It happens, doesn’t it? You become a parent and put all your efforts into ensuring that your baby has a good sleep routine. All is going swimmingly until you start to leave the house and escape the four walls for some fresh air and sanity. But for some, that’s when it all goes wrong. When Little Bean was a baby, I was very proud of myself because, by eight weeks, she was having two 2-hour naps a day and sleeping through from 7 pm to 8 am every night.
Then we started getting out and about and things didn’t go quite to plan, she was a typical female – far too nosey!! Who wants to go to sleep when there is so much to see and do? It’s also not helped along by the brilliant sunshine streaming into the pushchair, but thankfully, a very clever Mumpreneur by the name of Cara Sayer has come to our help and designed the SnoozeShade. I had tweeted with Cara for a few months and then met her at The Baby Show in Birmingham; I talked about the SnoozeShade with her and about the difficulties I had with getting Little Bean to sleep when out and about in her pushchair. The SnoozeShade sounded like the perfect solution, so I bought one. We put it to the test immediately, and despite a little protest to begin with, she was asleep within 5 minutes and slept for just over an hour.
A short while ago, Cara contacted me to see if I would be interested in testing her latest invention, the SnoozeShade Plus. The SnoozeShade Plus includes all the benefits of the original SnoozeShade but has a few extra details:
- a zip-up viewing/blackout panel
- It is longer and wider, which means it will grow with your child
- has an extra pair of straps
- a neutral-coloured trim
The SnoozeShade Plus works as a sleep aid and an adaptable sun shade. It still has the sneak-a-peek zip, which is now horizontal as opposed to the vertical zip on the original SnoozeShade. There is a large viewing panel that creates a blackout shade when your little one is sleeping. It can also be rolled back and secured to allow them to look out when awake yet still protected from the sun’s harmful rays. The viewing panel has UPF5 rating which means protection of 80% of UVA and UVB rays, the rest of the shade is UPF50+ (when the viewing panel is closed the UPF50+ applies to the entire SnoozeShade Plus.
I have used the SnoozeShade Plus every time I have been out with Beanie Boy on a Phil & Teds Sport Double, a Stokke Xplory, Maxi-Cosi Noa and a Petit Star Zia, and it has fitted really well on all of them. I had to adapt it slightly on the Xplory when in the parent-facing position by opening the viewing panel and sliding it around the steering column. I also wasn’t able to use most of the straps, but it didn’t affect how well it worked. I just peek in from the sides when he is sleeping or waiting until I see his feet kicking to see that he is awake!
The other great thing about the SnoozeShade original and the SnoozeShade Plus is that they fold up into their old handy little carry bag, so they don’t take up too much space to keep with you. I have received lots of compliments about my SnoozeShade and what a great invention it is; I couldn’t agree more. There is no way that I would ever leave the house without mine at all. The second that Beanie Boy turns grumpy when we are out I pop the SnoozeShade Plus on and within minutes he is fast asleep. It also came in very handy this weekend when we were out for a picnic for Hubby’s birthday and had unseasonably warm weather; I put the SnoozeShade Plus on his pushchair and opened the viewing panel so that he was protected from the rays.
What a great idea! Nice write up 🙂
Thank you 😀