Weighted Blankets

Source:

ADDITUDE

Lou has been given the chance to borrow a ‘Weighted Blanket’ to help her at Bedtimes, and at other times to help assist in calming her. Before we trialled the blanket I found it difficult to comprehend how a blanket with weights in could have such a positive effect! 

What I’ve found is that these blankets are literally worth their weight in gold! We noticed the improvement in Lou’s bedtime routine straight away, anyone who has read my ‘Bedtime and Sleep’ series will have read that Lou has had problems with bedtimes since May ’16. We would usually experience a high level of anxiety with the transition of getting ready for bed then settling to go to sleep, objects are often thrown and Lou will try anything possible to gain our attention to return back to her upstairs. 

The first evening that we tried the weighted blanket, Lou was keen to be wrapped in the blanket and I couldn’t believe that within 5 minutes she was sound asleep! This has also worked during ‘Chill Out’ time after a bath, and before going up to bed, Lou asked for the blanket and fell asleep on the sofa and had to be carried upstairs! 

We also would like to try the blanket for comfort during the day, and try and recognise if Lou is feeling anxious or angry about something and use the blanket to prevent any further sensory overloads. 

Lou is a huge ‘Sensory Seeker’ she has loved being swaddled tightly since she was a newborn and would settle to sleep far better. Lou thrives on the pressure that a weighted blanket offers.

As a family we have decided that a personalised blanket of her own, is a must for Lou and we hope to be able to provide one as a Christmas present! 

I was directed to a company called:

‘Leanne’s Weighted Blankets’ 

Where personalised blankets can be made at an appropriate weight, dependant on the weight of the child and by using a pattern of material that is of interest to the child.

Frozen and Shopkins patterned weighted blankets

‘Shopkins’ patterned weighted blanket

Lou has a huge interest in ‘Shopkins’ at the moment, and a pink fleece one side and a Shopkins pattern on the other, is going to be very popular with Lou! 

Not Lou! But another child enjoying a ‘Frozen’ patterned weighted blanket

I don’t normally like pressure and prefer not to be wrapped up, but even I almost fell asleep under the blanket! 

These products are not limited to weighted blankets, there are other products on the market that work in the same way:

• Weighted lap pads (I imagine would be good to have at school.)
• Weighted cushions.
• Weighted snakes.
• Weighted vests.
• Weighted caps.
• Weighted wrist and ankle scraps.
• Weighted cuddly animal.

Thanks for reading 🙂 

Sleep and Bedtime Series ~ Guest Blogger

Today I am featuring Sophia who Blogs at ‘Tattooed Tealady.’  I absolutely Sophia’s personalised header for her blog. I find the blog so clear and she uses some fantastic images in her posts, making for a very eye catching Blog.  

Tattooed Tealady started as a beauty Blog, which is great as I’ve not featured a beauty Blog before, Sophia also writes: 

“ book reviews, recipe posts and restaurant reviews, and most recently, a place to document my journey through my first pregnancy, with plans to include parenting posts from January 2016.”

1. Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old they are? 

– I’m Sophia, a 28-year-old Psychology graduate turned blogger. I write over at http://www.tattooedtealady.com where I talk about beauty, food, books and parenting. I’m a first time mama to 7-month old Willow, an independent baby girl who makes every day an adventure. 

2. What is your child’s usual bedtime routine? 
– From the beginning we always said we wouldn’t try and implement a routine, because our lives are fairly flexible and we wanted to go with what Willow wanted and needed. For the first two months this meant no routine whatsoever, but by 9 or so weeks old, we noticed Willow was starting to put her own routine in place, which we started to follow along with her. Now at just over 7 months old, this is more like a proper routine with most of our day set like clockwork to do certain things at certain times, including bedtime. 

