Baby2Sleep

31/08/2025

I’ve gone and done it. 1845 skips today.

Remind me never ever to add extra weight to my load over the summer holidays please.

It was meant to be a simple task, do 123 skips a day to raise £123 for to raise funds and awareness of the 1 in 123 people who live with Crohns or Colitis, of which I am one.

The thing is, I had 2 kids to entertain, my businesses to run, the house to keep and full time caring duties for a family member.

It was hot so I lived in dresses and flip flops, not exactly skip friendly clothing, so I wasn’t ready at the click of fingers to pick up the skipping rope.

The days of not doing the skips built up to the point I had to do 615 on August 16th. You would have thought I would have learnt my lesson.

I didn’t.

I did no other skips after that day until today.

This meant to complete the challenge and not let the people who sponsored me down, I needed to do 1845 skips today.

I dressed appropriately, and just kept nipping off to do 100 at a time.

I think I got a few funny looks in the trampoline park when I kept nipping off to the side to skip randomly.

However, I am happy to say I have just managed the last 400 in the front garden.

My legs are killing me, I’m sweating buckets, but I’ve done it.

Sadly, I haven’t yet hit the £123 target, I’m sitting at £91, so it would be amazing if we could get the figure up to the £123.

If you want to sponsor me for my really silly challenge that I just didn’t need to do, then you can follow the link below and it will take you to the sponsor page for the .

Next year, I will be thinking twice about it. 😂

You can sponsor / donate here https://www.facebook.com/donate/1758515364752559/?fundraiser_source=external_url

£32 to hit target.

31/08/2025

The award for the most affordable and easy to access childcare over the summer holidays goes to Oxygen Activeplay Trampoline park. IMO.

They were very clever this year, and rather than have a quiet summer, they pretty much offered the venue out to savvy parents for next to nothing.

£30 to bounce for up to 7 hours a day, 7 days a week for the whole of the summer holidays.

Normally if you head to a trampoline park in the summer holidays, it’s so quiet. At £17 an hour to bounce, you can see why. (I’ve just paid for my daughters friend to join us for an hour. 😭)

This year it has been packed every day.

Parents working while children have fun and burning off excess energy. (Yay, less screen time).

Learning new skills, creating friends from strangers, and genuinely enjoying themselves.

The benefit to the business? People are spending hours a day in there and feeding their children so spending money.

Money they wouldn’t have normally had over a quiet holiday season.

They even offer an online meal deal for kids which is £6 for a meal, a slushy and an ice cream, but if you don’t order online, the same meal would cost £11.50, so you plan ahead and feed the kids with little stress.

They encourage you to come back after the summer, and give you a free 1 hour session to bounce in September if you come 6 times over the summer, knowing full well that you will pay for at least 2 as the kids are used to long sessions now.

This has been exceptional planning on their part, but what’s more, it has been a huge life saver and lifted the massive mental load for parents this summer.

We have filled our passport this summer, we have had plenty of days out and have used actual holiday clubs. Where this has been helpful is on those days out where you just need a little bit extra at the end of the day and you can just pop in for the last hour to let them bounce and catch up on some emails. The days where you really need to work for a few hours but the kids won’t let you.

The simple things like the ease to book, the automatic hook up to the WiFi on entry, the free parking, the decent food choices have made it an experience well worth doing. Hopefully for both the parents and the business.

My only ni**le is £3.65 for a coffee. I didn’t go back for more at the price.

Hopefully this becomes something they run in all the school holidays.

We will be repeat customers next summer, but honestly, maybe not for adhoc sessions.

27/08/2025

Water bottle update to help lessen the parental mental load.

School starts in less than a week and I have found the water bottle solution for your kids and for your sanity.

If you have seen my last post about the 7 water bottles bought over the last 2 months have have leaked, had broken lids or broken within days, then you know how much I needed to find water bottles that didn’t leak, sustained being dropped and were sustainable.

I also needed to lessen the mental load of the water bottle debacle as I was sick of drying off homework that had been destroyed and leaving school bags to dry overnight.

You also agreed. The comments section was full of disgruntled parents who are experiencing the same thing, and there were some brilliant recommendations.

One that kept popping up was the Ion8 so I took a look.

What I found interesting, and sadly excited me, was that I saw a water bottle design of one I’ve had for over 2.5 years. That’s the one in the middle of these 5 with the unicorns on.

I bought it from John Lewis and had no idea of the brand, it was just a water bottle that seemed to last.

When I realised that I had already been benefiting from an Ion8 one for over 2 years, I went to buy some water bottles, and found a great offer through their site.

Spend £30 and get a 750ml water worth £15 for free. (That’s the big bright pink one on the picture).

So, I then contacted Ion8 about an affiliate link to get a discount for people, as I know there were so many of you looking for decent water bottles, and guess what, they have just given me a discount code for you to get 10% off your full order. (I also get 10% if you use my code for full transparency).

This way, everyone wins.

So, I am going to pop the link to the water bottles and discount code in the comments for you.

If I hadn’t had the unicorn one for so long, I wouldn’t do this as I wouldn’t be confident in their sturdiness, but I have, and my now 5 year old has had it since she was 2, so it has withstood some serious knocks over the years. This is the only reason I am advocating for it.

The mental load of parenting is insane, so hopefully this helps a little.

Oh, and the water bottles arrrived 2 days after ordering, and I ordered very late at night, so they will probably be with out before school starts.

20/08/2025

I’ve lost count of the number of parents who’ve told me, “I wanted to keep working… but I just couldn’t keep going.”

Worse still, the doctors and nurses I’ve crossed paths with who gave up their career due to nearly giving the wrong medication or dosage off the back of severe sleep deprivation.

27.8% of parents left their job after returning from parental leave because they weren’t supported.

That’s not flexible hours. That’s not a pay rise.

That’s the physical inability to function because of months (or years) of broken sleep.

I hear these stories all the time.

Parents afraid of being seen as incapable.

Colleagues who don’t ask how they’re coping.

Managers who think “you’ll be fine” after a couple of weeks.

But here’s the reality: 62% of parents in my research said their baby wasn’t sleeping well enough for them to feel safe and functional at work until at least 18 months old.

When we get ahead of this, we don’t just keep parents in the workforce, we keep talent, loyalty, and experience in the business.

If you don’t think sleep is about diversity, equity and inclusion, it’s time to think again, because there is nothing more inclusive than sleep.

If you want to support your working parents to thrive in their career rather than survive until they dive off the career cliff, let’s chat.

This photo is a screenshot of one of the many messages I’ve received over the years, and it’s truly heartbreaking and terrifying to read. Luckily the outcome didn’t end up with a nurse ending up in a prison, but getting help, but it should never have gotten to that point.

19/08/2025

School is starting back and I’m sick of wasting money on water bottles that are not fit for purpose.

It’s not like water bottles are cheap.

It’s not like we don’t know the purpose is the hold water inside it and keep it there while it gets thrown around in a kids school bag, which carries many things we don’t want destroyed, including school reading books and homework that we as parents had to endure the trauma of ‘helping’ with.

So why, oh why, are water bottles not fit for purpose within weeks of buying them, sometimes on day 1?

Here is a few from the last 3 months from left to right;

- leaks while lid closed, regularly ruined everything in the school bag. Within weeks they are unusable.

- lids won’t close on the blue and pink, blue on the first day, pink a few uses in. The white one was leaking from the seal at the bottom on the first use.

- first use and the plastic grip to life the mouthpiece broke. We d had multiple spiderman water bottles from Sainsbury’s where the lid has smashed within days.

- less than a week’s usage and the water is coming out the seal at the bottom. (Alyssia bought this with her own money).

I really don’t want to spend £30 on a water bottle for the kids to lose them.

What are your recommendations for decent water bottles that aren’t going to break the bank?

16/08/2025

Sleep deprivation and chronic health conditions do not work well together.

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2004 and it took until around 2009 to get into remission.

I had my eldest daughter in 2016, and the severe sleep deprivation that came from having a baby who didn’t sleep started me back on the path of multiple hospital stays and flare ups.

We need to have a better education to help new parents navigate the life changing journey of becoming a parent, and the impact to people like me, who live with chronic health conditions, could be life changing, and also save the NHS a fortune.

