In this episode of The Night Feed, I talk about the quiet loneliness of early motherhood, contact naps, phone guilt, and the mental load that so many mums carry silently.

We chat about being told “you’ve got your hands full,” a chaotic school-run pancake attempt, and how our expectations of how motherhood should look often set us up to feel like we’re failing.

I share listener messages about taking a social media detox and feeling the mental fog lift, leaning into contact naps without worrying about “bad habits,” and the frustration of never getting real time alone while being criticised for phone use.

We also talk about why loneliness is trending in the smartphone era, how being constantly connected can still leave us feeling isolated, and why real human connection matters more than ever in early motherhood.

This episode is for any mum feeling unseen, touched out, overwhelmed, or quietly lonely. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re not unreasonable. And you’re not alone.

As always email me: thenightfeedpodacst@gmail.com

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This week on The Night Feed, I’m diving into one of the most divisive and emotionally loaded topics in modern parenting: sleep training.

More specifically, the question so many mums end up Googling through tears in the middle of the night: Is cry it out actually harmful?

We talk about why this debate feels louder than ever, how social media has turned baby sleep into a moral battleground, and what the research from the past decade actually says about sleep training and attachment.

I read a listener email from a mum caught between exhaustion and instinct, unpack what people really mean when they say “cry it out,” and gently walk through the science around attachment, stress, and cortisol without fear-mongering or judgement.

This episode isn’t about telling you what to do.
It’s about making space for nuance, reality, and compassion for yourself.

Because most parents aren’t choosing a method, they’re choosing survival.

In this episode we talk about:

• Why the sleep training debate feels so intense right now
• What “cry it out” actually means (and why it’s not one thing)
• What the research says about sleep training and attachment
• Stress, cortisol, and what gets misunderstood online
• Why shame, not sleep methods causes the most harm
• A gentler way to think about sleep decisions in early motherhood

Self-care tip:
I share a simple but powerful idea for new mums: creating a “closing ritual” for your day to help your nervous system stand down, even if the night is broken.

If you’re listening in the dark, feeling torn, tired, and unsure you’re not alone. And you’re not doing this wrong.

I’d love to hear where you land on this.
You can email me, message me, or drop a comment.

thenightfeedpodcast@gmail.com

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Welcome back to The Night Feed. I’m Charlotte, and this episode starts with a bit of a rant because honestly… some days that’s where we’re at.

This week’s unpaid sponsor is scrolling when the baby sleeps. You know the drill. You finally lay down, baby’s settled, and suddenly you’ve lost 45 minutes to your phone and feel worse than when you started.

In this episode, I talk about an unintentional screen-free day and then we get into your messages.

A listener writes in with an apology to the parents she once judged before becoming a mum herself. It’s honest, funny, and painfully relatable. A reminder that you don’t truly understand the mental load of motherhood until you’re living inside it.

We then talk about what’s trending right now. The rise of posts called Things No One Warned Me About Postpartum. Not shock content. Not advice. Just quiet truths. The loneliness. The boredom. The grief for your old life alongside the love for your baby. The anger at systems and expectations. The relief of finally hearing someone else say, did this happen to you too?

This episode is about naming the parts of postpartum life that were filtered out for years. Because once something has a name, it stops feeling like a personal failure.

Self-care this week is simple. Once or twice a day, take five to ten minutes with no phone while your baby is settled. No scrolling. No fixing. Just being.

Keep your emails, comments, messages coming thenightfeedpodcast@gmail.com.

Support the show

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenightfeed