LIFE // HOW TO GET YOUR BABY TO SLEEP LIKE A BABY (IF BABIES SLEPT)

Those of you who follow us on Instagram(and if you don’t, you should) will have noticed that we spent Tuesday night in a swanky hotel eating room service in fluffy dressing gowns (um, actually onesies, but dressing gowns makes us sound cooler!) We’re not going to lie. It was bliss. But we’re not boasting. We were actually there as guests of Pampersand working as your own personal Sleep Detectives, doing some vital research into what the hell will make these babies sleep.

We actually learnt LOADS during a presentation by three experts: Cathy Rogerson (Scientific Communications for P&G), Jo Tantum (Sleep Expert) and Dr Ellie Cannon (resident TV doctor, baby expert, and totally coincidentally, Gemma’s GP!)

The Science

Apparently your baby will wee about 3-4 times a night, which is around 150ml (picture that amount in your Tommee Tippee bottle… that’s a whole lot of wee!) and so it’s no wonder that most babies wake because they’re wet. We did a science experiment with Cathy Rogerson and poured liquid into the new Pampers Baby Dry nappies. These are different from the original ones because they have three separate compressed absorbing channels where the liquid flows into which are sealed off from the rest of the nappy and dries in about 20 seconds. Bone dry. So if your baby wakes in the night because they’re wet, these nappies are worth trying. 88% of mums would recommend this nappy and they can add us to those stats as we were super impressed.

The Sleep

Belle slept through the night from 10 weeks, Gemma got cocky, then Belle became a bad sleeper. Whereas Leo couldn’t crack the whole sleeping thing until he was 10 months, and now he sleeps soundly – until 6am. We had a long chat with Jo, the sleep expert, but we’ve narrowed down her key points here as we’re aware you’re short on time and should be asleep yourself (stop scrolling!) so you get a few hours before your baby wakes…

1) We know sleep is exceptionally important for development. They key is consistency when it comes to getting babies to sleep better. They’re creatures of habit. Don’t keep switching routines.

2) If you use a sleep aid, use a muslin. They are the safest item you can use. If you lay 20 muslins on a babies face they could still breath through them.

3) Sleep cycles end after 30 minutes. If they wake, don’t get them up – simply soothe your baby back to sleep in the same environment that they fell asleep in so that they reset their body clock.

4) If you are in a really bad place with their sleep, create a new routine and give yourself 72 hours to fix it. Remember, consistency. It will be bloody hard work but make a plan and stick with it, which is really really REALLY difficult when you are desperate but it will be worth it in the end.

The Sanity

Gemma is a huge fan of Dr Cannon. She has been her GP for years and she likes her ‘no fluff’ attitude. Her book was the only baby book Gemma read before having Belle, and it is all about trusting your gut instinct which is so important whilst being a mum.

Dr Cannon stressed about the important of consistency when you are trying to get your baby to sleep well. If they are used to sleeping in a dark room then they must always sleep in a dark room. We learnt that your baby should be nappy free for 20-30 minutes per day (aaahh but what about our pretty rugs?!!) and that although you can’t control everything, you can make sure that if they are in the right nappythen they won’t wake up from being in discomfort because they are sleeping in too much pee!

Dr Cannon explained that we all compare and judge each other so much more now that we are living in the ‘Facebook Generation.’ You see other babies of a similar age on social media at a different stage to your baby and you panic. Her advice is trust yourself and not compare yourself to anyone. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture, so take a step back, do what works for you and remember that there is no right and wrong.

We were those annoying people at the end of a presentation who asks a million questions. We hope the above answers the questions you asked us via Instagram but we’ve been blabbering on too much in this post so will leave you in peace for now. Please email us {Hello@ThisIsMothership.com} if you have any more questions and we will try to help and pass on the wise words of the sleep experts.