Love To Dream because I Love to sleep

You know that awesome idiom, “Sleeping like a baby”? Remember how people used to use it to denote a good night’s sleep? Let’s all laugh at that shall we.

When has anyone ever wished to sleep like a baby unless they legitimately want to wake up every hour, need constant shushing and soothing, and get cross because their own hand hit them in the eye?!

Well, we’ve definitely got the whole “sleeping like a baby” vibe happening in our house, and whilst we have become more accustomed to a serious lack of sleep, it’s still a toughie. I’ve tried a lot of methods to try and help get Cece past the stage of waking up every 60-90 minutes but she just doesn’t seem bothered that mummy and daddy need their rest. So selfish.

I did think it was getting better and I even posted about it. Sadly I learnt the hard way that one should never state in writing that something is going well – basically, as soon as you sound even the tiniest bit smug, life bites you in the ass. For instance, I posted on Instagram (here) that the sleeping had gotten a little better and that I wasn’t having to give up dairy because I couldn’t see it making a difference to Cece and her cramps. Ha. Ha bloomin’ ha. Guess what folks, I’m now off dairy. And each day I seem to add a new item to the list of things that I can’t eat. So far, the list stands at:

Chocolate – maaaan I miss this baby
Dairy
Citrus
Strawberries (I can have a few in my morning smoothie)

I’ve taken to having almond milk in my tea but because it tastes so gross in coffee, I’m now not getting my morning cup o’ joy anymore. Oh the things we do for the love of our children. Giving these food items up has made a remarkable difference though in terms of her not screaming. Not that she was a screamer – I have this fear that I’m painting life with my newborn as much tougher than it really is. It’s not. She’s a pretty chilled-ish child. She just doesn’t like certain food in her breast milk and she upchucks a lot. Oh, and she doesn’t like sleeping long at night.

Throughout all our sleeping research (it’s been an interesting 5 weeks), we’ve found a few key changes and products that have worked for us and one of them has been the Love To Dream Swaddle Up.

The main issue with her sleeping is 1) she currently has a cold so she snores, snarls, coughs and gurgles and it wakes herself up, 2) she likes to be in mum’s arms, 3) she jerks herself awake with her crazy arm movements.

Now the Love To Dream Swaddle Up can’t really assist with the first two but it does do the following for us:

1. It stops her scratching herself in the face/hitting herself awake – she can easily move her arms to her face but because of the gentle way it swaddles, it prevents jerky movements that will hurt her.
2. It stops her scratching me.
3. It stops her getting her hands in the way when I want to feed her at night.
4. It gives her the opportunity to self-soothe. It doesn’t entirely restrict movement like a normal swaddling cloth would, but it still offers the benefit of helping baby feel secure..which in turn, makes them feel calm.

Traditional swaddling has always made me a little anxious – mainly because I was always hopeless at origami and swaddling looks way too hard. I also always thought of it as too restrictive. The Love To Dream Swaddle Up allows access for baby’s hands which is vital for development and self-soothing (you’ve seen how babies are constantly touching their faces in the womb right, yeah, well, it’s because it’s comforting). The Swaddle Up also has two zips which makes for easy changing – you can just whip the legs out the bottom – and you won’t find that in a traditional swaddle.

Every night is different though and sometimes, no matter what we do, she still wakes up super niggly but that again could be because her nose is blocked so it will be interesting to see how much better the Swaddle Up works for us when her nose is clear and she doesn’t sound like T-Rex.

Competition time!

Because I know the importance of sleep, I’m giving way a Love To Dream Swaddle Up Original (worth R429.99) in mint green. Yay. To stand a chance to win, you can enter two ways (doing both doubles your chances but it’s not a requisite).

To enter via the blog:

Comment on this post telling me who you would like to win this for (yourself and your baby, or a friend, or a very small pet etc). Please make sure you leave your valid email address, we will use that to contact you.
Follow Love To Dream on Facebook (We will check)

To enter via Instagram

Find the Comp post that I have shared here, like it, make sure you’re following me, make sure you’re following Love To Dream and comment what colour swaddle I’m giving away.

Simple. No “tag 5 million friends” needed.

This competition is running until 30th October. The winner must be in SA

P.s, I’m actually giving away a swaddle in dove grey but I wanted to check how many of you cheeky blighters actually read the full posts -I see you!