I started off with this title as a “bloggers sleeping habits”, but then quickly changed it. I am very sure a parenting bloggers sleeping habits are completely different to those bloggers who do not have children, or at the very least younger children. My sleeping habits have changed drastically over the years too, as the children have grown up and developed. So what is it like to be a parenting blogger and how much sleep do we actually get?

I started my blog when I was pregnant with Noah, so nearly six years ago now. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone and how many things have changed in that time. I remember when I was pregnant, all those many moons ago and in the last trimester especially, I would spend quite a few late nights updating the blog and putting all my photos in the right place. I was a firm Hipstamatic user at that point too and I used to take side profile bump shots and try to make them as creatively as possible.

When Noah was born, during the night shifts, I would spend quite a lot of time drafting up posts, organising photos and scheduling bits up for the next day. At that stage, Noah is half asleep feeding and the incredible rise of power that your smart phone gave you meant that you could feed and write at the same time. After all, I could sit there doing nothing or make use of my time. Donโ€™t get me wrong, there were times I would just sit and stare at him and ponder how on earth I made such a beautiful human.

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When Isla was born, there was a huge shift in my sleeping habits because, of course, Isla didnโ€™t sleep very well. Being up all night and working all day did get on top of me. It was essential that I had good quality sleep when I could grab it. Which, thinking back, was a few hours here and a few hours there. Bless her. She just wanted Mummy cuddles day and night. I remember buying our first memory foam mattress and thinking it was the best thing in the world โ€“ it sucked me in and felt incredibly comfortable. It helped. But little Isla would still wake up.

The need for being organised became even more pressured during those years, scheduling blog posts, using every single second wisely to get things done and meet deadlines, saying No to a lot of fantastic opportunities as I knew I would not have time. The WordPress app helped me a lot, it meant I could schedule things whilst sitting in Islaโ€™s nursery, or like Noah, whilst she was feeding. It is a great way of typing up posts or editing posts on the go. I sometimes sit in my car on my lunchbreaks and do a bit of blog work. Trying to do little bits here and there during the day meant that I could get a better quality sleep when my head did hit the pillow.

Nowadays, although I get more sleep because Isla sleeps through the night (80% of the time), I do find it hard to keep on top of my deadlines and blog posts. The reason is because I have to be super organised. Get home from school โ€“ tea โ€“ playtime โ€“ blog post โ€“ photos and write up โ€“ read through โ€“ schedule for publish โ€“ bath time โ€“ story time โ€“ bedtime. So many elements to the day when I get home from work. Sometimes I hit the pillow and my mind is whirring with all the things I need to do in the morning, like take a photo of this, make this, write this up, email this person, and you canโ€™t get to sleep very easily. I have started using a website called Trello though to help me stay on top of these things and I can offload my thoughts onto Trello before I go to bed and hopefully get a better sleep.

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I know in the future there will be another shift on how my sleeping patterns are and how the workloads are, I may not be as lucky with my blogging and therefore will not need to worry about all the things I do now. Which I hope isnโ€™t the case. I love my blog. I will keep you posted on how Trello works out for me, so far so good!

What do you think?

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1 Comment
  • Sandra Azar
    Tuesday, November 24, 2015

    please don’t stop, keep going on. it is really nice to read. as if i am the person doing all these things! the feelings of all motherhood is almost the same. it is unbelievable that i used to stare at my angle over night and exactly the same things used to happen with me” how on earth I made such a beautiful human.”