The Big Sleep...

I remember reading a blog post in the hazy days of life with a newborn where the blogger said she was composing a post all about sleep. Her husband looked over her shoulder and rolling his eyes said, "oh please! Who would anyone want to read about getting babies to sleep? You're obsessed." 
I'm pretty sure newly married-out dating my husband- busy as a full time teacher-me in my other life- would have had a similar response. But sleep and napping does become an obsession when you have a baby.
You see when they don't sleep, you don't sleep. When they don't sleep they become difficult and grouchy, when you don't sleep you become difficult and grouchy and dealing with them becomes ten times harder. 
So getting a good routine and getting your sleep becomes very important.
Important enough to write a blog post about.
Men, they just don't get it! 

Now in the early days The Baby used to sleep anywhere...

In his moses basket

On our chests...

On the sofa...on a chair...yes newborn babies sleep anywhere!

Now this post in not one spouting helpful advice on how to get your baby to sleep through the night. 
As somewhere around four to five months my baby became a reluctant napper and as we tried to introduce a new bedtime routine he also became a very reluctant sleeper.
In the early days he would have a dummy and this seemed to help him get off to sleep...

Then he started rejecting his dummy and wanted to feed to sleep and to continue sucking on his bottle to help him get to sleep.
So, in desperation (for a bit of us time) and to get him off, we started wedging his bottle in with a blanket or toy and then he would happily drift off to sleep and we would sneak back in and remove the bottle when he was deeply asleep.
I believe this is what experts would describe as making a rod for our own backs. 

What would happen when he wasn't hungry?
The window for getting him to sleep became very narrow and we had a difficult Christmas and New Years with him only settling down about ten 'o' clock.
But yet he was still waking at his normal time of eight a.m and so he wasn't getting enough sleep.
We certainly weren't.
He was still waking 2/3 times in the night as well.

So it was time to re-introduce the dummy as a sleeping aid.
So now our routine was this:

• 6.40 bath time with daddy to splash around and use up his energy
• 6:50 baby massage and put into his pj's with mummy
• 7:00 go the nursery with mummy, get fed on the rocking chair and as he drifts off swap bottle for dummy
• When he wakes in the night try to offer him a dummy instead of always giving him a bottle

But do any of you find that dummies are like socks? They seem to disappear into the ether with no trace. Especially the favourite dummy. The cherry teat dummy.

So when Wauwaa (a baby and parenting advice website and baby retailer) sent me a Snoozebaby I knew that it would be the perfect solution to our problem.
The Baby has always loved clutching soft textures and especially tags and this toy has a coiled tail to capture and hold onto the dummy.
So now when he cries at 4 a.m and I am groping around in his cot for his dummy it is a lot easier to locate and often he is still clutching onto it.
The brand Snoozebaby was invented by a mother who had a premature baby who would cry and cry for hours on end. She found that he was soothed by soft textures and so designed a whole range of baby toys and accessories made from soft textures. 
My baby certainly loves things with tags and labels and soft textures. If you want to read more go to the link above.

What techniques do you use to soothe your baby and aid their sleep? Any tips to get them sleeping through?

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Disclaimer: I was sent this product to review by Wauwaa but all opinions included are my own.