Hot New Colours for our Wonderful British Summer!

This Summer at Friendly Baby we are bringing some colour into your life with the fabby new Tots Bots Rainbow Wraps available in aqua, green and orange star prints as well as purple and yellow spot for just £8 each. This is a new design for 2008 and has improved binding around the legs to help prevent leaks and a more rounded aplix to prevent chafing on the skin.

The wonderfully bright Mother-ease One Size nappy is available in such exotic colours as Amazon Emerald, Egyptian Gold and African Sunshine for just £7.50 each. So let your baby lead the way in the fashion stakes and be amongst the first to try these new colourful nappies and wraps!

Special Offer on Onelife Hampers

From now until 31st August 2008 Friendly Baby are pleased to be able to offer a FREE Onelife Nappy Accessory Kit with every Onelife Altogether Nappy Hamper Set.

The Onelife Hamper is already at a much lower price than RRP at just £229.95 for 20 nappies, 12 covers, 2 packs of liners and 1 pack of nappy sanitizer, all bundled in a very handy hamper.

The Accessory Kit comprises a lockable lidded bucket, 2 laundry meshes and a packet of nappy sanitizer, and usually costs £25.99 at Friendly Baby.

What is Preventing Your Baby from Sleeping Through the Night?

Friendly Baby would like to help you deal with the various issues parenthood brings. We are gathering information from some of the World's leading experts. Please let us know if you find this information interesting and of use (or not) so that we can tailor the information for your needs.

'What is Preventing Your Baby from Sleeping Through the Night?' is the second in a series of articles by Elizabeth Pantley, Author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution.

Here’s something that may really surprise you: As much as we may want our babies to sleep through the night, our own subconscious emotions sometimes hold us back from encouraging change in our babies’ sleeping habits. You yourself may be the very obstacle preventing a change in a routine that disrupts your life. So let's figure out if anything is standing in your way.

Examine Your Own Needs and Goals

Today’s society leads us to believe that “normal babies” sleep through the night from about two months; my research indicates that this is more the exception than the rule. The number of families in your boat could fill a fleet of cruise ships.

“At our last day-care parent meeting, one father brought up the fact that his two-year-old daughter wasn’t sleeping through the night. I discovered that out of 24 toddlers only six stayed asleep all night long.” …Robin, mother of thirteen-month-old Alicia

You must figure out where your own problem lies. Is it in your baby’s routine, in your management of it, or simply in the minds of others? If you can honestly say you want to change your baby’s sleep habits because they are truly disruptive to you and your family, then you’re ready to make changes. But if you feel coerced into changing Baby’s patterns because Great Grandma Beulah or your friend from playgroup says that’s the way it should be, it’s time for a long, hard think.

Certainly, if your little one is waking you up every hour or two, you don’t have to think long on the question, “Is this disruptive to me?” It obviously is. However, if your baby is waking up only once or twice a night, it’s important that you determine exactly how much this pattern is disturbing to you, and decide on a realistic goal. Be honest in assessing the situation's effect on your life. Begin today by contemplating these questions:

• Am I content with the way things are, or am I becoming resentful, angry, or frustrated?


• Is my baby’s nighttime routine negatively affecting my marriage, job, or relationships with my other children?


• Is my baby happy, healthy, and seemingly well rested?


• Am I happy, healthy, and well rested?

Once you answer these questions, you will have a better understanding of not only what is happening with regard to your baby’s sleep, but also how motivated you are to make a change.

Reluctance to Let Go of Those Nighttime Moments

A good, long, honest look into your heart may truly surprise you. You may find you actually relish those quiet night wakings when no one else is around. I remember in the middle of one night, I lay nursing Coleton by the light of the moon. The house was perfectly, peacefully quiet. As I gently stroked his downy hair and soft baby skin, I marveled at this tiny being beside me—and the thought hit me, “I love this! I love these silent moments that we share in the night.” It was then that I realized that even though I struggled through my baby’s hourly nighttime wakings, I needed to want to make a change in our night waking habits before I would see any changes in his sleeping patterns.

You may need to take a look at your own feelings. And if you find you’re truly ready to make a change, you’ll need to give yourself permission to let go of this stage of your baby’s life and move on to a different phase in your relationship. There will be lots of time to hug, cuddle, and love your little one, but you must truly feel ready to move those moments out of your sleeping time and into the light of day.

Worry About Your Baby’s Safety

We parents worry about our babies, and we should! With every night waking, as we have been tending to our child’s nightly needs, we have also been reassured that our baby is doing fine — every hour or two all night long. We get used to these checks; they provide continual reassurance of Baby’s safety.

