Hello, I am Louise.

You are probably reading this late, phone dimmed, hoping the next twenty minutes hold. That is where I have spent most of my working life.

My name is Louise Watling. Since 2001 I have worked as a private nanny and baby sleep specialist. Overnight, in the room, alongside the family. I am still doing it now.

I have never had a website or a social media account. My diary has stayed full for 25 years through one thing only: families recommending me to other families.

The families who hired me could afford any support in the world. They could have replaced me the next night if the results were not there. They kept asking me back. Year after year. Country after country. Many asked me to sign non disclosure agreements.

That is the most honest answer I can give to the question you are really asking: does this actually work.

What that has looked like in practice

For ten years I held a single rota position with one family. Three children. Homes in Paris, Beirut, Namibia and Switzerland, and time on their private yacht.

I kept the same routines and the same standard of care running across countries, time zones and entirely different environments for a decade. Families in that position do not keep the same person for ten years out of sentiment. They keep them because the results are reliable every single night.

Twins have been a thread running through my whole career. I spent three years in London with premature twins, a boy and a girl, from when they were seven months old, and I have been placed with twins several times since, including newborns. Twins are the most demanding version of what I do, and being asked back to them again and again says something specific about what a practitioner actually knows.

I am based in the Cotswolds and I am still taking full time live in contracts now.

Why lived experience is the whole difference.

Most baby sleep advice is written by people who took a course. They learned a theory, passed an assessment and started writing. The theory is not wrong. It is just untested at 3am, in a real home, with a real baby who has not read the manual.

Every method in the Calm First guides has been run hundreds of times on real nights, where I was the one accountable for whether the family slept. When something did not work, I was there at the next wake to find out why, and I adjusted.

That feedback loop, repeated across 25 years and more than 100 families, is the difference between theory and knowledge.

A course teaches you what usually happens. Only the room teaches you what to do when it does not.

I am also a mum of two

In January 2016, after nearly ten years of being the person families called through the night, I became the one making those calls. My son Louis was born that January. My daughter Eleanore arrived in December 2018.

I already knew the method. What I had not known was what it feels like to be so tired that your thinking becomes unreliable. To have all the knowledge in the world and still find yourself sitting on the bedroom floor at 3am with no idea what to try next. To feel the specific weight of something not working when you are too exhausted to work out why.

Every word in these guides carries both sides of that door.

What I actually do

I work in the home. Day and night, depending on what the family needs. I have sat at 3am in every kind of household, with every kind of baby, at every stage from newborn through to toddler. I do not advise remotely. I am present, watching, adjusting, working through each night alongside the
family.

The core of my work has always been the same. Instilling the right routine for this specific baby at this specific stage. Understanding what is developmentally happening and responding to it with precision rather than panic. And teaching parents how to carry that approach forward so they do not need me in the room every night.

That teaching element is what Calm First is built on. The knowledge I pass to families in private homes, structured as a staged guide you can use without me being present.

What most families are dealing with when I arrive

Most nights start the same way. A mum is exhausted, she has tried a lot of different advice, and she feels unsure what to do next.

The baby is being picked up at every noise. Nights are bright and busy. Feeding and settling are tangled together. The whole night has turned into a cycle of escalation and switching.

The problem is usually not effort.

It is a lack of calm order.

Your baby is not a bad sleeper. They are in a stage nobody has shown you

Two minutes tells you which stage, and exactly what to do tonight. No controlled crying. Ever.

FIND MY BABY'S STAGE IN 2 MINUTES →

2 minutes. 8 questions. Completely free. Tells you what to do tonight.

My approach

Calm first. Then a simple order. Then stop changing things.

That is the foundation of everything I do.

When nights are chaotic, I do not start with perfect routines or exact timings. I start with what changes the night fastest: lowering stimulation, regulating before deciding, and finding one calm order you can repeat.

A calm plan reduces over handling. Less over-handling reduces escalation. That is where improvement starts.

I ignore exact timings, comparison charts, and the pressure to create a "perfect routine" immediately. Babies are not robots. Every baby is different. Every home is different. There isn't one generic solution.

Why Calm First exists now

I am still taking private contracts. That has not changed.

But after 25 years I made a decision. The knowledge I carry into those private homes should not be limited to families who can afford a live in specialist. The method works. It has worked across cultures, time zones, and every kind of family I have encountered. There is no reason it should stay behind a private hire fee.

Calm First is the first time I have made this knowledge publicly available. The same staged approach. The same understanding of each developmental window. The same specific guidance I give at 3am in someone's home, structured so you can use it without me being there.

What I do not do

I do not use cry it out with newborns. I do not leave very young babies to "self soothe". I do not push rigid schedules in the early weeks.

Newborns need support to regulate. A calm, predictable rhythm that fits their baby and their home. Not a training programme.

"Gentle" isn't a label. It is how the night feels. Calm, present support that reduces escalation. Low input. Slow hands. Steady repetition. Responding to needs without turning the night into an experiment.

Where my guidance stops

I do not diagnose.

If there are medical concerns, reflux symptoms, breathing concerns, weight gain concerns, feeding issues, or anything that feels clinically worrying, I will always direct families to their GP or health visitor alongside what we are doing.

I am the calm pair of hands at 3am. I am not a clinician. Knowing where my guidance stops is part of what makes it safe.

Ready when you are.

Answer 8 short questions and I will tell you exactly what stage your baby is in, and what to do tonight.

FIND MY BABY'S STAGE IN 2 MINUTES →

2 minutes. Completely free. No card required.

25 YEARS · 100+ FAMILIES · NO CRY IT OUT · OVERNIGHT, IN REAL HOMES