Unlike many families who find a bath right before bed works best for them, Willow is not a fan of baths when she is starting to get tired, and so we usually have ours much earlier in the day. Instead, our bedtime routine centres around dinner time and story time. I aim to have Willow at the table eating dinner between 5pm – 5:30pm at the very latest, which varies day to day simply by what time she decides to wake up that morning. We’ll have dinner together, tidy up and settle down on the sofa for her last bottle of the day, before going upstairs around 6pm – 6:30pm, getting into her sleepsuit or pj’s for the night and settling down to read together. 
Willow loves reading any time of day, but I find when it’s close to bed time it really helps to keep her content and help her drift off peacefully, rather than fighting sleep. After a few books she’ll go into her sleeping bag, I’ll pop her cot-bed with her night-light on and I’ll say goodnight. Some days I can simply kiss her nan-night, leave the room and she drifts off herself, sometimes I have to go back in a few times to reposition her, find her dummy for her or just generally soothe her. On a good night she’s asleep within minutes, but every now and then it can take much longer.
3. If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back and see what the problem is? Leave them?
– Generally, we decide what to do based on the noises we hear coming through the monitor. If Willow sounds like she’s just content talking away to herself, we wait to see if she’ll drift off alone. Other times, for example if she sounds a little frustrated or on the very, very rare occasions she’s getting upset, we’ll go straight in. On those occasions I’ll go into her room quietly, trying not to make her more alert than she already is. She will often have rolled onto her side or tummy, which she tends to find distracting and uncomfortable. I’ll pop her back onto her back, find her dummy which she often throws out of the cot whilst playing, and go back through the goodnight process. I’ll check her nappy, usually the culprit to her still being awake, before stroking her face, make shushing sounds which she has always found calming, make sure she has her comforter and then say goodnight before quietly leaving the room again. Sometimes once is enough, other times I’ll have to do this anywhere up to a handful of times before she’s asleep.

4. What is your child’s usual bedtime? And usual wake time? Do you have any views on later bedtimes, does it mean they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning? 
– Willow generally wakes between 5:30am – 6am, any later than that is a treat for me as I get a little longer in bed too, although those times are sadly few and far between! Bedtime generally is between 6:00pm – 6:30pm, although there is the odd occasion once every fortnight or so, where she will fight sleep and stay up until 7pm – 8pm. On these occasions she still wakes up at her usual time in the morning. 

5. Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime?
– We are very lucky that after the initial first few weeks when the world was a very big and confusing place for Willow, we generally have things very easy with her. She never really cries, she’s exceptionally well-behaved around others and is a very happy and content baby. Because of this, we find that most of the time, bedtime is pretty smooth running. She does like to have her nightlight on, which is a projector that displays stars on her ceiling as well as playing a variety of soothing lullabies or nature themed sounds, but on some occasions we go without as it can also be distracting for her if she’s having the odd night where she’s fighting sleep. 

6. Do you have any other strategies that have worked for you?
– Staying calm! Babies aren’t robots and their needs will change from day to day. I read Willow’s singles as much as possible and try to work around her, rather than making her work around me. Listening to her cues, watching her body language, giving her what she needs all works for us.

7. Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon?
– As Willow is just over 7 months, we are still lucky enough to have day time naps, although these have always been more difficult for us than actually getting her to bed at night. She’s always been a light sleeper in the day and often fights nap time. I found a chart when she was just a few weeks old, which was a rough guide to how many naps a baby has at different ages, roughly how long each nap should be and roughly how long they are awake between naps. I find Willow has loosely followed the chart and so it’s a pretty good guide to go by.

At this age, Willow tends to have 2-3 naps a day, usually 2-3 hours of awake time between each nap and napping for 30-60 minutes. Her usual is more around the 30-minute mark and she very rarely naps longer than an hour. That said, she sleeps so well at night and very rarely wakes throughout the night – even skipping those dreaded sleep regressions we’re all warned about -, that I don’t mind so much if she doesn’t nap for long during the day.

You can read more from Sophia at: 

www.tattooedtealady.com

Twitter

Instagram 

Facebook 
Thanks goes to Sophia for joining in with the Sleep and Bedtime Series.

