Sleep Tips Saturday and GIVEAWAY - Dinosnores

This GIVEAWAY has ended! Congratulations MichVee! Please check your email. For everyone else there's still some opportunity in the remainder of the Christmas extravaganza! Thanks for entering!

Now you all know I have a baby who sleeps through the night and is easily relaxed.

.....THE ABOVE SENTENCE IS A COMPLETE LIE!

In fact, it's the complete opposite. Tom's paediatrician described him as 'hyper-alert' and he is definitely that. While he is now sleeping better thanks to our osteopath visits, he can still take hours and hours to wind down  so that he can get to sleep. Everything is too exciting. What's that on the wall? I wonder if I can reach for that thing over there? And did you hear the dog bark? I'm pretty sure these are all the things going through his head as he looks around in a million directions and moves around at the speed of light when he is supposed to be sleeping.

Dinosnores offers a possible solution to a child like this. Relaxtion and meditation for kids.

These CDs are designed by child and language experts and contain stories and soundscapes to encourage relaxation and visualisation. The sounds in the background are calming and the narrator talks in a soothing, soft way.

I really like that the background sounds blend in with the story and drown out household noise at the same time. It helps for a distracted child such as mine.

I also like that the CD runs for 30 minutes and the story starts to wash away as the soundscape takes over - leading (hopefully) into a blissful sleep.

The teacher in me really likes the fact that the stories contain bite sizes bits of fact that the child is more than likely going to learn when hearing it night after night and the instructions are simple and specific.

So you might want to know...is my little guy falling asleep listening to this? No. But he is 12 months old and for me that just isn't going to happen. I do put it on to help him wind down in his cot though, before I come in and feed him etc. He gets enchanted by the voices.

I think for all ages this is helpful, especially when used early on. I'd be keen on trying out the range for school-aged kids! It could be fantastic for ALL children but especially those with special needs. I think learning to 'stop', 'breathe' and lay still, really is a learned skill. Not even I am good at it. Meditation can reduce stress, anxiety and lead to a more peaceful existence. Who doesn't want that?

You can buy Dinosnores CDs here
And you can listen to some samples here

GIVEAWAY - Do you want to WIN the Kitten Sleepy Story and Forest Night sleep soundscapes by Dinosnores? You can! Just follow the steps...

LIKE School of Mum and Dinosnores

SHARE this post on Facebook or Twitter using the buttons below. Tagging helps!
COMMENT: In 25 words or less share what you do to relax to sleep

Make SURE YOU LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS so we can contact you if you win.

The person who has completed all of the above and has the most creative answer will win!

Here’s the fine print:
* Entry is open to Australian folk only (sorry!)
* Winner will be posted on the Blog ONLY.
* One entry per person
* A valid email must be provided in the comment so we can contact you if you are a winner.
* Entries close 9pm 17th November, 2012
* Winner has 3 days to respond before another is chosen.

Sleep Tip Saturday - What worked for us.

Once upon a time Mr.T used to wake once during the night for a feed. Just once. During that time though, he would sometimes be up screaming for 4-5 hours straight with wind pain prior to his bedtime.

Somewhere around the 3 and a half month mark, he slept less, less, less...until he was waking hourly. This continued for a few months and then he started sleeping for two hour stretches, and if I was EXTREMELY lucky, 3 hour stretches.

Since he was three and a half months old, I had not had longer than 3 consecutive hours of sleep and as he got heavier and heavier, I got more and more dismayed, stressed and well, exhausted from his lack of sleep. He wanted to be rocked every time he woke. EVERY time. In a rocking chair? No way. I had to be pacing the room. For months I have been pacing his room with tears running down my face and pins and needles in my shoulder blades.

Some of you have read my previous stories about Mr.T’s sleep, and if you want the backstory you can check it out. But I’m here to shout from the rooftops that we have found the solution. I mustered all my strength to give one more possible solution a go and it worked.

One of the things mentioned to me by Pinky McKay was an Osteopath. We had already tried Chiro, Naturopaths, Paediatricians, Sleep School and the list goes on. I was so sick of the constant disappointment. I was either told to let him scream hysterically, or that this naturopath concoction or that touch on the shoulder will definitely work. Only to come home and find nothing had changed.