Today was day 16 of the for working towards raising £123 per person taking part to raise funds and awareness for the 1 in 123 people who live with Crohns or Colitis.

If you would like to donate towards the £123, let me know, or check today’s story for the link today donate.

16/08/2025

I’m backing myself, and I’ve nominated myself for the Biz Women awards and the Woman Who Solopreneaur awards.

I’m telling you this because I want people to know that it’s ok to back yourself.

If you enter the right awards, the ones where they do their due diligence and check you over, run interviews and you have to fight for your spot to be a finalist by taking the time to really tell people why you should win, then entering yourself is a great thing to do.

I used to see people being nominated for awards and wonder how they did it.

I wasn’t good enough, no-one wanted to nominate me.

Then I learnt that it’s not about waiting for someone else to take time out of their head and day to nominate me. Life is busy, and my hopes and dreams aren’t other people’s.

So, I learnt I had to back myself and be ok with that.

So this is what I do.

If I see an award that I think I would like to enter, I will put myself forward.

So people understand, self nomination isn’t about putting your name in the hat and getting an image to say you’ve been nominated.

It takes time. It takes effort. It takes immense brain power.

None of the questions are the same, the word count is never the same, so you can’t just copy and paste your answers.

Some questions want up to 5000 characters per questions, others may have more questions but have a character count of 1000 each.

It is a big job entering yourself for an award, and it’s not one to take lightly.

It does give you time to reflect on the work you have done, and where you see your future, and condense it all into small sections.

It helps create the vision and the path you see yourself taking. It makes you really think about how you are going to get there.

It makes you realise just how far you’ve come.

So if you see someone who has made the final of an award, it’s a big deal, because it means that people have taken the time to read your entry, understood your vision, and believe you deserve that spot.

I do also need to point out that there are a large number of Mickey Mouse awards where we get emails telling us we have won awards we haven’t even entered, and then wanting you to pay for the privilege of winning. These are a totally different thing.

If you, like I used to, wondered why people aren’t nominating you and you would love to be in with a chance of winning a reputable business award, stop waiting for someone else to do it.

Back yourself.

You are biggest advocate and cheerleader, and you know your business best.

12/08/2025

4 seconds is all it takes to change, or end a life.

Just close your eyes and count to 4.

That is a microsleep.

Imagine that microsleep happening on the motorway.

Have you done this before? That realisation that you are drifting into another lane?

You are not alone.

1 in 8 people have admitted to falling asleep driving.

37% of people have said they have been scared they would fall asleep driving.

Have you ever thrown the music to full blast, had the air con on cold and had the window down desperately trying to stay awake?

I have.

I know so many other people who have.

THIS IS NOT OK!!!

So why are we still competing with each other over who can be the most productive on the least sleep?

This has to stop.

It has to stop today.

It only stops though if we start talking about it.

It is not normal to be so tired and have to crack on with life while sleep deprived.

There are things we can do to help you and your family sleep well.

Check out my bio for sleep support.

10/08/2025

Who likes FREE sleep support?

I don’t know if you know, but I have a mini course, which is entirely free, to help you understand a few really key factors in helping children from around 2 years old to sleep well, and I wanted to share it with you.

This is a very short course to help give you an understanding of what is going on in a child’s brain around the time those battles start.

They are no longer a ‘baby’, and are starting to test those boundaries.

They are trying out their independent spirit, and seeing what happens when they push, and how far they can push.

This can cause bedtime battles, and then those late nights trigger early rising, then you may start getting night wakes thrown in their aswell, and before you know it, your cute little baby is having meltdowns over nothing and angry and cranky, mostly because they are beyond exhausted and have no ability to regulate emotions or understand what they are feeling.

These are the videos that are included in the free course, and it will give you an idea as to how I teach, and you will see if you like my style. It means you don’t have to invest anything at all to test someone out, and get new knowledge.

💜An Introductory video
💜Understanding a Young Child's Brain
💜What are Night Terrors and Nightmares
💜Helping your Child Prepare for Change
💜What Next!