Thanks for reading 🙂 

This is the last guest Blogger feature in the Sleep and Bedtimes Series, it has been a wonderful few months in sharing experiences from some wonderful parenting Bloggers, thanks to everyone who joined in. I will look forward to my next guest series. 

~ Nicki 

Sleep and Bedtime Series ~ guest Blogger

​

Today I am featuring Steph who blogs at ‘Mental Parentals.’ Steph is a family lifestyle Blogger,  she uses the Blog to log her: 

“thoughts and build up a bank of memorable moments of family life” 

and to track her children’s development,  which I think is such a fantastic thing to do. 

1.      Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? 

I’m Steph, a 28 year old Mum with two beautiful boys.  My eldest, O, is 5 years old and my youngest, Q, is 6 months old.

2.      What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

At the moment, we have a bit of a different schedule for them both.  O has some supper before we all head upstairs at 6pm.  Both the boys share a bath and Q is taken out after a few minutes to get dried, nappy on and into his sleeping bag.  I then feed him, wind him and feed him until he falls asleep – a time to yet to be determined.  Lately, it can take a good while as he’s full of trapped wind for some reason!  Poor baby.  O stays in the bath until I’m feeding Q, where his daddy makes sure he’s properly washed.  He gets dried and dressed and into his bed ready for his little routine.  Now that he’s at school, the deal is that he read some, or all, of his school book to us, then we read him a story book.  After story time, he’s tucked up and he chooses two songs for us to sing for him.  He’s often asleep before we finish singing, but would know if you cut one short!

3.      If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

I do go to see what the problem is with both.  Q is too little to leave and there’s good reason for him to cry out.  O sometimes says he isn’t sleepy – usually during the holidays.  We let him put his light on and stay in his room and read for a little while, but find that he usually falls asleep with his head in a book and the light still on within an hour!

4.      Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

Both children have their own rooms.

5.      Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?

I don’t think they wake each other up – I might be wrong!  It always seems to be that one is awake whilst the other sleeps, and vice versa!

6.      What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 

The kids are both usually asleep by 7:30, Q sometimes a bit later due to dealing with his tummy.  O is awake before 7am, without fail.  Q is usually between 6:30 and 7:30am, but does still wake 2-3 times a night for feeds.  I’ve tried putting O to bed later through the holidays to attempt a later get-up the next morning but find it doesn’t make a jot of difference.

7. Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime? Do you have any other strategies that have worked for you?

Choose a routine and stick to it.  If something doesn’t quite work for you, for whatever reason, change it.  We’ve done bath, stories, songs and sleep with O since he was around 9 months old.  Once Q starts falling to sleep a bit better and sleeping longer periods at night, we’ll introduce the same routine with him.  We might move it to our bed though, instead of in O’s room, so that it’s a neutral territory!

8.      Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon? 

Q has daytime naps, usually after we’ve dropped O off at school so around 9:30am.  He also naps in the afternoon after lunch, around 1:30pm – both for just over an hour or, if I’m lucky, two hours.

You can find more from Steph at: 

Blog:  http://www.mentalparentals.com

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Thanks to Steph for joining in with the Sleep and Bedtime series, it’s great to hear the experiences of fellow parenting Bloggers.

Thanks for reading 🙂 

Guest Feature ~ Sleep and Bedtimes Series

Today I am featuring Lucy at ‘Real Mum Reviews.’  Lucy states that she started her Blog to:

share my experiences, to help others in the same boat, by sharing real life experiences of products & services aimed at pregnancy, motherhood and beyond.

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? 

