Being a new mum means that your sleep routine would have changed drastically, can you tell us about the biggest changes to your sleep since having Harvey?

There is no sleep routine now haha. When the sun goes down it’s hard not to let anxiety creep in, every night is different atm and it’s hard not to go to bed thinking ‘I wonder how many times we/he’ll wake up tonight!’. One thing we have tried to ensure we still make time for though is our own wind down time. We’ve been focusing so much on Harvey’s bedtime routine and getting that right, that our own routine fell by the wayside. We now enjoy a tea or a glass of wine while watching a show once he’s finally gone down, and we find this allows us to enjoy some alone time together and takes our minds off the possible terrible night sleep we have ahead of us haha… at least for a moment.

Do you have any tips for other new mums who are struggling with sleep around their baby? How do you keep your energy levels up?

Not really, everyone’s different! Some mummas kept telling me to sleep while he sleeps, and not to stay up after they’ve gone down… but as I said before, sometimes that’s our alone time where Josh and I get to really connect without the distraction of Harvey or work. So whilst it means maybe an hour or two of time we could’ve been sleeping, it’s important to us to still have that time together. What I will say though, is we’ve found it’s best to go to bed with zero expectations… easier said than done that’s for sure. But some nights I stayed up until midnight thinking Harvey would wake up any minute so there’s no point going to bed, but he’d end up sleeping through… and I’d regret not getting to bed that bit earlier!

How do you like to unwind before jumping into bed?

We love binge watching tv shows, I find getting into a show takes our minds off work or lockdown and we both enjoy it as an unwind activity at the end of the day. I absolutely love a peppermint tea to end the day, and chocolate… I rarely end a day without chocolate. Then at bedtime I start to limit my screen time. I try to switch off social media and only use my phone to message or call people or check Harvey on his monitor past 9pm.

Do you have any bad habits that you know impact your sleep? How do you manage this?

Screen time. It’s my worst habit for sure. If I didn’t use my phone to watch Harvey at night on the monitor I’d probably start charging it in our bathroom and keeping it away from my bedside at night. But also when feeding Harvey it’s so hard NOT to grab my phone and have a scroll while I sit up in his room awake. There’s a beautiful mediation on the KIC app from the KICBUMP program I’ve been loving atm, it’s called connect with your new mumma self. If I catch myself scrolling while feeding him in the dark sometimes I pop this on instead. That way at least while I’m sitting there I’m listening to a meditation to let the time pass by. And it helps with my mood at testing times of the morning too!

When you really need a good nights sleep, what's your go-to hack?

I don’t put pressure on a bed time, but I take my time getting into bed. I’ll take my time with my skincare routine, burn a candle, read a few pages of a book and try and stay off my phone at least 30mins before lights out. And when I’m really struggling to switch my mind off, I’ll pop on a sleep meditation from the KIC app.

What is your favourite KIC sleep meditation?

Clear your mind for sleep with Meg – because I don’t always follow sleep meditations, but when I do it’s because I have a million things on in my mind and I just can’t switch it off. I find ignoring the noise in my head and just listening to Megs voice in this meditation incredibly relaxing and 9 times out of 10 I’ll fall asleep before it finishes.