baby weight loss plateau | The one about sleep

baby weight loss plateau

In those heady early weeks of having a baby, the prospect of sleep appears like a distant memory.  You could happily sleep stood upright, whilst in a roomful of people, simultaneously balancing a monkey on your head. But alas, hopefully, as the weeks to turn to years and your little one reaches toddler-hood, from 7pm until 7am you know you can catch up on your shut eye. What, yours doesnt do this? Erm, no.  Mine neither. 

It would seem everyone from the lady down the post office to the mum at baby group has an opinion on your childs sleep pattern.  And they are eager to give you their useful fool-proof tips, guaranteed to get your little one to sleep longer involving the weird and the wonderful.  From giving them a mud bath before bed, smothering them in lavender or singing twinkle, twinkle an exact 67 times, yep, that ought to do it. Hmmm. 

Here are a few more practical tips that Ive gleaned from friends and family that Ive found useful in helping my daughter to sleep that bit longer. And theres no mud bath involved.  

1. A good bedtime routine. 

Yes, I know youve heard this one before.  But, a good bedtime routine is absolute key in getting your child to sleep well.  Who wants to be running round the living room pretending to be a tiger one minute and then the next being told its time to go to bed and you must go straight to sleep? Exactly.  

We start our bedtime routine around 6pm with stories and quiet time.  Though I admit that sometimes if Daddy gets home late, this may be replaced by wild running around, but hey, nobodys perfect! We then have bath-time and another story and then tucked into bed around 7pm.  We do this every single night, unless say, we are out late, which rarely happens.  But because our daughter is so used to her routine, if it does gets pushed back or changed slightly, as is life, its no big deal.  You may have your own routine or bed-times and thats fine. Its the consistency thats the key. 

2. A room thats not too light.

This may seem really obvious, but I never realised how light my daughters bedroom got until the lighter mornings crept up on us.  And when the room is light, what toddler wouldnt think its time to get up? We have black-out curtains which we found from Dunelm Mill and these are perfect for keeping the sunlight out. There is a subtle change in light so that my daughter does know the difference between the day and night.  If you have a VELUX window, then these black-out blinds from Itzala are just perfect and come in a lovely range of childrens styles which are gorgeous for a childs bedroom. 

(To see this full nursery safari wall mural click here) 

3.  Not too hot and not too cold. 

Making sure the room is a perfect temperature is also a good idea. Something simple, but something that can be easily be overlooked. 

4. Outside noises. 
Children can wake up at the slightest noise early in the mornings.  Obviously you cant stop the milkman from doing his rounds, but maybe close the windows to reduce the noise. 

5.  And relax. 

From the moment a baby appears in the big wide world, everyone seems to have an opinion on their sleep pattern.  From sleeping too much, to having a child akin to an owl, you will probably have already heard it all from other people.  And we wont mention that lady from the baby group whose baby slept through the night from day one. Every child is different, and you really have to do what works for you.  If your child gets up at the crack of dawn and no matter what you try they wont sleep longer, then, take a deep breath and just go with it.  

Routines and children grow and change, and the more stress and emphasis we put on sleep, the worse the problem can get. You cant force a child to sleep, but only try and make little changes to help them and you get a good nights sleep, ready for the day ahead.   

Thanks for reading, and if you have any sleep tips or tricks, I would love to hear them in the comments below. 

VELUX kindly sponsored this post.  All content and opinions and entirely my own. 

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baby weight loss percentage | Monterey Musings

baby weight loss percentage

We cruised along the Californian coast from San Francisco, to our home for the night which was the beautiful city of Monterey.  We unpacked at the Hilton Monterey, which was a very welcome and luxurious stop. I highly recommend staying here.  We had a quick dip in the outdoor heated pool (which wasnt that warm, so we swam extra fast) and then we made our way to the Old Fishermans Wharf. 

The Wharf looks out onto the rugged coastline of California and was scattered with restaurants and gift shops.  It had a real old world feel to it and there were historic buildings around every corner.  We also spotted amazing wildlife from giant pelicans and sea lions to this huge otter just relaxing in the water.  

We didnt eat in the Wharf, but we did wander past this sign and I couldnt resist taking a photograph. It seemed like such a welcoming and child-friendly place!!! Though in my humble opinion, I would like to add that I have sat near adults in restaurants who behave worse than any children! 

In the morning, we did the 17 mile drive along Pebble Beach.  This is a world famous drive along the coastline and through the areas where the U.S Golf Open Championship is held, so Im told.  My husband is a big fan of golf, whereas I, on the other hand am not.  I was a little dubious about the drive as I thought I may be a bit bored staring at golf greens, but there was alot more to it than that, and the scenery was beautiful. 