I am Lucy – mum to 3-year-old Erin and am currently 36 weeks pregnant with my second daughter.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

My daughter at aged 3 goes to bed around 7.30/8pm. Our normal bedtime routine is that we have milk downstairs – then go upstairs, get in pyjamas/brush teeth etc, and then read a story before having a cuddle and a chat. She normally starts to nod off when we have a cuddle, and then I put her in bed and tuck her in. Erin was breast fed until she was 2, so as a result, unfortunately used the boob as a bit of a sleep aid, which caused quite a lot of challenges in that she has never really learned to settle herself to sleep. Unlike some parents, we are unable to put her in bed and leave her to go to sleep on her own. However, she will now self-settle if she wakes in the night, and I have no problem with the cuddles before bed – she is only little once! 🙂

Having had a nightmare sleeper from birth to 2 years, I am now dreading my second arriving and returning back to sleep deprivation! I am hoping for a good sleeper 2nd time around. This time, I will make a conscious effort to teach her to self-settle, and not rely on me or the milk as a sleep aid!

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

I am a little bit weak – so if she does cry, I would always go in. When she was younger I was probably a bit too quick to go in, whereas if I had left her a little longer she may have self-settled.

Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

She has her own room, and has been in there since she was about 10 months.

Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?

Can’t answer this one but would be interested to know!

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?!

My daughter goes to bed about 7.30/8 and usually wakes about 7/7.30am. I occasionally let her stay up late if there is a special occasion like family party or wedding, and if I do, she generally will lie in (the latest is till about 9). I don’t find much difference in her wake time if I put her to bed at 7 or 8, its fairly consistent.

Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime? 

We have a bedtime story every night which I find really helpful for a routine. We don’t do a daily bath time as this doesn’t work with our lifestyle/working hours etc. We have never really used projectors/music or comforters. Erin does love a cuddle (won’t settle without one) and has her Ra Ra (bunny rabbit) with her to cuddle.

Do you have any other strategies that have worked for you?

We have found sleep a real challenge up until Erin turned 2, at which point she miraculously appeared to turn a corner. There was no particular reason for this, other than perhaps her understanding of what was happening at bedtime improved!

Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon? 

We stopped my daughter’s day time naps when she was about 26 months, mainly because her bedtime sleep was so bad we wanted to test the theory that she would be so tired at bedtime that she would sleep better. It didn’t work right away, but now she doesn’t nap and generally sleeps through unless she has a nightmare. If we have a particularly busy day she will occasionally nod off in the car or when we get home, but this is only a quick power nap, and not the long 2.5 hour naps she used to have in the afternoon.

Thanks go to Lucy for joining in with the Bedtime and Sleep Series 🙂 

You can find Lucy’s Blog here:

Real Mum Review 

And on social media: 

Facebook

Twitter : 

@realmumreview

Thanks for reading 🙂 

Sleep and Bedtime Series ~ Guest Feature

Today I am featuring Kelly, who blogs at Kelly Allen Writer. Kelly Blogs about ‘Lifestyle and Freedom,’ I can completely relate to Kelly when she explains that:

“As a child I spent most of my time at the library with my head in a book or watching movies.” 

Here are Kelly’s experiences of Sleep and Bedtimes:

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? 

I am a mother to two children, George aged nearly 7 and Molly 5.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc. 

Varies from night to night but ALWAYS stories.

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? 

Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

Go and see them, you never know if there is a real emergency (there never is). 

Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

They have bunkbeds and have always shared a room 🙂

Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first? 

No tips. Bedtime is the time when I give up any hope of doing any blogging hahaha! I think forcing them into their own room can sometimes be a mistake, we tried it and they hated it. They missed the company. 

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 

We have found that it doesn’t matter how late to bed, the children still get up at 5am regardless! Sometimes earlier! George flakes around 8pm and always wakes before 7am. Molly will go to sleep later, she likes to stay up late and then she sleeps in. Weirdest thing is they were the opposite as babies.

Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime? 

Music/stories played on the cd player, letting them play until they choose to go to sleep. 

Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon? 

No naps here!

Thanks go to Kelly for joining in 🙂 

You can read more from Kelly here:

www.kellyallenwriter.com

Twitter: @kallenwriter

Facebook

Thank you for reading 🙂 

Guest feature ~ Sleep and Bedtime series

Laura’s Lovely Blog
www.laurasummers.co.uk

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? 

