A settled bedtime routine....

Those three little words that can sometimes turn even the strongest parent into a quivering wreck within 5 minutes....Bedtime with children

We were fairly lucky with our first 2. The bedtime routine seemed to go without a hitch most nights BUT with a 9 year gap between our middle child and our most recent addition,things have changed! I think the youngest member of the family is intent on giving us payback for all those evenings spent sipping a glass of wine and having ‘us’ time while our little angels slept soundly asleep in their beds. 

What do we do? We call for Moshi Monsters help of course!

When I first discovered the Moshi Twilight app I was encouraged by the description and reviews but still downloaded it with a sense of uncertainty as, at the time, I doubted anything could help my little anti sleep warrior settle. The Gro clock had its moment but I found he needed to be tired BEFORE I started with that one. I needed something other than me singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over, for hours until we both just got bored!

So with some trepidation we approached bedtime. 

I reached for the ipad and switched the app on. There are huge amounts of stories & relaxing music to choose from, so every night children can be transported to another magical place on their journey to sweet dreams. The app is aimed for young children and has been created specifically to calm the mind. The stories follow the natural pattern of sleep by slowing the rhythm down as it progresses. You will find the app is split into 2; relax and sleep. At present there are 24 relaxing choices and 22 sleep choices. With soft voices and gentle music it is easy to see why this app has the potential to encourage deep relaxation and sleepy children. You can even add your favourites to a playlist, which makes it quicker to retrieve the choice your child has asked for.

Initially my little one wanted to hold the ipad and watch the screen. We don’t allow our older 2 children to have electronics at bedtime so I did worry this little app would have its work cut out! I thought it would have the opposite effect and actually make him more lively, but I decided to through with my plan... Mummy & Moshi V Sleep Protester.

Within the first 2 minutes something magical happened! Where once we had a fidgeting ball of sweat we now had a relaxed little boy ready to rest! During waking hours he talks a lot, so it came as no surprise that he continued this theme and although he was prepared to meet my request regarding, ‘lie down now and rest your body’, he still wanted to chat about what he had seen on the screen!

Another couple of minutes of chat turned into snuggling down with his favourite teddy and actually listening to the relaxing story. It had the same effect on me! I would’ve been quite happy to fall asleep to Nodkins’ Dream Hopping story!

The next few nights followed the same pattern and we soon got into a lovely routine. To our great relief this little app has turned what was becoming a bedtime nightmare into a calm, peaceful time we can enjoy with our precious son. He even started requesting his favourite story and the message has now got through that this time is relaxation time. He soon drifts off into a lovely deep sleep.

This app will not take the place of that special time we spend, before the app gets switched on, reading a favourite story book, but now we have a warm drink and bedtime book before letting our imagination wander and drift off to sleep with Nodkin and her friends. It does actually sit very well alongside the more traditional method of bath, book and bed, which will come as a relief to some parents who struggle with getting a lively child to lie down and relax after their favourite story.

It’s a very user friendly app, so if you want to bypass Twinkle Twinkle Little Star every night, get bedtime under control with very little fuss and bring a little magical calmness to your routine then give it a go! 

Visit http://bit.ly/2Au3pmm to find the Moshi Twilight App. You can subscribe for one week, one month or a year, with prices ranging from £2.49 to £29.99.

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