a mum!

    My parents love to tell the story of how I used to push around a 2-litre Coke bottle filled with water in my little stroller, as it felt more real than those lightweight dolls.

  • A woman with blonde hair and a maroon sweater sitting at a restaurant table with a pizza topped with cherry tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, and a glass of a lemon drink with a straw.

    For almost 5 years I was the marketing manager of South Africa’s largest pizza franchise.

    Far removed from my passions (except for good pizza), super corporate, but wow did I learn a lot about people (and again - pizza).

  • A smiling woman wearing a cap, sunglasses on her head, and a silver foil blanket, holding a finisher medal from Ironman 2018. She is inside a tent or sheltered area.

    I am an Ironman! Not the superhero (only to my boys), but the triathlon-type Ironman.

    In 2019 I did the full Ironman (3.8km swim, 180km cycle, 42.2 run) and in the years before I did several halves (Ironmen? Ironmans?).

  • A woman and a young boy smiling on a pebble beach near the water, with an island in the distance.

    I am a SUN person. I need it, I crave it and when it’s out, you’ll find me directly in it.

    And beware my husband when he stands in between me and my beloved sun. And despite that, I live in a country with a severe shortage of it!

  • A woman with a baby sitting on rocks in front of a large rock formation outdoors, smiling at the camera, with hiking gear and backpacks nearby.

    I despise hiking. I wanted to write hate, but it’s a bit of a strong word.

    And guess what - my husband loves it, so he proposed to me on a hike. And he plans our holidays around hikes. I guess you win some, you lose some!