Many new parents find the lack of sleep or interrupted sleeping very challenging. We were very lucky, as our daughter started sleeping through the night very early, and now I would like to share a few tips that had helped us.

Swaddling

I will always remember the second night after getting home from the hospital. The first night after being born, Isabelle slept in her Moses basket in our bedroom without any problems. She was waking up for feeding, but then she would always fall back to sleep in her basket. But the second night when we put her back to her basket after feeding her, she would not sleep and was crying a lot. We checked all the obvious things, but could not find the reason for her crying. We finished up sleeping with Isabelle on our chests, taking turns every 2- 3 hours! The following morning we all were exhausted. Luckily that afternoon I spoke about that to my best friend and she told me to swaddle our daughter in a blanket. It worked like magic. In the evening I wrapped a blanket around her and she fell asleep in her Moses basket within seconds. Later on I came across a grobag@swaddling blanket and if I knew about it before, I would have bought it.

Nursery room

As I have mentioned above, Isabelle started sleeping through the night quite early, I think, when she was just a few weeks old. Originally we made a decision she would stay in our bedroom for the first three moths. But the reality was different. As I am a very light sleeper, it was very difficult for me to sleep with her in the same room and I was waking up all the time. My husband moved Isabelle to her nursery room when she was only 4 days old and it really helped me. We had a baby monitor and when she woke up we could be in her baby nursery within a few seconds. For the first few days I was waking up and checking on her quite often, but then I got used to it. Putting Isabelle in her bedroom so early saved us all the troubles most of my friends had when moving their babies from their bedrooms to their nurseries. We put her Moses basket in her cot and when she was too big for her basket (around 3 months), we had no problems with her sleeping in her cot. We also bought a grobag@sleeping bag, she loved sleeping in it and we did not have to worry about covering her at night. When we were travelling, we took her sleeping bag with us and she slept at other places without any problems.

Baby monitors

One of the products you will definitely need. We decided for a Tomy Walkabout Classic Advance monitor. It has many features we found very useful, such as two way communication, sound sensitive light display, nightlight on baby unit and was awarded by many magazines as one of the best buys. There are some other monitors I would recommend:

My tips

Chicco mama lullaby night light- you can record your own voice and replay it to help your baby sleep. It also projects coloured lights and plays classical music as well as other melodies. It is suitable from birth to 24 months.

Cot mobiles

Nursery decorating

The Complete Sleep Guide

My last advice about sleeping would be to teach your child quite early how to fall asleep on her/his own. It took us 4 - 5 nights of Isabelle's intense crying, but at the end she learnt it and we had a few moments for ourselves. At the beginning we went to check on her when she was crying and if she had no obvious reason for crying ( dirty nappy, hunger), we just put her back to her moses basket and let her cry. Sometimes it took her ages to stop crying. I believe, if we did not leave her crying, she would have never learnt how to fall asleep on her own.

KIDSLEEP Night Light and Alarm

Kidsleep Child Alarm Clock, Wake Up Indicator and Night Light works by showing children in a simple, easy-to-understand way when it is time for them to get up, and when they should be staying in bed. When the child wakes up they simply look at the clock face - and the lit image on it will either show an illuminated picture of a bunny rabbit in bed (time to go back to sleep!) or a wide-awake bunny (time to get up!). It also offers young babies a soothing environment for sleep and works as a normal alarm-clock. This great product simply means more sleep for us parents!

Designed with travel and versatility in mind, the baa-baa blackout blind is made of a lightweight, light-proof material which blocks light the light from windows and helps your baby get a great night’s sleep. It adjusts to any shaped window up to a maximum size of 130 x 200cm. This new improved version of the Baa-baa blackout blind is even lighter in weight yet blocks more light.

I hope you will find my advice and tips quite useful and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please, contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it