My children have both always been pretty bad sleepers. Florence never slept for more than a couple of hours when she was a baby and she only started to really go through the night when she turned around two.

She still very often ends up in our bed by morning and her brother is pretty similar. He still co sleeps with us and I don’t expect him to go through the night but it would be nice if he could find a way of dozing off without feeding. He hasn’t ever really been able to though and seems, like his sister, to find just relaxing a very difficult thing to do. I think their little brains find it hard to switch off, they are so active and on the go the whole time that perhaps the art of being calm is a bit lost on them at times.

Florence and Jimmy are similar in that they don’t sleep well but they are very different in other ways because when Florence would wake up she would just snuffle in for a feed and go back to sleep. It was frequent waking but there wasn’t any drama about it. Jimmy is very different. He wakes and screams and there is often nothing that will console him. It’s quite distressing.

People always have lots of good advice which might work for them but it never really has done anything for us. I tried baby massage with Florence, talking calmly, having various different mobiles and lights, gizmos galore. I think as a parent if something says it will make your baby sleep then you will buy it no matter what! I’ve always said it’s an excellent market to get into because a tired Mummy would spend anything for a night’s sleep!

But… I long ago decided that it wasn’t worth buying things and despite having seen something and heard such amazing things about it I wasn’t prepared to spend any more money on this impossible sleep problem so I left it and Ewan the Dream Sheep by SweetDreamers never became ours…

Until now.

I was at an event with the Ewan people and I asked if it would still work for a child Jimmy’s age? I was told it could. The Ewan gang then asked if I’d like to try him out for my blog and with nothing to lose and perhaps a night’s sleep to gain I was very grateful to be given the opportunity. I crossed everything and we set about giving him a road test.

Jimmy was rather taken with Ewan as a toy from the beginning!

As soon as Jimmy saw the sheep he was interested in him but just as he does with baby dolls, he became quite gentle with him and only wanted to hug him. Jimmy is usually throwing things and stamping on them, he’s a typical boy but baby dolls make him play in a much gentler way and he hugs his sister’s dollies while saying ‘ahhh’. It was the same with Ewan which I thought was a fantastic first step!

He was however, poorly for the first week that we had the sheep and i can’t say he really did anything to help with the sleeping. I think having a tummy bug and nothing would have made it any better so aside from being a lovely toy to look at and play with which has a muted red light for in the dark to be comforting, he wasn’t really able to help with the slumber that first week.

I didn’t want to write him off though as I knew once Jimmy got better he may very well allow Ewan to help him relax. I could tell he was keen on the sheep and wanted to snuggle him so the signs were looking promising.

Back to normal and last week we continued to try with Ewan. He has a tail which can attach him to the bars of the cot or indeed the head rest of our bed and we took Ewan wherever Jimmy was when he was sleepy. In the evenings Jimmy alternates between the cot and then our bed when we go through ourselves so we moved Ewan with him.

I can’t say that Ewan makes Jimmy go to sleep or indeed back to sleep because he doesn’t. I think perhaps we’ve passed the point of no return on that front but I can honestly say that he is a very calming thing to have and when Jimmy wakes up he instantly calms down with the rhythmic beating of Ewan’s heart beat. He also rather likes the lullaby which sends me off to sleep that’s for sure. Each leg can be squeezed for a different sound and the other two provide the heart beat sound you hear when having a scan and white noise.

The sheep is undoubtedly a calming influence on Jimmy and I wonder if I had used him earlier if he might have helped him drift off to sleep on his own. Unfortunately he doesn’t do that now as I’ve said but we are definitely pleased with the way he assists with us calming him down.

Apparently a new product is being launched by SweetDreamers which will help with older children and sleep. I wonder what it will be and i it will be magical enough to break the Jimmy pattern? Can’t wait to hear more about it and if you have a tiny one, I’d say Ewan is worth the purchase, I know so many parents who absolutely swear by him!

I was sent Ewan the Dream Sheep for the purpose of an honest review.

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