A professional sleep coach dubbed "super mum" has shared how she gets her children to sleep for 12 hours a night, every night.
Sophie Middleton, who is known as The Night Night Nanny, has been working with children for more than a decade and now helps families desperate for some shut-eye. She said her daughters have both slept through the night since they were just weeks old.
Apart from night feeds and the occasional early morning which she can "count on one hand", Sophie said she has a fool-proof system for making sure the whole family get plenty of rest.
READ MORE: Woman stunned after mum demands she give up plane seat for her 6ft 4in son
Sophie, who has been a nanny for 13 years, described it as her dream job and said even as a child she loved to watch Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee, Teesside Live reports.
When she gave birth to her first daughter Isabelle, now five, she decided to put everything she knew about helping babies sleep into practice. When Isabelle was just 10-weeks-old she was in a routine of sleeping 12-hours a night, 7pm to 7am.
She was convinced it was a fluke, and even questioned if she was missing something after other mums were shocked when she said she wasn't tired. But when Sophie had daughter Ruby, now three, she realised there was something to it.
Sophie said: "When Ruby was born everyone said you won't get two the same, the second one will be up all night, she won't sleep. And even though she had horrendous reflux, she slept 12 hours a night from 14-weeks and she's four in July and she still sleeps like that."
She isn't an advocate for so called "sleep training" but she does feel that getting your little ones into the right routine will benefit the whole family, and even how you're able to parent. Sophie suggests a healthy approach to let your little one learn how to be comfortable lying by themselves in a cot, so when baby isn't fussing or needing to be fed or changed, set them down.
When a baby is held all the time, Sophie says it becomes used to that type of comfort and sleeping in the arms of mum or dad will become a routine for baby, which is why they may not be able to settle after being put down to sleep. She also stressed the importance of a routine to allow baby's circadian rhythm to develop.
Parents will often come to Sophie when at the end of their tether with a baby that doesn't sleep, and usually within two weeks they're getting into a new rhythm. While she stresses it isn't a case of one size fits all, small changes can make a huge difference and it's all about getting into that all important routine.
Each family that Sophie sees have different needs and routines when it comes to sleep, but she says getting into the right habits is all about consistency. She stressed that children should feel "comfortable and safe" before bed time and in her house it works best for both parents to do bed time.
She added that screen times need to be regulated and "ideally" children shouldn't be in front of screens for two hours before bedtime. Sophie says that for her children, they eat dinner and then go straight up to the bath before getting ready and reading a bedtime story.
The all-important routine gets the children into a rhythm where their body knows that they are settling into sleep mode. She also says it is important that this is "quality time" she and her partner spend with the children which helps with that feeling of comfort and safety.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
Woman stunned after mum demands she give up plane seat for her 6ft 4in son
Man paid £667 for a burger and 'can't get his money back'
Iceland fans 'clearing freezers' over 'unreal' new snack
Millions of dog and cat owners hit with £5,000 warning
I tried a £40 Aldi SpecialBuy and it's honestly worth three times the money