Unfortunately for us, the weather was a bit murky when we went, but on a sunny day, this place would be amazing to go and have a picnic and explore. We also saw sea lions, hidden coves and beautiful old Cypress trees. There was no rush to drive round and at least every mile was space to pull over and explore the area. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to spend but you could easily spend a day roaming around. We also met this not so little guy who landed on our car. 

After our drive, we headed to Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The aquarium has been voted as one of the worlds best.  The setting is beautiful with both inside exhibits and outdoor areas. There were lots of interactive exhibits for the little ones. The aquarium was spotless and the tanks were beyond huge.  My favourite was this huge tank, I couldnt even explain how big it was, with shoals of fish that all swam in the middle and then they would suddenly change direction.  As there were so many of them it looked they were doing a synchronised dance. Its always hard to try and capture the actual atmosphere and beauty in photographs. 

We visited on a Sunday, and it was also Memorial weekend, and the aquarium was incredibly busy.  To the point where it was hard to see some of the exhibits which was a shame and I think this hampered our visit a little.  So try and visit in the week and not on a holiday weekend if you can!  

We could have spent so much longer in Monterey, but had to leave to get back onto the Pacific Coast Highway. Monterey was very picturesque with lots to do and see.  But for us, it was back on the road, next stop: Santa Barbara. 

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baby weight loss program | Next stop San Francisco

baby weight loss program

The three of us arrived in San Francisco slightly the worse for wear, oh wait, that was just me, and Ill tell you more about that little drama next week. But, for the sake of this post, lets just pretend we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed as we disembarked the plane, caught an Uber (which was alot cheaper than hailing a cab), and made our way to Hotel Del Sol, our base for the next three nights. 

Hotel Del Sol was a good base for our travels and was in a fantastic location.  It was pretty basic, but it was clean and we got breakfast too, so for the amount of time we actually spent there it suited us fine. 

My husband has been to San Francisco alot with his job, so it was quite nice to let him take the lead and show us the sights.  On the first day we started with the most DELICIOUS waffles at a place called Home Plate. The service was amazing, it had high-chairs and was child friendly, and I didnt stop waffling on about the food for the reminder of our trip!  

With very full bellies, we wandered along the seafront and I got my first glimpse of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

We carried on wandering along and walked to Pier 39. This was by far one of my favourite places.  Yes, it is very touristy, but, I didnt think it was in your face or trashy like some tourist areas can be.  From the pier you could watch the sea lions bask in the sun, and who quite frankly, I could have watched all day.  

Also dotted along the pier were little shops, a giant carousel and restaurants.  We stopped for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp.  Again, I was a bit worried that we may have chosen somewhere a bit too touristy, but the food was delicious and fresh and we had the most amazing view looking out to Alcatraz. If you have never heard of it, Bubba Gump Shrimp is a themed restaurant based on Forrest Gump, so theres lots of film memorabilia, and the waitress even tested our knowledge on the film!  
  

Also on the pier was the Aquarium of the Bay.  It was a lovely aquarium and whilst it wasnt huge it is definitely worth a visit. We saw everything from jellyfish to sharks and my daughter adored the touch pool where she touched a starfish and manta-ray. 

On day two we had a lovely day trip to Sausalito which is a beautiful sea front city over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Most people tend to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and then catch one of the many ferries back, but we went for the easy option and went by bus. It was lovely to wander along the winding streets with an ice-cream in hand. 

We stumbled across a little gem on the Friday night and found a huge food festival called Off the Grid.  It runs every Friday night at the Fort Mason Center and there was every kind of gourmet food imaginable.  There was also drinks and cocktails and live music.  We arrived around 6pm and it was really child friendly and a lovely place to go and eat.  I recommend the truck that sells curry (and they kindly replaced my poppadom when it blew away!!) and the ice-cream tacos were out of this world.  My daughter had a taste of everything then did some dancing...apparently she is quite a fan of funk! 

And so came the sad time to wave goodbye to San Francisco. I cannot recommend visiting this wonderful city enough. There is so much to do there that I think we could have spent another week exploring.  But, alas, our travels were to continue on Route 1, the Pacific Highway.  We packed our bags and picked up a hire car as we began our journey along the West coast.  Next stop...Monterey. 

Thanks so much for reading and have you ever been to San Francisco? I would love to hear any tips or recommendations in the comments below! 

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