Are you getting enough?

I'm going to deviate from my usual style posts for this one, so please bear with me if you will, as you'll know I usually leave that up to the other ladies. Yesterday I attended a press event by Worlds Apart - a kids lifestyle brand that sell lots of sleep encouraging products for kids. We had a chat with an amazingly informative lady called Mandy Gurney founder of Millpond Sleep Clinic.

Myself and a number of other bloggers - Ruth, Katy, Kara, Clare, Kip and Sammy discussed and quizzed Mandy on a whole range of sleep topics. It was good and sometimes a little hard to hear other people's situations. But Mandy gave us all some really useful advice. 

I have a number of friends who have used sleep clinics in the past and I couldn't recommend getting help highly enough, and obviously the sooner the better. Do you have trouble getting your children to sleep, or do they creep into your bed during the middle of the night and fidget? So many of us parents (and children) are sleep deprived and all we need is a little help knowing what the right thing to do is. 

Don't put up or shut up about your lack of sleep, everyone deserves a good nights sleep. As you'll know if you're not getting enough it effects all aspects of your life.

There are a number of different packages to suit your individual needs. 

After yesterday it got me thinking about what things I've done to help me train my children to sleep. By no means am I saying my children have been perfect sleepers. My oldest daughter had colic and all sorts of other illnesses as a baby and sleeping was short and sweet in our household for a long while. However since the illnesses have subsided, she's grown, and I've had another baby to throw into the mix sleeping as got a lot better luckily. I've drawn on my experience as a midwife and have listened to other professionals around me and have read few books to give me a little insight. 

Things I swear by to get children sleeping better:

Sleep cues. It's so important you repeat the same cues every time you want your child to sleep, after a while they begin to associate these cues with sleep. They can be things like low lighting, a warm bath, a blanket, a teddy, reading a book, using the same words like night night as you leave the room, you get the drift. Do the same things every evening.

Don't get in the habit of your child/ren using you as a crutch to get to sleep. Children should learn early on how to fall asleep alone. I have a friend who's son could only get to sleep by rocking him in her arms, as he got bigger her back pain got worse and worse. This also has the disadvantage of when they wake in the night they instantly think about needing you again to help them get back to sleep. Not good. 

Routine, routine, routine. Now I'm not talking about being rigid and not having any room for flexibility, as people often assume when you mention the word routine. But when you are in the throws of sleep training do things at a similar time every day, and in a very similar way each day. When you've got it down properly the odd evening spent out at a friends house resulting in a later bedtime won't have such a negative impact. Oh and kids love routine, they love knowing what to expect. 

Think about the behaviour that you are complaining about and have a really hard look at whether that behaviour is as a result of what you have perpetuated. Even though you moan do you actually want that behaviour to change or actually do you quite like it. The main one I'm thinking of here is the children coming into your bed. Some parents actually like this and don't want this behaviour to stop which is fine if you're happy with that.

Try and make sure they have age appropriate nap times in the day - I have always found the better my children sleep in the day the easier the night time sleeping situation is.

And lastly be consistent. It could take a day or 3 weeks, depending on how entrenched that behaviour is. If you want to break the habit you can, but it's going to be hard and you have to be prepared for battle!

My girls couldn't wait to try out the 'Ready Bed' - a portable and inflatable bed.

Nothing is wrong or right, I'm just giving you  my tips that have helped me in my experience. At the end of the day we are all just trying to do the best we can. 

There are always going to be exceptions to this advice - like illness or additional needs that my (very) generic advice isn't appropriate for. If this is the case go and get some professional help, whether it's in the NHS or privately.

Gosh it's not like me to write such a long post, I guess it's just something I'm really passionate about. Hope it's helped and if not let me know your tips for helping your children to sleep? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy sleeping x

Nat x