Who we are, and why we wrote this website
We live in the north of England with our high-needs toddler, who has turned our world - not to mention our house - upside down. Despite having eight nieces and nephews, each with their own challenges, we kidded ourselves that our own baby would sleep all night from day one, would be happy to tag along with us while we continued our pastime of travelling round the world, and would generally be a pretty laid-back baby. "Relaxed parents, relaxed baby" - I cringe when I remember us saying that this would be the key to our parenting. As it was, we had a pretty big shock when our little girl came along. From the day she came home from hospital, she wanted to be held 24/7, slept badly, needed constant movement or feeding to be soothed, and generally presented us with challenge after challenge. As time went on, she only seemed to get more and more unsettled and demanding. Friends with similar-aged babies would say to us "Isn't it just wonderful that they've left that difficult, unsettled newborn phase behind?" when, in fact, we felt that things were getting more challenging by the week. We'd have to bite our tongues when people moaned about their babies waking up "TWICE!!!" last night when ours had spent more time awake than asleep.
The good news is, things have got a little bit better! A large part of it was simply due to her getting older, while the disappearance of her silent reflux also marked a chapter of her being a bit happier. But we also found new strategies and came up with new ideas. We kept thinking we'd read every baby book on the market - what else could we possibly try? But then somebody would mention something that had worked for them, we'd try it and - hey presto! - car journeys with her became just that bit easier.
We found, ultimately, that most websites and books were just too optimistic. They'd suggest singing a lullaby or rocking the baby, and would give no alternative. Others would simply suggest ignoring your baby or shutting them in a room to cry. We didn't feel happy doing this. So what we wanted to do was create a comprehensive website with multiple ideas to try, and then sources of help if things are still not improving. We'd like to help you respond to your baby's needs while looking after yours too. We hope you find it useful!
The good news is, things have got a little bit better! A large part of it was simply due to her getting older, while the disappearance of her silent reflux also marked a chapter of her being a bit happier. But we also found new strategies and came up with new ideas. We kept thinking we'd read every baby book on the market - what else could we possibly try? But then somebody would mention something that had worked for them, we'd try it and - hey presto! - car journeys with her became just that bit easier.
We found, ultimately, that most websites and books were just too optimistic. They'd suggest singing a lullaby or rocking the baby, and would give no alternative. Others would simply suggest ignoring your baby or shutting them in a room to cry. We didn't feel happy doing this. So what we wanted to do was create a comprehensive website with multiple ideas to try, and then sources of help if things are still not improving. We'd like to help you respond to your baby's needs while looking after yours too. We hope you find it useful!