I read a few books on sleep training and many articles on how to “sleep-train” your baby when our first was born, but let’s just say that the best sleep advice I can offer right now for a four-year-old and a crib-climbing two-year-old is to buy your kids a great mattress because you will probably spend some time sleeping on it.

Once our two-year-old climbed out of his crib for the first time we knew it was time to get him a “big-boy-bed” and also knew that bedtime (at least for a little while anyways) was going to get a bit harder because he knew how to get up and walk out. So, our solution… let’s make their beds as comfy as possible and hope they will stay in them. We loved our Endy Mattress so much we wanted the boys to experience this as well.

For the most part this plan worked, in fact, the first night the boys slept on their new mattresses our oldest stayed in his bed the entire night. We thought it was a mattress miracle and praised the sleep fairies, but that only lasted one night and he still wanted to come visit us in the middle of the night. While I can’t say that getting a new Endy Mattress will solve all of your little ones’ sleep troubles, I can say that I am much happier sleeping beside them on these comfy mattresses and know that they are very comfortable for the kids. So that makes this mama very happy.

When we switched out the crib in the boys’ room for matching twin beds we also did a little refresh on the room. We added the letters over the boys’ beds that were painted by my cousin as well as some art work and a map of the world play mat. Overall, the bedrooms in our house are fairly minimal when it comes to design mainly because I wanted to keep these spaces calm and neutral to help create an environment that encourages sleep.

While I am not a sleep expert at all, this is not something we are great at, over the years we have learned a few things that help calm our little ones down at night and help give them as restful of a sleep as possible. So, I’ve created a little list of the things we’ve learned along the way.

Little Lessons we Learned on Sleep

1. Routine does Rule

Our bedtime routine has been up and down and changed over the years as our lives have changed and our family has grown. It’s also far from perfect and we aren’t always the best at it, but the boys know their routine and it does help a lot. They have also always shared a room, so that meant that their routines needed to be in sync which hasn’t always been easy, so we do what we can to keep it as consistent as possible.

Our Routine…The Three B’s: Bath, Books, Bed … this has been the same all along and seems to work for our kids. They know the routine, so it makes them feel comfortable and we try to take this routine with us as much as possible when we travel or head out to the family cottage.

2. A Calm Climate

The boys’ bedroom is pretty scaled back when it comes to things on the walls and toys. There are only stuffies, books and very few toys in the room because they tend to get distracted when there are a lot of toys. They like to pick up the books and read them in the mornings too so that is a plus. We also tried to choose calm and neutral colours in the boys’ room like soft greys, whites and wood tones to help with this as well.

 

3. Comfort is Key

When we got our Endy mattress I was also pregnant and I realized right away what a difference it makes to have a comfortable mattress when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. While our boys’ aren’t “perfect sleepers” (let’s be real… who is?) we are happy that they are getting a more comfortable and restful sleep now that they have really great mattresses. Things like temperature and the right Pjs make a difference too. Our two-year-old gets really warm when he sleeps, so we make sure to take that into account when getting him ready for bed. A ceiling fan helps a lot too on those warmer nights and ours also works well as white noise, which is a plus!

 

4. Sleep Really Does Equal Sleep

Ok, so I learned this one from the pile of books and articles I read when trying to learn about “sleep training” our kids and well, it’s true! We thought that our four-year-old was done with naps and that cutting them out would benefit him in terms of sleeping better at night. We were so wrong! Instead, he was more irritable and would fall asleep at random times in the car and ended up being more restless at night. So… we are back to naps again and to be honest, if he wants to nap till he’s ninety I’m totally cool with that. Naps are the best!

Sleep is such an important thing and while it is something we often talk a lot about with babies, it’s just as important with toddlers and kids. We might not be sleep experts … learning as we go like all things in parenting, we are so glad that the boys are loving their new Canadian-Made Endy mattresses as much as we do and let’s just say that when we have the whole “perfect” sleep thing figured out I’ll be sure to share lol.

Would love to hear your little lessons on sleep too! Please share below.

Also… if you’re thinking of getting an Endy Mattress you can use code: JCL50 to get $50 off any size!

Xo

Vanessa