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My blogging mojo has been a little sporadic lately and this has more to do with a lack of sleep than a lack of blogs! Its ironic that with the amount of hours we have been awake, that I dont have blog posts coming out of my ears but it is official, the littlest member of the Lilypad family has decided that sleep is for the weak.

Our little angel is totally adorable, a complete cutie and a true gift to our family. She is interesting, funny, chatty and gorgeous but apparently she likes an early morning party. Everyone tells you that no two children are the same but with my first daughter being a text book baby, sleeping 7pm to 7am, I was quietly smug in my abilities to create a routine and I will hold my hands up and say I was so wrong. (This maybe the only time you ever hear me utter these words, so it maybe wise to keep this blog post).

In the early hours of this morning I was woken with the little lady shouting me to "come get me" and once my eyes were open, I automatically reached for my phone to check the time and saw that I had emails, messages and social media notifications. Now admitedly I should have be wondering why I was getting all these messages in the middle of the night but you have to be thankful for a permanent broadband connection eh? Technology is such a big part of our everyday life now, it seems crazy to think that it doesn't seem all that long ago I was using a dial up on the computer to access the internet once a day.

But I digress .... I sometimes think that the light nights have woken the little one, so as the dark nights draw in more and more, maybe we might just get a little more sleep. Although with the threatened power black outs, it looks like we might all be in the dark ..... which might also put an end to the midnight emailing too!

Disclaimer : This post is brought to you in association with Virgin Media.

Image courtesy of supakitmod at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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How much did you sleep last night?

How much sleep do you need to function?

It fascinates me that different people need different amounts of sleep and can sleep so differently too. I am a really deep sleeper, I can place my head on the pillow, fall asleep and be snoring within seconds and my eldest daughter is very much the same. However my other half and youngest daughter take time to wind down and both need complete darkness to prepare themselves for sleep, so when we were asked to take part in a sleep study by Silent Night, we leapt at the chance.

Research by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has found that sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly. Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone in children and young adults with many of the body's cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep.

So how do we sleep in our house? 

Apparently a new baby typically results in between 400-750 hours of lost sleep for parents in the first year and my other half would argue that this isn't restricted to the first year. My youngest daughter has never been the best sleeper and when she is poorly, it seems that sleep literally goes out of the window. Our "typical" night is usually broken by a toilet break or one wake up at the very least!

We were sent the Tempur-Pedic Sleep Mask and whilst I was dying to try it, the man on the Lilypad needs to sleep easier and as it conforms to the contours of your face, I felt it was only fair to let my other half try it out. I am not suggesting for one moment that he has big ears but the sleep mask has a really good strap that does not hurt the ears as it has high enough placement and soft material. Being a typical woman, I had to check it out myself (when he wasn't looking) but it seems really durable and there are no edges that could fray over time.

A sleep mask is never going to be the most glamorous bedtime accessory and with small children, managing to stay in bed for the whole evening is a successful night's sleep in our book but the Tempur Pedic Sleep Mask did mean that if my other half was repeatedly getting out of bed, he was enveloped in darkness as soon as his head lay back down again, which helped to ease him back into slumber.

Sleep accessories are good but for me, nothing beats a good bed and I can be terribly grouchy if I haven't had my 8 hours sleep (I think my grouchiness levels have increased since I am repeatedly woken up pre 6am). Part of the Silentnight Sleep Study reveals that many of us are victims to others' tired and irritable behaviour through lack of sleep. 

• 84% have been on the receiving end of someone who is tired and irritable
• Over half have been victim to rude and irrational behaviour from tired folk
• 30% have ignored irrational behaviour from someone who is tired
• 87% said ill manners and queue jumping topped the poll for getting us in a bad mood after a good night's sleep
• 15% take their lack of sleep out on others on the road

Silentnight know how important sleep is and want to help make all our daily commutes and routines as easy as possible by providing a range of comfortable mattresses for all different types of sleepers, to have a good night's sleep. After all, 80 per cent of people sleep better on a new mattress. (wow, that is a major statistic!)

A good night's sleep has become like the holy grail in our house, what with light sleepers, snoring, toilet breaks, poorly little ones and sleepwalking children but sometimes, just sometimes (maybe with a little help) we get that elusive silent night.

