{“It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!”. Name that movie 😉 }
A few days ago I noticed little Avery seems so intrigued with me eating. Hubs and I were snacking and kept noticing her just staring and smiling every time we started chewing! Seriously adorable. We talked about how there’s this whole new world she’s going to be introduced to with food, and then jokingly said “Is there anything better in life than eating?” Tough question. And there may only be one thing in the whole world better than eating…..Sleeping! (Can you tell we’ve had infants in the house for 5 straight years?)
So one would think that I sleep like a baby considering how exhausting it can be to be a mama to these 4 super energetic little ones, on top of trying to stay active at the gym, spending time with friends and family, and trying to keep the spark alive with my better half. That’s totally not always the case! “Sleep when the baby sleeps” sounds really good until it’s 11:30 at night, baby is definitely sleeping, but this girl is wide awake thinking of the mile long list I’m trying to organize in my head. So though I’m not at all the best one to give advice on this topic, here’s some things I do to make sure I’m getting some high quality Zzzz’s….. most nights.
- Keep my baby/kids on a consistent schedule. This way I at least have the option to sleep through the night. See my previous post on how to get your baby sleeping 8 hours by 8 weeks! I’ve found that getting the kiddos on a consistent schedule during the day with eating, napping, etc makes for more consistent nights!
- Reading a book (Not digital). So this works for my kids and for me! Our 5 year old and 3 year old twins all sleep in the same bedroom in a custom triple bunk bed. (Future post on that soon) You can imagine how little sleep and how much partying goes on in there. One thing that seems to help them to fall asleep more quickly: reading stories before bed. They love, I love it, they sleep better. Win, win, win. And I’ve noticed if I read for a bit before I go to bed (from a book—totally doesn’t work when it’s my phone) I typically have an easier time falling asleep.
- Keep the caffeine to a minimum in the afternoon. As I shamelessly admit in my bio, I pretty much am IN LOVE with Diet Coke. But I’ve learned the hard way that my body does not like that caffeine later than about 4pm. Forgetting that has made for some pretty long nights over the years.
- Exercising. It’s so true! I fall asleep faster and sleep better when I get in a good work out sometime during the day. Exercising makes your body need to heal and recover, which encourages great rest at night! Either that, or the principle we just can’t seem to let go of with our kids: “They’ll be calm when we go out later if we let them get the wiggles out now.” Has that every worked for anyone ever?!
- Set an alarm to go to bed. This is the only way for me to keep the night from slipping away and accidentally staying up too late. Once my alarm goes off I know it’s time to brush my teeth, wash my face, and power down. (I’ve snoozed through that alarm a couple times since I’m writing this at 11pm. Avery’s been nursing a ton and sleeping not at all, so nothing got done today. BUT the kids are alive— Winning!!)
- Make a written to-do list before going to bed. I’m a list person. Everything that needs to get done makes it on a list. It used to keep me up at night going over and over in my head things that needed to get done. So now I find that writing everything down allows my brain to shut down since it makes me feel like I’m not missing anything and things are taken care of for the next day.
- Crank down the AC. It’s Texas, so it’s hot. I sleep better when it’s cooler, so we knock down the AC right before we lay down. Forever ago I must have read a study that showed cooler temperatures = more restful sleep.
- Invest in a good mattress and pillow. So we spend like a third of our life sleeping. Isn’t it crazy to think about that?? So probably not the best idea to skimp on what your body rests on for 6-8 hours every single day. Since we’ve been in college/ grad school for the past 9 years, we’ve slept on an assortment of mattresses. Some old, some lumpy, some new, some too soft, too hard. We’ve discovered we love memory foam. Pillows (use jcrossley20 for 20% off) and mattresses. When I’m pregnant and getting up 17 times during the night, I’m sure my hubs appreciated not being woken up because there’s no motion transfer. (Not that I would have felt sorry one bit if I woke him up from his blissful 8 straight hours of sleep 😉 ) We like mattresses that are super comfy but have tons of support and don’t make you feel like you’re sleeping “inside” the mattress. Remember water beds? Such a bad idea! A few months ago we got a Sapira luxury mattress and are LOVING IT. It came to our front door in a box! The kids were so curious about what mysterious thing was inside this black box… and how many minutes until they could use that box for their next play house.
Thank you Sapira for sponsoring this post. And thank you for supporting the brands that work with Hello Ivory Rose. As always, all opinions are my own.
