About Us!
Meet Mary!
Mary Foster has worked with hundreds of families from 11 countries to support parents as they improve sleep, with a strong focus on emotional wellness. She is also the founder of the Sleepy Lambs Sleep Academy – self-paced, comprehensive online courses on sleep for newborns, babies, toddlers and young children.
Mary is passionate to be able to help and support parents through this journey to better sleep. Parenting is hard enough and being sleep-deprived makes everything harder. Her passion and understanding of the science of sleep as well as her unrelenting tenacity for searching for solutions to any challenge, means her knowledge, support and passion will help deliver great results. Mary is a highly sought-after sleep consultant and has worked with hundreds of families from 11 countries. The majority of families she works with are in Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, West Sussex and Ireland. To ensure there is enough time for proper support, she only takes a few new clients every week.
Mary became a certified infant, child and maternity sleep consultant after studying at the International Maternity & Parenting Institute. She is also a member of the International Association of Sleep Consultants. She graduated in health sciences and commerce.
Career-wise, Mary has extensive experience in leadership positions in customer service, communications, and operations at a major international airline and had the incredible opportunity to work on an exciting project while working at the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) in Vancouver, Canada.
Born and raised in Canada, Mary calls Beaconsfield, Quebec home and speaks French fluently. She has also lived in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Whistler and Kelowna. Home is now in the beautiful Surrey hills, England, near Godalming and Farnham, with her husband, Gavin, and their three little children, who are quickly developing adorable British accents. Her favourite “hobby” is travelling and she’s been to 52 countries. Unfortunately, travel has slowed with 3 young children but her oldest has been to 22 countries, so hopefully they will continue with more adventures in the years to come.
She’s Been There!
Mary has first-hand experience of sleep deprivation, courtesy of her first-born – Mr. A. From day 1, everything she thought she knew about sleep went out the window, when her little newborn absolutely refused to lie down. Knowing nothing, she didn’t realise this was due to reflux and how uncomfortable it made him. He could only be held to sleep, semi-upright, 24 hours a day. At 8 weeks her GP suggested just leaving him to cry and he’d figure it out. She changed GP’s immediately and starting reading every possible book on sleep.
And 16 Months Later…
“Lady L.” arrived and Mr. A still wasn’t sleeping well. It was an entirely new experience altogether and in a way she felt a little vindicated as a parent. This sweet little girl would lie down and was content and able to drift off to sleep. A completely different experience.
3 Under 3 (and an international move)!Yes, We’re A Little Crazy!
When “Princess G.” arrived, she was only about an hour old when Mary easily spotted the signs of reflux in this tiny newborn… and her initial instinct was right. This time Mary was prepared with tools and techniques to increase comfort and improve sleep. If only she had those tools with baby #1! Her studies as a sleep consultant and extra interest in finding anything that helps babies struggling with reflux, gave her a toolbox to use to help and it made a huge difference.
These little lambs are now aged 5, 4, and 2 and present a whole new set of parenting challenges now!
