A couple of weeks ago we started a new bedtime routine with Baby. We had accepted the Johnson’s 3-Step Sleep Challenge, which claims to result in better sleep for children and a knock on effect of better sleep for parents too! It sounded perfect for us.
The Johnson’s 3-steps are a bedtime routine of bath, massage and quiet time using their specially formulated Bedtime bath products. We had to commit to doing this new routine every day for a week. Then, hopefully we would see an improvement in Baby’s sleeping patterns.
Firstly we had to record the bedtime routine of a normal week, so we would have a baseline to compare our results too. Here is a normal week. Our fractious time is getting her into PJs and stopping her bouncing on her bed like a lunatic! This was the week previous to our challenge week and is a pretty standard for us.
As you can see although she has a set routine it yields a very different sleep pattern each night!
The Challenge & Results
Our first challenge was changing Baby’s bath time. She would usually have a bath in the afternoon around 3pm, so changing it to bedtime was a big shift for her. The issue was that she gets quite excited in the bath, so it is not much of relaxing, winding down bath and more or an exciting game. It was challenging to get her to be quieter in the bath!
The products smell really nice; we used the JOHNSON’S® baby BEDTIME® bath while in the bath and the JOHNSON’S® baby BEDTIME® lotion or the JOHNSON’S® baby oil gel with lavender during the massage stage depending on how her skin felt.
In honesty she wasn’t really keen on having a massage after her bath and wanted to finish quickly. I think this stems from her old routine and the fact that she usually excited when in the bath and then excited when she gets out as her daddy is usually home by then. The lotion/oil did help her skin, which can become dry at times.
Here is our challenge week round up
As you can see we didn’t experience a miracle sleep cure, but I wouldn’t have expected that either. Although there were no huge differences in the duration of sleep or the other categories, one thing stood out for me. Baby’s enjoyment of the bedtime routine was very similar during the trial and the previous week. However, it struck me that during the previous week she had enjoyed being naughty , jumping on the bed, ignoring mummy, trying to play with toys. So while she enjoyed herself, it was not a desirable situation. Whereas during the trial, although the enjoyment readings are similar, she was enjoying us doing things together and it did result in a less stressful bedtime.
Disclosure: Sponsored blog post by the JOHNSON’S®. I received payment and samples. However, all opinions are my own. JOHNSON’S® clinically proven bedtime routine consists of bath, massage and quiet time, tested on babies 7 months+, 1 week+ use.