The mother-of-three speaks to Liz Connor about the recipe for getting the perfect night’s rest.
We all know the cliché of kids creeping downstairs at 4am to check if Santa has left a pile of presents in the living room, but lack of sleep on Christmas Eve is a major concern for many parents this festive season.
In fact, a wellness report by Eve Sleep has found that getting kids to sleep is such a struggle, and one in five parents admit that their only Christmas wish is that their child goes to bed on time this Christmas.
Battling to get kids to bed on time during the festive period is something that model and mum Christine McGuinness knows well. The 31-year-old, who is married to TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, has three children; five-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, and a two-year-old Felicity.
Here, the glamorous Instagram star reveals her tips and techniques for more sleep as a family.
What can parents do to make sure their kids are getting enough sleep every night?
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“I’ve always believed in sticking to a routine – it’s something I’ve done since the twins were newborn. That was mainly for my own sanity in the early days; I wanted to know what I was doing each day and when I had time to do things like prepare bottles. It was important for all of us as a family.
“But we’ve stuck with it and it works. We give them a bath, put them to bed and read them a bedtime story. It gives us a bit of structure to our day and keeps everything really calm for the kids. When it comes to the Christmas period, things change so much what with work and school, but a routine can help if kids experience a bit of anxiety or overwhelm.
“You’ll have those days where they’ll want to sleep in Mummy’s bed but you just have to keep putting them back in their own bed, so they learn.”
Has yours and Paddy’s sleep been affected by parenting over the years?
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“Yeah massively. It’s something we always say – we never realised how much we loved our sleep until we had children. The lie ins we used to have, they’ve gone – we’ve barely had a lie in in the past six years.
“You don’t realise how awful the broken sleep is, especially when you’re getting up in the night if the children are unwell. Last week, Leo was up in the night with a virus which obviously meant me and my husband were up in the night too. The next day, you’re all trying to get on with your work jobs, getting the kids to school and doing odd jobs around the home and it becomes impossible to do when you’ve had little or no sleep.
“Sleep deprivation is the worst part of parenting. People talk about teething or tantrums but the lack of sleep is like torture. I had three babies in three years so I was truly in the deep end. There were weeks where Paddy was away filming with work and I was up all night on my own. I look back now and I don’t know how I did it.”
Did you share the nighttime parenting duties?
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#HappyFathersDay ❤️❤️❤️ @mcguinness.paddy #DaddysDay #WelcomeHome #Leo #Penelope #Felicity #MyBabies
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“When the twins were very young and they needed bottles through the night, I’d tend to get up and do it, but it depends on what jobs we had on the next day. He slept in a different room at times because he was working and he might have come home at 4am because he’d been travelling through the night to get home.
“Often, I’d try to catch up on my sleep in the afternoon. It’s one of those things that can really affect your mood and stress levels.”
Any sleep tips that work for you?
“Find the right pillow. It looks odd on our bed but [Paddy and I] both have different pillows. When we moved into our house, I bought a whole new bedding set but when he put his head on it he said it wasn’t for him. So we went and chose our own and it makes such a difference – I do think you’ve got to pick what’s comfortable for you because it’s going to bother you if not.
“I like the room to be really dark and quiet and I tend not to watch TV at night. I’ll read instead, but I tend to read on my phone.”
How do you survive on days when you don’t get enough sleep?
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“With lots of caffeine! I try to drink lots of water, eat healthily and go to the gym every day. Even if I’m really tired, I find being physically active really helps me.
“Mental health is so important and part of that is a good eat, sleep and fitness routine. I don’t want to cut any out, so I’ll try and stick with my routine regardless of how much sleep I’ve had. Hopefully we’ll catch up one day!”
What are you tips for helping kids to calm down before bedtime on Christmas Eve?
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What is your Christmas wish? ?❤️?
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“I’m absolutely dreading it. It sounds awful, but I am. We’re not going to sleep and we’re not going to sleep the next day.
“Again, it’s all about keeping them calm. We try to keep the whole Christmas thing calm otherwise they get overwhelmed. It’s so easy to trigger little meltdowns because they’re all on edge.
“Christmas Eve for us will be like any other night in our house, in terms of routine, so that they can settle in bed. We will tell them that it’s Christmas tomorrow and they’ll be getting toys, but we won’t put a big massive display out like most families do.
“We try to do it slowly and calmly so it will just be the odd present throughout the day. Just so that it’s not too overwhelming. To some families that might sound a bit miserable but for us, that’s what works. We’ve tried it before where we’ve put presents under the tree the week before but it’s too much for them. The build up is a lot for children to deal with.”
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