If you decide that you like the way I teach and want to really dive into learning about sleep and behaviour and helping your child to sleep well, then you can choose to join the Sleep Well, Live Well Membership which is only £7 a month with no contract, and it has all the courses, talks, workshops and podcasts I’ve created and took part in over the last 6 years, and the content covers from pregnancy to children turning 6 years old, through to helping support you as the adult.

No pressure, no sales, just test the free course out and see if it opens your eyes a little more, and if it does that, then it’s done it’s job. X

FREE TASTER COURSEI would like to introduce you to a session on understanding why sleep can be difficult for toddlers and young children, and why we as parents would benefit from having a greater understanding of child development, a child’s communication needs, and an understanding of what is goi...

07/08/2025

Are you sick and tired of being tired all the time?
I hear you, I feel you, and I remember it well.
The love you feel for your child is immense, but that desperation for sleep can be all consuming.
has set me a challenge to get to 1000 followers in a week.
So, if we get to the 1000 followers in a week, I am going to give away 10 annual subscriptions to my Sleep Well, Live Well Membership. It’s £7 a month, but 10 tired parents will get a whole year for nothing.
You will get access to help you with sleep from pregnancy through to children turning 6 years old.
You will get help for your own personal sleep.
You will even get access to the Parental Rage: Finding Calm in the Chaos workshop.
So, let’s see if we can do this.
Can I get to 1000 followers on TikTok in the next 7 days and help 10 tired families to start sleeping again?

02/08/2025

Day 2 of the for c

I managed the first 35 without tripping up today, so that’s progress. The remaining 88 was a bit harder, but I think this will improve with time, at least I hope so if I’m doing 123 skips a day.

The idea is for everyone taking part to raise £123 and do 123 skips a day throughout August in support of the 1 in 123 people living with Crohn’s or Colitis.

I was diagnosed with Colitis in 2004 so have now lived half my life with this disease, so I know how important the work is that they do.

Here is what the money raised can help with;

£25 keeps the online symptom checker running for a week

£36 funds a life-changing one-to-one support call to the helpline

£150 provides 85 newly diagnosed patients with a C&C information pack offering essential guidance and hope.

If you would like to sponsor me for the Big Summer Skip you can sponsor me here https://www.facebook.com/donate/1758515364752559/?fundraiser_source=external_url

18/04/2025

2 alcoholic drinks and a slightly later night.

Result?

Less sleep.

Broken sleep.

Poorer quality sleep.

Craving biscuits with my morning coffee because I feel I need the sugar.

Sleep impacts everything, and we don’t often think of it as the trigger to poor eating or lack of exercise.

We think the couple of drinks of an evening will help us fall asleep, but don’t understand the impact alcohol has on our sleep.

Luckily I knew and I was prepared for feeling that bit more rubbish this morning and I’m working hard not to grab the biscuits. 😂

Today we will be up and about and feel much better with the Blackpool sea air. (The benefits of having parents in Blackpool and it always being my home, regardless of where I live now).

Had you thought about how losing the hour at the first half of the night mixed with a couple of alcoholic drinks could negatively affect your sleep so much?

If you want to learn more about sleep, the impact of sleep and how to get better sleep, you can still watch the sleep webinar on a donation only basis and know that all the money raised is going towards helping a 5-year old little girl called Aurora get to Disneyland before starting chemotherapy. I know Aurora’s mum Nicola Jayne Parker is extremely grateful for all help while going through the worst time in her life. You can donate to help get Aurora to Disneyland and get access to the sleep well webinar here https://pay.collctiv.com/sleep-well-webinar-44203

Here’s what Eleni Stefanou had to say about the sleep well webinar:

“I enjoyed every minute of this session!
Nicole has a way of explaining something as complex as sleep in a relatable and accessible manner. I also appreciated learning how sleep can impact people in different circumstances - this helped me empathise with colleagues and understand my own situation better. I'm so happy I attended this seminar as it's helped me feel more confident and positive about improving my sleep and wellbeing.”

If you are looking for someone to deliver a session for Mental Health Awareness Month in May, I still have some availability so drop me a message and let’s have a chat

Sleep, Mental Health, Physical Health and Overall Wellbeing go hand in hand.