Hi, please allow me to introduce myself, I’m Kat and I need my sleep.
We’ve all been there, 3am, the 5th wake of the night, furiously trying to withhold the anger as you rock your wide-eyed babe in a pool of tears. The next morning in a coffee fuelled, zombie state my “go-to” was always sobbing phone calls to my mum, who would calm me with reassurances of how sleep deprivation was the most common form of torture; it was only natural that I felt so horrendous. Not willing to settle for this suffering, I regularly questioned why babies didn’t come with a manual. I stumbled on Gina Ford, only to query whether it was just a different form of torture with her regimented routines; no one was going to tell me what time I must eat my breakfast! Little Lola and I got there though, through trial and error and finding what worked for us. We’re better people with sleep. So, when Blake arrived, I vowed to teach him instantly, and devoted myself to his sleep – I always made sure he was fed and comfortable but he’s a stubborn one and we had proper wailing (which sometimes even my husband Stu managed to sleep through – how do men do it?!) But despite this, my glorified claim to “sleep-hygiene-winning” is that my persistence paid off and he slept through from 6 weeks – winner!
Whenever new-parent friends ask for advice and tips on having kids, my answer is always “get the sleep sorted, and everything else will fall into place”. I’m by no means an expert, just a girl who cherishes her sleep!
I have two children, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear they’re called Lola and Blake. I quickly realised that sleepwear was by far the most worn item by my children. When you hear the statistic that the average person sleeps for 25 years in a lifetime then I suppose this isn’t surprising! Kids wear their pyjamas 12 hours every day (often more in my house because getting dressed is overrated!) Having had a girl and then a boy I became a huge fan of well made, unisex clothing that I could hand down the family for both cost and planet saving purposes. My problem was that all these items seemed to be a neutral or block colour pallet. I wanted to inject some colour and pattern into the unisex market! Gender neutral, not colour neutral!
I knew I wanted to strongly feature nightwear in the brand because of the amount of use it gets, especially in children. I also believe there is a bit of a “sleep revolution” happening and the science behind all the benefits of sleep is quickly becoming more understood. Finally, some recognition for my love of sleep! Slumber is the new cool. LOLA + BLAKE want to help banish the cultural, modern day negativity associated with sleep and how it seems to be the last of our health priorities. We want to move away from the “you snooze, you lose” mindset and instil good sleep habits for our littlest loves.
There is such a high price to pay for “cheating” sleep – elevated risks of depression, stroke, obesity, irritability etc. LOLA + BLAKE is all centred around sleep. Its more than our lovely pyjamas and babygrows – it’s about championing sleep and investing in rest.
I read in a recent National Geographic article about all the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation and the wonderful benefits and possibilities of dreams, the playtime of the brain; maybe we should stop asking ourselves “why do we sleep” but instead, “why don’t we sleep more?!”
LOLA + BLAKE is hopefully adding to the gift of sleep for your child. Helping to instil those good habits and see their development and productivity flourish. It might even give them some colourful and playful inspiration to carry into their dreams. Please do follow the blog/newsfeed for exciting updates on the brand, sleep and the journey of our dreams.