The night time diaires guest post from Amy and tots

Next up in the night time diaries is Amy from Amy and tots. Amy is a mom of three, well four if you count their puppy . I don’t know how she does it with three I find having one hard at times.

  Please could you tell me a little bit about your blog and where we can find it?

So I’m Amy, a 27 year old stay-at-home mama.  I blog about pregnancy, parenting and all things lifestyle. I started my blog in May 2015 where I just posted about my pregnancy with my second child.

   How many children do you have and what are their ages?

I have 3 children. Keira is almost 3 years old, Joshua is 16 months and then there’s Zara who is the baby at 2 months old.

 

What is your normal night time routine?

We don’t really have a routine, I just sort of go with the flow and follow their footsteps. On a good night, it’s normally a bath around 7, followed by a bedtime story for Keira and bed by 8 latest. As for Joshua, well he’s the hard one. Once Keira is in bed then we normally give him his bottle of milk and cuddle him until he falls asleep. Once he’s asleep we can transfer him to his cot. Zara just goes whenever she likes but she’s still little.

  Have you purchased any products to help your child sleep (night lights, dream sheep) and have your found them to be effective?

All 3 of my children have a sleep aid. Keira has a Leap Frog My Pal Scout, Joshua has a Cloud B Frankie the Fox and Zara has a Summer Infant Slumber Melodies Lamb.  Keira and Joshua will not sleep without these, the music definitely soothes them. Zara’s lamb plays white noise so I have started having that playing while she sleeps so it becomes a sleep aid for her too.

Does your little one sleep in a cot/ bed or do you co-sleep?

Keira is in a bed, she’s always been very independent and has always wanted to sleep by herself. We co-slept with Joshua until Zara was born and now he sleeps in his cot. He never entertained anywhere but our bed before then. Now we co-sleep with Zara, it helps with breastfeeding as I don’t really have to get up and down every 2 hours and disturb her as she falls asleep while feeding.

 What lengths have you gone to, to get your children to sleep? 

I have slept in Keira’s cot, with her, a fair few times when she was younger if she was having a bad night. It just made it easier rather than having to get up and down every minute. I’ve also sat up for 2 hours once with Joshua, when had a really bad night, and held him while he slept. He must have had a bad dream and every time he dosed off he’d shake himself awake screaming.

Do you find night times as bad as you expected before becoming a parent?

I think I definitely expected it to be a lot worse than it is, but maybe I’m just used to not getting a decent amount of sleep. None of my children have been great sleepers and Keira is only just sleeping through now. Joshua and Zara don’t sleep through the night either but I never expected them to do that anyway.

If you have older children does it get any easier?

It definitely gets easier, well until they realise they can get out of bed during the night and bug you for an hour rather than going to sleep! The excuses start rolling out then like, “I left my stone outside” or “the slide is getting wet in the rain”. Things they never cared about before haha.

 Would you change anything about how you have done things at night time?

I don’t think I would change anything, maybe I’d like to keep Keira in a cot forever so she doesn’t come creeping into our bedroom during the night.

 

What piece of advice would you give to a parent struggling with night times?

You will always here “oh my baby slept through from 2 weeks” blah blah blah. Don’t let it worry you. All children are different, babies aren’t designed to sleep all through the night. Your child will sleep all night eventually, and those sleepless nights will certainly be a thing of the pass before you know it.

Just enjoy those sleepy night time cuddles. Kids grow so fast and they don’t want to be cuddled forever, so get it while you can!

If you have enjoyed reading this guest post from Amy pop over to her blog. Or you can find her on Twitter,Facebook,Instagram and YouTube.