A Morning on Sleep at The Hub

A good night’s sleep for your little one (and you!) may feel like a far off dream but Natural Baby Shower wants to help!

On Friday 2nd November we teamed up with sleep expert Kerry Secker and field professionals to offer a morning on everything sleep. We took some exclusive pictures and videos to show you some snippets from the events - including a swaddling demo from Kerry Secker! Keep reading to take a VIP peek behind the scenes at the sold out event...

aden + anais with Kerry Secker from Care it Out

aden + anais partnered with Kerry Secker, founder of Care it Out to bring a caring and logical approach to sleep salvation. Kerry Secker is an experienced Infant Sleep Consultant and Nanny of 20 years who wants to help parents beat the bed battles. Kerry shed light on the common misconception’s parents have around sleep routines and shared her secrets to sleep success.

 “You aren’t doing anything wrong because there is no right or wrong way to do it”

It is common for parents to blame themselves for their baby’s poor sleep routine and to feel like they are doing something wrong. Kerry reassured parents that there is no right or wrong way to master the bed time routine and that every baby and family is different. What works for your friend may not work for you.

To help make bedtime easier for you and your little one Kerry shared sleep secrets.

“Keep it simple and fun!”

It is easy to get stressed out and overthink the bed time routine, but Kerry emphasised that keeping it simple and fun will benefit you and your little one. It is important to keep the routine the same each night so your little one recognises the signs of wind down time but that these steps can be relaxed and fun, not regimented and strict.

Kerry gave her top tips on the bed time routine that often work for her clients.

Start with a bath to clean them before bed but also importantly calm them down. Your little one will start to associate bath time and bed time hopefully recognising it as time to calm down. Kerry then advised parents that a soothing massage will also help to relax your little one, this can be done in the bath or as you are drying them after their bath time. Once your baby is calm and hopefully sleepy from their spa treatments, pop them into their normal sleep clothes and sleep space. Kerry also suggested that saying the same thing every night time followed by every parents favourite, a kiss and a cuddle, will help the routine. This will allow your little one to know that once that phrase is said its time for sleep.

Sleep & light with Meemoobaby founder Julia Kelly.

Meemoobaby founder and designer of Meelight, Julia spoke about the influence of light on sleep, not just for baby but the whole family.

“Too much blue light at bedtime is scientifically proven to lead to night time waking and alertness”

Julia emphasised the importance of cutting out the use of screens close to bedtime and dimming the lights a few hours before bedtime to reduce the exposure of blue light to your little one. Put simply, blue light tricks the brain into thinking it’s daytime and wake up time, where as golden light simulates sunsets and encourages sleep.

“As a solution we came up with Meelight, perfect for feeding or caring for a baby or child at night”

Julia believes Meelight is the perfect addition to any bedtime care for your little one. Light is essential to see whilst you feed and care for your little one at night, but traditional lamps or lights contain large amounts of blue light. The colour, position and brightness of the light you use is really important, not only to see the task in hand, but also to help your baby (and you!) get back to sleep easily. Julia believed Meelight is the perfect solution as it emits a gorgeous warm glow that minimises blue light. Add in the portable, wearable and hands-free features and Meelight is perfect for feeding and caring for your baby at night!

Merino Kids Wonder Wool Benefits

Sean from Merino Kids came to talk all things Merino Wool helping to shed some light on the powerhouse natural fiber. Most parents have heard of Merino wool but aren’t fully aware of the huge benefits the fiber has to their baby.

“Merino wool is a powerhouse natural fibre with a huge range of high-performance benefits which is super soft and luxuriously gentle on the skin.”

Sean explained that as a result of Merino’s ability to regulate temperature, protecting your baby from extremes because it keeps them warm when it's cold, and cool when it’s hot. For this reason, Merino is proven to improve sleep patterns of babies and infants.

“At the Cambridge Maternity Hospital in 1979, Scott and Richards revealed that babies sleeping on merino settled more quickly, cried less & fed better.”

On top of all of this, Merino also helps to reduce skin allergies due to its super soft fibers that do not irritate your baby’s skin. Sean emphasised how easy Merino is to wash and look after because of its natural protective outer layer that helps prevent stains from being absorbed, making it perfect to be worn by your messy little ones. Because merino resists odour, bacteria and stains, you don’t need to wash it as often or as rigorously as synthetics. Win win!

Bedside Sleeping and Transitioning

Sam from Snüz came in to discuss sleeping in the early stages, the benefits of bedside sleeping and how Snüz can help families bed time routine. Snüz are experts at designing products made to make sleep easier and better for families. Sam focused on the SnüzPod 3 for his talk and why they believe in bedside sleeping.

“Midwives recommend bedside sleeping for the first 6 months at least”

Sam discussed how bedside sleeping is better and safer for parents and baby. Many parents hesitate about co-sleeping because of the alleged risk of SIDS. With a bedside crib your child is still within reach but in their own safe independent bed.

“Bedside cribs allow parents to comfort, feed and settle baby without having to get out of your cosy bed!”

With bedside cribs such as the SnüzPod 3 you can comfort and care for your little one easily by simply unzipping the side of the crib from the comfort of your bed. Sam also touched upon the fact that the SnüzPod 3 can help strengthen the bond between you and your little one. The close proximity bedside sleeping brings allows your little one to know you’re there and close by if they need anything, this brings them great comfort and eases them to sleep. They can also hear your heartbeat and smell your familiar scent, all influential in calming and soothing them for bedtime.

Read our Parent Approved review of the SnüzPod 3

Happy Napping!

Thank you to everyone who attended our Morning on Sleep and to the guests who shared their knowledge and expertise with our tired Mums and Dads. Keep your eyes peeled for our next event at The Hub!