I took the plunge to at least have a look online and I came across Lara’s site which had comprehensive information on the symptoms osteopathy in children can help. It began to play on my mind. Everything written there fit Mr.T perfectly – the colic, the sleeplessness, the constipation, the fact I had a fast birth and so much more. I decided this was it. The final curtain. And off we went.

The first session we went there was absolutely no change. I was told to expect this so that was alright. I tried to ignore the fact that I was driving 2 hours each way for these sessions. If it was going to be the final curtain I’d better see it through.

Immediately after the second session he started to sleep 3 hours or so and by the third night he was sleeping 5-6 hour stretches. I couldn’t believe it. I kept waking and looking at the time in shock. And the best part was, when he did wake, all I had to do was give him a quick feed and he was back asleep. Overall he is calmer, more rested and SLEEPING.

He is still waking sometimes. He's teething and that's OK. For me, one or two brief wakes a night are bliss. When you've been up and out of your bed 5 times a night for months on end, once or twice is nothing. (And yes, I even tried co-sleeping)

So why did this work for us and could it work for you?

* Osteopathy can help babies which were born by a very fast, or very slow birth. This can cause a lot of pressure on a baby’s head. Some babies will bounce back from that, and some won’t. In our case, 2 hours of pushing a 9 pound 4 baby was a bit on the fast side. She found a lot of tightness around his head and neck.

* Constipation – I’ve been told over and over this was a dairy intolerance etc. But apparently often what happens in the head is mirrored in the belly. Osteopathy can relieve that as it also helps babies generally relax (I think my little guy has pooped during each session)

* Feeding problems – Yes, we had those too. I couldn’t get Mr.T to latch and when he did, he only fed on one side and would scream on the other. I was told a chiro might be the answer. It wasn’t.

There’s a lot more Osteopathy helps with, and if you click on the link and scroll down to Osteopathy and Children you can get some more information.

For the record, on the third session she asked me how things were going and I bawled my eyes out because they are going so darn well.

Have you got a non-sleeper and could this be your answer? I hope so!

*This is not a sponsored post/review. Just me sharing our discoveries about our little man's sleep.

Sleep Tips Saturday

Who am I to give sleep tips right? My kid is a terrible sleeper. And we've gotten, well, not very far really...not yet anyway. But what I do know, is that sleep is such a massive topic among parents. We are the walking sleepless a lot of the time. It can divide us, unite us, destroy us. Maybe it’s one of those things or maybe it’s all of the above at various times of the day. You can take your pick.

Sleep Tips Saturday is going to be a short Blog post each week that may highlight a gentle sleeping solution – maybe I found it online, or from talking to someone or maybe it was suggested to me by the infamous Pinky McKay (I’ve been chatting to her – so lucky!) Sometimes it will be blog posts, inspiration, words of encouragement or a cool product.

Either way Sleep Tips Saturday will hopefully be a help, or just a forum for sleepless parents to unite and share experiences. It beats those other two. For everything suggested they will work for some, and not others. That’s the beauty of babies I guess. Such individual little beings.

My first resource I have discovered is thanks to the delightful Pinky McKay.

MUSIC FOR DREAMING

My little guy has been sleeping to the sound of white noise (train tracks) on my phone app for ages. It worked well as a newborn. As soon as we played it he would instantly settle. I didn’t even think of changing it. In my head it was one thing we knew worked so we kept doing it. I had even learnt to drown out the annoying train track sound by my ear on the baby monitor. Pinky suggested we try downloading Music for Dreaming on ITunes. She said it would be better for baby and for you. I didn’t really see how it would work for me. I was so used to the train tracks I didn’t really notice.

But oh my God I did notice! When I go in his room and pick him up to rock him for the umpteenth time I now close my eyes and am surrounded by this beautiful melody. The tracks are gorgeous, lulling and calming. I have it playing on a CD on loop all night – down low. I’m so much calmer now when I’m rocking him and while I’m still tired...I haven’t been thinking “I can’t wait to put him down so I can go back to bed” I’ve just been going with it, swaying to the music. Waiting for a few tracks to end before I put him down.

A couple of other plusses of these tracks are: It’s Australian and done in collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and it’s really accessible. You can hear samples here:
http://www.musicfordreaming.com/index.html

What have you used to lull your baby to sleep? Love if you share with me and other readers here!

PS. This is NOT a sponsored post! I just loved this and am sharing it with you all 