We’ve struggled with Lambs sleeping since he turned 1. It’s like he just decided ‘screw you mum, i’m in charge now’. Gone were the nights of 6pm-6am with out a peep.
With baby number 2 on the way, and pregnancy progressing rapidly, I’ve decided enough is enough. I need to sort out Lambs bad habits. Eating and sleeping.
If you haven’t heard of The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep
There are parts of the story you read in a more abrupt way, parts that you read slowly and gently, and parts where you are asked to say your child’s name or yawn.
I found the instructions really easy to follow and understood what was being asked of me when reading to Lamb. As I turned the pages I was beginning to get the gist of what I was doing. I felt like the book was a form of hypnotism/deep relaxation (don’t worry it’s not, it just sounds like that as you’re reading it).
This isn’t a product I’ve been sent to review, I bought it because I had heard great things about it and we really are struggling with getting Lamb to sleep before 8pm.
Tonight I read the book to Lamb for the first time. I wasn’t expecting miracles and sat with an open mind. If it didn’t work, oh well.
Well, it did work. Or so it seemed. It has only been one night.
We began with Lamb whinging about being in bed. Nothing too loud, but he wasn’t totally settled. By Page 3 the whines were quietening and he was beginning to listen. As I turned to page 5 he asked to look at the pictures, so I skipped back to page 4 so he could look at the rabbit with the snail, then back to page 5 so he could see the rabbit with the owl.
It was around half way through page 5 when I realised Lamb was quiet. I was trying not to look him in the eye too much and attract his attention. If this happens he usually asks for something like a cuddle or “nutha bot bot”. I took a quick peek and saw his eyes were closed! I kept reading until I had finished the page and by this point he was definitely fast asleep.
I wondered how much of the book I had left. It felt like I had been reading for ages, but in fact I was exactly half way through the book! That’s right, I only had to read 5 out of the 10 pages to help Lamb to sleep.
Now, I’m not writing this review to encourage you to buy this book just yet. Like I said it’s only been one night. The reason I’m reviewing this now is because I think it will be interesting to document a series of blog posts on how this book works for us, and build up a genuine representation of how it helps with Lamb falling asleep.
First impressions are obviously positive. Anything I do differently that helps me get Lamb to sleep before 8/8:30pm I’ll try again, so this will certainly be our choice of bedtime book tomorrow.
I’m excited to see how we get on for the next few nights and look forward to having my evenings back (fingers crossed!)
Have you read this book to your little ones? Did it work for you?
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I’ve heard great things about this book. Thank you for the review, I will definitely have to order one x
Oh wow!! Magical powers from a book! So glad it’s worked. You defo don’t want to kids up through the night. x
I have been thinking of getting this – Pickle has always been great at going to sleep, but not since starting school! It sounds great, thank you 🙂 Kaz x
We are having the ride of our live with bad sleeping habits, I really want to give this a try. I really like the fact it comes with instructions to read the story this had me intrigued just by that point but the fact your little went to sleep after 5 pages! Now that’s amazing x
A magical book… That sounds interesting. I’ve had one night of sleep from my second. I remember yoyoing between the two when P3 arrived.
We have this book , but haven’t needed to resort to it yet! So glad it’s working for you though and long may it continue! X
Wow this is amazing!! I have Seen people post about the book working wonders but was dubious to see how it actually worked, long may it continue for you 😉 xx
This sounds like a great book. I think it’s really important to get this sorted out now before the new baby arrives as you’ll have enough to deal with then. We did the same routine everynight about this age. Bath, cuddle and story in bed and the boys soon learnt to be in bed asleep by 7. Hope you’ve turned a corner xx
The book sounds absolutely fascinating. I have to wonder though, did you find yourself getting very relaxed as you were reading it? I am glad it seems to do the trick for you as it can be so stressful for the child and parents if you are arguing over bedtime.
Oh my gosh I am loving u right now. After a terrible hr and a half of trying to get our 3 yr old down last night, I was in tears and so frustrated. Then I read your post this am. We have this book, and I have only tried it once, and it was a big fat fail. My little one said he was bored and wouldn’t let me read it. But tonight, desperately, I took hope from your review.
I decided I’d read him some of the stories he loves first (Mr Men funnily enough!) and then said right Rabbit book now while I stroke your back. He lay down and started to listen, this is the point of the usual tossing and turning, up and down, and CONSTANT chatter. A page and a half later he was flat out!!!! 1 1/2 pages!!! At 7.30pm. (8.30 last night!) It wasn’t like he’d had a busy day at all, but this sent him right off.
I am so very glad I read your post this am! Thank you so much for reminding me about this and encouraging me to have another try! xx
We LOVE this book. We always had a fantastic bed routine, along came baby number two and trying to put them both to bed on my own in separate rooms was a struggle. So A ended up using his iPad or something whilst I settled the baby. It ended becoming more obsessive with the iPad and he wouldn’t settle or let me read to him. Eventually we bought this book. He screamed the first night, but after he started hearing his own name he was more intrigued. We no longer use it now because he now finally settles himself. But if he is ill and wants me with him then we use this. Safe to say it’s going be getting reused for His little brother who is now struggling to settle. We have had it about a year now and whenever it has been used its always worked for us. Good luck x
We went through a long period of it taking ages to get Toby to sleep every night, in the end the only thing that worked was dropping his nap. And now he’s asleep in minutes! If the book keeps working though you’re definitely onto a winner!