I have two children. Logan who is 4 (nearly five) and Aria who is two. I think to explain about our sleep history I probably have to go right back to the beginning. To Logan. He was and has always been a fantastic sleeper. He slept through from about 12 weeks and we didn’t really look back. If my son wakes in the night there is always a serious reason, he is sick or he has wet the bed or had a nightmare.
When my daughter arrived, she was a bit of a shock to the system. At first we thought it was colic, but she was such a terribly unhappy baby. She either wanted to breastfeed all the time, until I felt like I was doing nothing else. Or would refuse to feed. When things got bad we were averaging 3 hours some nights and I felt like I was going delirious. At 5 weeks old she was diagnosed with cow’s milk allergy and silent reflux. Changing my diet and medicating her made a big difference, but she has never been a good sleeper. For a long time she would only sleep with me. She is still dairy free now, but we weaned her off her medication at one. 
We have tried all sorts of things, and I think I own nearly all of the children’s sleep advice books!  Then in February this year I think I just hit a wall. Every night she would cry for 2-3 hours at a time and nothing I could do would settle her. It was always in the middle of the night. She has always been very attached to me. I would sit in her room and try and sit next to her cot to get her to settle. I would watch her shake herself awake sometimes to look and check that I was still there. Sometimes she would just be curled up in a ball crying. My gut said that something wasn’t right. She wasn’t standing at the cot side desperate to get out.
I called my Health Visitor for advice and got referred to a sleep specialist, but even she was a bit baffled by Aria’s night crying as I had a good routine in place. In the end I went with my gut and I took her to the GP. We decided to put her back on reflux medication. Within 2-3 days she was sleeping through the night. It was amazing!
That being said, she is still not the best of sleepers, she is a light sleeper and regularly wakes for small things and it can be tricky to settle her at night. She also can be quite an early riser, but things are so much better than they were.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

We used to bath every day, but now – depending on levels of dirt… we bath every other day. My husband has started travelling a lot with work and I just needed to pragmatic about what I could achieve. The bed time routine is bath or wash and teeth brush, pjs, we always read a story together – usually just one unless it’s a short one, then we sing one or two nursery rhymes, have hugs and I settle each of them into their beds. 

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

My son rarely does anything, he sometimes gets out of bed again and then I just go back him and say enough. My daughter can be a monkey. And can have a good shout when I put her to bed. My strategy varies depending on what I think is up. Knowing she has reflux I like to ascertain at first that she is well and after that I usually just go in a regular periods and say ‘enough now – sleepy time’. She has a very different cry if she’s in distress, rather than just unhappy with the arrangements. So I know when she is playing up. But when the reflux was bad, we used to just bring us down and let her sleep on us. And I think that did breed some longer term problems. So now, if she is unwell, I try to soothe her and sort the problem out upstairs – ideally in her bedroom. If possible.

Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

They each have their own rooms. But they have shared on holiday several times. Before my daughter’s reflux was under control this was actually a nightmare. She would wake my son up who would then start crying and then we would be trying to settle two children instead of one. No word of a lie, one time we moved her cot into the bathroom as we didn’t know what else to do. We managed to get them both settled this way and to sleep. I’m cringing writing it, but if she sleeps with me she keeps waking herself up to look or call for me, so it was the best solution we could come up with. 

Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?

N/a

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 

My children are usually in bed by 6.30/7pm at night. We have put them to be later than this, but I actually think it makes things worse. It’s like with my daughter’s nap. I have tried cutting it out to see if it would affect her early waking and I found it made her sleep worse, so I put it back in. If they go to bed later, they normally wake up the same or earlier and are just tired and ratty. My son will sometimes sleep later, but Aria won’t. 
Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime? 