“The first time my baby slept five straight hours, I woke up in a cold sweat. I nearly fell out of bed and ran down the hall. I was so sure that something was horribly wrong. I nearly wept when I found her sleeping peacefully.” …Azza, mother of seven-month-old Laila

Co-sleeping parents are not exempt from these fears. Even if you are sleeping right next to your baby, you’ll find that you have become used to checking on her frequently through the night. Even when she’s sleeping longer stretches, you aren’t sleeping, because you’re still on security duty.

These are very normal worries, rooted in your natural instincts to protect your baby. Therefore, for you to allow your baby to sleep for longer stretches, you’ll need to find ways to feel confident that your baby is safe—all night long.

Once you reassure yourself that your baby is safe while you sleep, you’ll have taken that first step toward helping her sleep all night.

Belief That Things Will Change on Their Own

You may hope, pray, and wish that one fine night, your baby will magically begin to sleep through the night. Maybe you’re crossing your fingers that he’ll just “outgrow” this stage, and you won’t have to do anything different at all. It’s a very rare night-waking baby who suddenly decides to sleep through the night all on his own. Granted, this may happen to you—but your baby may be two, three or four years old when it does! Decide now whether you have the patience to wait that long, or if you are ready to gently move the process along.

Too Fatigued to Work Toward Change

Change requires effort, and effort requires energy. In an exhausted state, we may find it easier just to keep things as they are than try something different. In other words, when Baby wakes for the fifth time that night, and I'm desperate for sleep, it's so much easier just to resort to the easiest way to get him back to sleep (rock, nurse, or replace the pacifier) than it is to try something different.

Only a parent who is truly sleep deprived can understand what I’m saying here. Others may calmly advise, “Well if things aren’t working for you, just change what you’re doing.” However, every night waking puts you in that foggy state where the only thing you crave is going back to sleep—plans and ideas seem like too much effort.

If you are to help your baby sleep all night, you will have to force yourself to make some changes and follow your plan, even in the middle of the night, even if it’s the tenth time your baby has called out for you.

So, after reading this section and you’re sure you and your baby are ready, it’s time for you to make a commitment to change. That is the first important step to helping your baby sleep through the night.

This article is a copyrighted excerpt from The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley, copyright 2002

Friendly Baby August Competition

Friendly Baby have teamed up with Abaca Organic Living for the Friendly Baby August Competition. This month we are offering you the chance to win a luxurious, top-quality, organic moses basket mattress for your new baby.

Why have we teamed up with Abaca?

The lovely people at Abaca have been making mattresses in West Wales since 1989. The desire to create a natural bedding range grew as they saw at first hand the toxic cocktail that is routinely present in conventional mattresses.

There was already a clear need for natural bedding for people with a range of conditions including various allergies and ME. More than just a natural alternative, Abaca wanted to create truly luxurious organic bedding.

And so began a journey to find pioneers and artisans around the world to help on their quest. Abaca found organic cotton growers in Turkey and India, worked with the British Wool Marketing Board to source Welsh organic wool, sought out specialist wool scourers who wash and grade the wool and commissioned organic processors who turn the raw wool into wool pads.

It is in the small workshop in West Wales that each mattress is carefully put together. Hand stitching and finishing means that every mattress is intimately checked for quality before it makes its final journey into someone’s home.

20 years ago organic farmers in the UK were ridiculed, but now as society has begun to take stock of the real price of cheap goods, what began, for many, as questions about personal well-being has now branched out into something wider. More and more of us recognise the health of our families, our homes, our communities and our land, is affected by what we choose to buy.

Abaca’s mattresses have a lower carbon footprint than conventional mattresses. For instance, organic cotton farming does not permit the use of petrochemical based pesticides and herbicides. However there is always more to be done. Abaca
has commissioned an independent environmental report in order to identify and recommend ways in which we can reduce the impact of their business on the environment.

All the fillings in Abaca mattresses are biodegradable or recyclable, once removed they will quietly break down and return to the natural world so completing a sustainable cycle. The springs can also be recycled.

We all want the best for our baby right from the beginning, and allowing your little one the opportunity to sleep on a Soil Association certified organic moses basket or cot mattress really is the best start in life.

You can get much more information about their organic mattresses at Abaca.

So to be in with a chance to win a luxurious, hand-made, certified organic, made-to-measure Moses basket mattress head over to our Competition page.