You may remember I wrote a little while ago about a sleep diary I was keeping for myself and Chloe as part of a Kiddicare campaign.

Each day I charted mine and Chloe’s nighttime sleep and nap times. I also charted her moods throughout the day as well as mine.

I found something interesting by the end of it. I was having trouble getting Chloe to nap in the evenings and she didn’t want to settle down to actually sleep until 11.30pm. We were all getting worn out, grouchy and myself and A had no time to ourselves as a couple. We have now started putting her to bed earlier, gradually each evening – actual bed. Not napping in our arms or in the lounge which we had been doing and it’s really working. Last night she slept from 9pm till 7.40am … With feeds inbetween of course but immediately back to sleep after each feed – this is a huge improvement on 11.30pm until 8am just 4 weeks ago. I’ve started to see that I need to pick up on her sleep cues and make her nap rather than letting her get more and more overtired.

It’s easy to miss these cues when you also have a toddler to concentrate on but it’s important to do it otherwise it makes your life so much harder and it really affected my moods.

Here are some fab tips from the Kiddicare team starting with pregnancy sleep:

Pregnancy sleep – arrggh. I think I was more tired in pregnancy than I am now due to discomfort or crazy dreams.

And did you know that new mums spend 10 days in the first year just putting baby to sleep..?

Thanks to Kiddicare for running this campaign. I’ve found it really helpful.

For more info and advice check out the Kiddicare Blog

* I received a voucher for taking part in this research.