What helps you go to sleep?

Disclaimer : We were sent the Tempur Pedic Sleep Mask for the purpose of the sleep study.

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I see lots of lists such as 50 things to do before you are fifty or 50 free things to do with your children but what about creating a list about 50 things to love about life ..... that are free?

If you asked my two year old what are the things she loves, it would be a different list to my eight year old and a completely different list to mine. So I asked a group of amazing ladies what they would add to the list, so here is our collective list of the best things to love about life .... that are free!

1. Love
2. Family
3. Drinking a cup of tea while it's still hot
4. Fresh bed linen
5. Freedom of choice
6. Sunshine! Warms the face and the soul
7. An unexpected lie-in on a Sunday morning
8. Hugs - giving and receiving
9. Second chances
10. Paying someone random a compliment
11. When your teenager asks if you are ok
12. Chatting to a old friend and completely forgetting the time
13. Being able to have a hot bath without someone needing the toilet
14. Hope
15. Counting your blessings
16. Time - either having it for yourself, or giving it to someone else
17. Hearing your child say mummy for the first time
18. Cuddles
19. The smell of cut grass
20. Real caring and genuine friendship
21. Waking up on a morning to find one your children snuggled in beside you
22. Watching one of your children be kind to a sibling for no reason
23. Dancing to your favourite tune
24. Wearing your best clothes just because
25. Being awake before anyone else in the house is pretty amazing.
26. Playing 'Pairs' with the children and they genuinely beat you
27. A bedtime without a tantrum
28. Sleep
29. Hearing your child giggle
30. Showing kindness to someone - especially when they're having a bad day
31. The unexpected things
32. Reading a great book
33. A song evoking a happy memory
34. Exercise
35. Learning a new skill
36. Laughter
37. Creating an adventure for your children
38. Finding something you thought you had lost
39. The crunch of autumn leaves under foot
40. Snow days
41. Being spontaneous
42. Smiling at a stranger - especially on the underground escalators
43. Writing ..... a love note, a blog post or a story
44. Peace
45. I love to fall asleep next to someone I’m in love with
46. I love to wake up next to someone I’m in love with
47. Watching the stars twinkle in the sky
48. Stories around a campfire
49. Kissing in the rain
50. Walking barefoot on the grass or in the sand

What would you add to the list?

Thank you to the following lovely ladies for their contributions, Molly, Jenny, Mary, Jenny, Pink, Annie, Donna, Cat, Carolin, Michelle, Helen, Andrea, Helen, Aly, Cass, Liz, Becky, Anya and Kellie.

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There are 70 sleeps till Christmas. Ooops I did it again, I mentioned the C word before November! There has been a rule in my family that we don't mention Christmas until after my brothers birthday in November. He used to get really upset with any of us that started talking about Christmas before his birthday and when I say he used to, I am still only referring to last year!

So we have to do stealth Christmas preparation prior to November and I have been having a clear out of the bedrooms in readiness for the arrival of Father Christmas. Unfortunately for my other half, this also meant I was clearing out anything that gathered dust on a regular basis .... it is a good job that he doesn't sit in the same place for very long.

So I went through all the children's old clothes, toys and our somewhat amazing dvd collection and on the recommendation of a friend, decided to do a car boot sale. I did not relish getting up at 5am in the morning but we did laugh at us bartering over 50 pence. Whilst I was determined that we were not coming home with a car full of stuff, I didn't want to give everything away for pennies as the profits of our little Sunday morning venture was going towards our family festivities. Unfortunately with music and movies so easily downloadable these days, the dvd collection remained one of the only things remaining on our little pasting table, so the minute I got home I got the app on my phone for Music Magpie. Doing a car boot sale and selling all our dvd's was never going to make us rich but it was a definitely a unique way to declutter and in the end we had a giggle doing it. 

The only person who wasn't laughing was my eldest daughter, who was not amused at me clearing out her room .... especially when I told her that if we didn't declutter her room Father Christmas wouldn't be coming to her because he would think she had too much stuff! Well, it was the only way ......

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Disclaimer : Whilst we received recompence for this post, it is based on personal experience only and is not in any way affiliated.