The routine I mentioned above works well for us. I think the biggest thing is being consistent. They know they have one story, two occasionally. They have two songs max and then they go to bed. So I don’t back down if they ask for me, I just say kindly no it’s bedtime now. I also try to make bedtime affectionate, we have lots of cuddles and kisses and I like them to go to bed feeling loved. Both of my children like a night light and don’t like it when it’s really dark in their rooms. Which is fine with me. We did try classical music with my daughter when she was small, but it was such a tricky time I’m not really sure it worked. 
Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon? 

My daughter still has an afternoon nap, she struggles if she doesn’t. She goes down after lunch. I have found recently that I have to wake her after an hour or it’s really hard to get her down at bedtime. She can never sleep beyond 3pm either or I’m in trouble! If we’re out and about for a day, I’ll just let it go though.
My 4-year-old dropped his nap when he was about 2 and a half. He is a child who really needs his sleep. He needs 12 hours or he struggles. And sometimes after busy days he needs more and will sleep in until about 8am to catch up. I really was spoilt with him! He also has a gro-clock which he really understands now and if he wakes up early if the clock is blue then he knows it’s not time to get up. 
It’s not unusual for my daughter to wake at 5/6am but we have started trying to settle her until 7am or give her books to look at in her bed. Trying to teach her that’s too early to get up. When I think she is old enough to understand I will get her a gro-clock too as it’s really worked with my son. 

You can read more from Laura Here: 

www.laurasummers.co.uk

Twitter: @laurasummers

IG: @laura_summers

Facebook: fb.com/LaurasLovelyBlog

BIO:
Laura’s Lovely Blog is a lifestyle, parenting and book blog. Written by Laura, a Mum of two, who is slightly obsessed with handbags and has a lot of love for lovely things. A self-confessed bookworm, she blogs about parenting, books (naturally), fashion and beauty and her weight loss journey. 

Thanks go to Laura for her wonderfully detailed account of her experiences with sleep and bedtimes. 

Thanks for reading 🙂 

 

Guest Blogger ~ Sleep and Bedtime Series

This is this 5th guest Blogger feature for my Sleep and Bedtime series.

Jessica Blogs at ‘Beautiesandthebibs.’ She shares her parenting journey and has done some great product reviews. Jessica has recently written a post called ‘What do I ask at a nursery show around?’ This is a great and informative post for any readers looking around nurseries for their little ones. I could relate to this after I’ve done a few show arounds in previous years, when I was a baby room leader. 

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? 

I’m a first time mommy to a beautiful little girl called Ava; she is 8 months old and a cheeky little monkey. Before starting maternity leave I was a nursery manger, looking after children aged 2 -4 years of age. 

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

I try to keep to a strict bedtime routine, this consists of a nice bubbly bath, then a bottle and a cuddle. Where she normally falls to sleep on me and then she goes in her bed. Sometime she stays asleep and I don’t hear from her for a good couple of hours. Ava isn’t one to self soothe so tends to cry if left in her cot whilst she is awake, she will make herself that upset to the point where she is sick if left. Other than crying to gain my attention she has recently learnt that banging her dummy off the bars makes a lot of noise. 

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

My daughter is very lucky to have her own pretty room although she prefers to come into bed with me. Co-sleeping was something I was adamant I wasn’t going to do, but as the weeks go on I looked more and more like a walking zombie. It got to the point where she would still be awake at 3 o’clock in the morning.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 

I usually put Ava down to sleep between 7 and half past. I have tried to put her down later in the hope that she will go to bed easier and maybe sleep for longer. Sadly this doesn’t make any difference if anything she is harder to get to sleep as she is over tired. Ava tends to wake up at 5 in the morning for her bottle but then once had it she falls straight back to sleep. Then sleeps until about 8, this is normally in bed with me though! 

Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime?

When Ava was really little she was such a good sleeper I mean when she was new born she would go 5 hours in the night between feeds. If she did wake up and didn’t need a feed I would put on her musical hippo nightlight on and this sent her straight back off to sleep. We did go and buy a Ewan the dream sheep and this used to work wonders. Not so much now as she just throws it around her cot! 

Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon?

I would definitely say a good bedtime routine is important even from a young age. We got really lazy with ours and let Ava win by staying downstairs with us when she should be in bed. We are now paying for this as she won’t go to sleep in her cot by herself anymore and sometimes will still be awake at 11pm. 

As Ava is still only little she has two naps a day neither of them are for very long. The first one is around 10 for about half an hour. Then her second sleep is around 1 for around half an hour again. We do have a little rule that she isn’t allowed to have a sleep after 4 as this makes bedtime so much harder than it already is. 

Thanks goes to Jessica for joining in with my Sleep and Bedtime Series.

You can find her Blog here:
www.beautiesandthebibs.co.uk
And on social media: 

Facebook

Twitter 

Instagram 
Thanks for reading 🙂 

Guest Blogger ~ Bedtime and Sleep series

This is the 4th of my guest posts in the sleep and bedtime series.

Today I am featuring Lauren from ‘The Mummy Side of Life.’ 

Lauren Blogs about ‘Parenting Adventures, Lifestyle and Memories.’ I absolutely love the illustrations and design of Lauren’s Blog, and I enjoy following the journey of Lauren and her little boy, which includes some gorgeous photographs. I really like that Lauren describes her Blog as “digital record of our life as a family.” How wonderful to look back on in years to come.

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they?
My name is Lauren. I have a 17 month old boy called Oliver.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.
We have our dinner, have some family time in the lounge and head up for a bath around 6pm. We spend around 15/20 minutes in the bath playing with his favourite toys and reading his bath books.

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?
I leave Oliver as I know that he will eventually settle. He doesn’t really attempt to get attention anymore due to that.

Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?
Oliver has his own room (typically the biggest one in the house, of course!)

Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?
Oliver doesn’t have siblings but I used to babysit my niece and nephew a lot, day and night. What I found was that the younger one would go and wake the older one up in the morning which he definitely wasn’t happy about – she soon grew out of it once she turned 3 and done her own thing.

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 
I’ve found that the later I put him to bed, the earlier he will get up. We go into his bedroom around 7pm, read a story or two (they’re only short ones, the longer they are the more awake he becomes), I turn on his mobile on top of his wardrobe and shut the door. He’s usually asleep in 5 minutes.

Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime?
I do find that the stories help him settle and if I don’t switch his mobile on, he won’t go to sleep so I think soft music definitely helps calm them down.

Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon?
Oliver only has 1 nap a day now, last month he was having 1 in the morning also from around 11am to 11:30am but now it’s 1pm until around 3pm. Without his afternoon nap by 5/6pm he’s desperate to go to bed and our house is like tantrum city. The only way I find this manageable is playing with his favourite toys or watching a film together – usually Madagascar or Antz!
Thanks go to Lauren for sharing her experiences, it is great to get a perspective of sleep and bedtimes from a range of ages, especially as Oliver is the same age as Moo. 

You can find Lauren’s Blog at:

The Mummy Side of Life

You can also find her on 

Facebook

Guest Blogger ~ Sleep and Research Series

Sleep and Bedtime series.

Guest post questions:

This is the first of my guest posts in the sleep and bedtime series.
Today I am featuring Jo from ‘First Time Valley Mam.’ On her blog Jo says that she started her Blog:

“As an online diary.” Jo is a fellow parenting Blogger.

Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they?

I’m Jo, mother to one little guy, Z who’s 3, nearly 4! 

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

We don’t tend to have a routine as such, well as in your normal typical routine. Z tends to go upstairs with his dad around 7, his dad will play the Xbox and Z will watch YouTube on his iPad. Sometimes he falls asleep, others we put him in his room. E has to catch him at the ‘right’ time or he will go past sleep and we see 10.30 easily! 

If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

Z has autism, his way of getting attention is climbing on the window. As this isn’t very safe for any of us, we have to go in and remove him! We do sometimes put his TV on as it calms him enough to stop and then he’ll fall asleep.

Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

He’s an only child. 

Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?

N/A

What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! 

The later to bed the earlier wake up. We have a few weeks of waking at 3am. If we can get him to bed by 8-8.30, with no naps, he likes to nap on the school bus at 3.30, he only needs to think he’s napped and that’s him awake till 10.30 then up at 3. If we get him no naps he’s still up at 3. We have to find the balance on a 20 minute or so nap, so he feels he has a has a nap, but his body is still tired enough to go to sleep. This tends to be around 8.30-9. The more sleep he has the more he needs. The less sleep he has the less he needs. 

Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime?
The disco lightbulb works well! It makes him stop bouncing about long enough for his body to calm down for sleep. 

Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon?

 He falls asleep on the school bus 3.30 I find he’s much better with a nap, than without. Sometimes without a nap he’s much, much worse! 

Thanks go to Jo for joining in with my bedtime and sleep series, it’s great to share experiences.
You can find Jo’s Blog at:

www.firsttimevalleymam.com

On social media:

Instagram: Firsttimevalleymam 

Twitter: @Cooksey_83 

Facebook: Firsttimevalleymam

Thanks for reading 🙂 
 

Sleep and Bedtime Questions.

Here is a copy of the email that I’ve sent out to fellow Bloggers that were interested in sharing their sleep and bedtime experiences within their family:

As the bedtime routine is very tricky in our household, and this has prompted me to research sleep in children and I would like to reach out to other families, it doesn’t matter if bedtimes are tricky or if they work well for you, I’d like to do featured posts from other Bloggers for the first time on my Blog and help by sharing Blog URL’s and other links to social media accounts. Whilst (hopefully) receiving experiences from other Bloggers, I hope to write a post about the research that I’ll be doing on sleep and bedtimes in children. My children are 4 and 17 months, currently my 4-year-old isn’t coping well with bedtimes, but my 17-month-old copes fairly well. It would be great to hear from families who have children from birth to around 12 years old but I’d also be happy to feature older children’s sleep and bedtime experiences.
I will not make any judgements on experiences shared, and you can share as much or as little personal information as you like. (If you have 1 child please skip questions 4 and 5.)

Here are the questions:
1.      Please explain a bit about yourself. How many children you have and how old are they? You can add children’s’ names or keep anon.

2.      What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime routine? E.g. Bath time, story, (how many?) etc.

3.      If your child has tried to gain your attention after you’ve said goodnight, what do you do? Go back to see what the problem is? Leave them?

4.      Does your child share a room with a sibling or have their own room?

5.      Do you have any tips for siblings sharing a room? Do they wake each other up in the night/morning? Do you put your youngest or eldest up first?

6.      What is your child(ren)’s usual bedtime? And usual awake time? Do you have any views on putting later to bed, does it mean that they get up slightly later? Or still the same time in the morning?! We have found that it doesn’t matter how late to bed, the children still get up at 5am regardless! Sometimes earlier!

7. Do you have any strategies or tips for a smooth running bedtime? We have tried:
·         A specified amount of bedtime stories.
·         Using bubble tubes/rainbow projector.
·         Listening to classical music.
·         Using a bedtime sticker chart.

Do you have any other strategies that have worked for you?

8.      Does your child still have day time naps? Morning or afternoon? Morning and afternoon? As my 4-year-old gets up at 5am, by 4pm to bedtime (7pm) I describe as our ‘tricky’ time as she no longer has an afternoon nap but at this point she is extremely tired. This can affect behaviours throughout evening meal time, bath time and getting ready for bed. Do you have any advice/tips on how you deal with times like this?

I’m greatful to have received so answers via email already, I will be featuring these experiences from this week onwards. I would be also happy to receive Blog post links to share stories or answers to the questions above from any of my social media followers who’d like to share their experiences of sleep and bedtimes. Please email:

sensorysensitivemummy@outlook.com

And I will send the questions to you! 

Thanks for reading 🙂