Mum reveals genius hack that stops her baby waking up early

30 May 2019, 11:06 | Updated: 5 December 2019, 16:48

The crafty mum found a quick and easy fix that ensures her young daughter has a good night's sleep.

One mum has shared her easy trick that makes sure her child doesn't wake up as soon as the sun rises - a life saver for parents everywhere.

The Northern Irish mum explained to Belfast Live how a household item that everyone owns managed to save her from her wits end after her 10 month old daughter was waking up at 4:30am every day.

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She explained: "I was losing my mind trying to figure out what was waking her up every morning.

"I thought it was hunger but she wasn't ever overly fussed on her bottle when she did wake up."

"For ages I kept saying to myself it was a bad bout of teething, but she was fine when she did get up just cranky sometimes because I could tell she was still tired but just couldn't get back to sleep when she did wake.

"I tried everything but nothing seemed to work and I had resigned myself to the fact she would forever wake before 5am."

The 31-year-old mum continued to explain that it was only when her friend asked her if her daughter's room was completely dark that it clicked what the problem was.

The friend explained that babies sleep better in complete darkness due to melatonin, the sleepy hormone that darkness helps release.

The mum added: "We had blackout curtains in her nursery but I did notice one morning when I went in, there was still light getting in through the top - above the curtain and when I thought about it, the room was a lot brighter than I'd expected

"I didn't really want to spend a fortune on new blinds and curtains in case they made absolutely no difference to her sleep so I decided to think outside the box and look for an alternative, and there it was right in my cupboard."

And what was it in her cupboard? A BIN BAG.

She continued: "I put the bin liners up over the edges of the nursery room window where the light was getting in, I didn't even care what the neighbours must have thought as I was desperate to get more sleep.

"I couldn't believe it, the first night she slept until 8am, she had never done that before.

"I thought it might have been a fluke but she's sleeping to at least 7.30am every morning now, it's amazing."