Parenting By Kate Duggan
Genius inventions
to help your baby sleep Apparently, babies sleep for fifteen to seventeen hours a day. Try telling that to a sleep-deprived parent. We can’t wave a magic wand to make your baby sleep better, but we can recommend some new innovations that might help you to get a bit more shuteye. Sneaky nappy changes “Ah 3 am nappy changes. What fun,” said no one ever. Being wrestled out of an awkward sleepsuit is pretty much guaranteed to turn a half-asleep baby to a wide-awake one. Enter the SnüzPouch. Unlike most baby sleeping bags, this one has a curved zip on the front. Open it up, slip a travel changing mat under your baby’s bottom and get to work changing that nappy. You don’t need to lift your baby out of the cot or battle to prize their legs back into a Babygro. And zips are a lot easier than poppers. The SnüzPouch is made from 100% cotton and available in lightweight 0.5 and 1 tog versions for summer and a snuggly 2.5 tog for the rest of the year. There are two sizes available and ten designs to choose from. £29.95, see www.snuz.co.uk. Baby radio Babies tend to love music. If you’re fed up of listening to the same songs or scrolling through Spotify for something different, try Rockabye Radio (www.rockabyeradio.co.uk). It plays non-stop music around the clock, with tunes chosen to suit the time
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of day. So you’ll hear relaxing, calming lullabies at naptime and bedtime, and upbeat fun melodies to bounce around to at other hours. There’s even a daily disco. The station is the brainchild of Karen and Mike. Between them, they’ve composed music for the likes of CBeebies, worked on West End Shows like The Lion King, trained music teachers and set up The British Academy of New Music. In other words, they know what they’re talking about. Good vibrations I wish the NapNap sleep mat had been around when my daughter was a baby. I may have fewer grey hairs and yawn-induced wrinkles. She was a bit of a nightmare sleeper. I don’t think she slept for more than a couple of hours at a time until after her first birthday. It was exhausting. The NapNap combines gentle vibrations with white noise to comfort and calm a baby. Basically, it’s designed to mimic a womb environment. You can use it in a cot or pram and it rolls up into a bag so is handy for travelling. You can also use it on the floor for tummy time (it might help to ease colic). There are six levels of vibration to choose from, including two that mimic a heartbeat. And it’s waterproof, with a machine washable cotton cover. All in all, it’s a genius idea. At £120 it isn’t cheap, but when I was sleep-deprived I’d have probably sold a kidney to get more shuteye. See www.napnapuk.co.
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