BlindSides now Available from Kiddicare

BlindSides, the handy solution to block out light down the sides of blackout roller blinds, are now available from baby specialist retailer, Kiddicare; both online and in its flagship Peterbrough store.

Ardega, BlindSides’ exclusive UK distributor, is responsible for this new deal which will help to increase the reach and awareness of BlindSides.

BlindSides have been developed to quickly and easily block out the light that creeps in down the sides of blackout roller blinds. Sold in pairs, BlindSides are portable, effective and easy to use. They simply hook over the top of an existing roller blind to bridge the gap between the material and the wall. This blocks out any light slipping through the sides of the existing blind to create a dark room.

Jenny Leahy, Owner/Founder of BlindSides, commented,

“Kiddicare is among the largest baby product retailers in the UK so we are delighted with this new listing. It’s a one stop shop for parents buying all of their baby and toddler accessories and now they’ll be able to include BlindSides in their baskets. And when parents who are sleep deprived find a product to help their children (and them!) sleep longer and better they want it immediately; with Kiddicare they can get BlindSides the next day.”

Designed in the UK, BlindSides is currently a patent pending product.

#So Tired That… Blog by tired mum Claire Corner

I didn’t know the true meaning of the word tired until I became pregnant and then a parent for the first time.  All those late nights for social or work reasons just didn’t come close.  Of course they felt pretty serious at the time, I might even have taken a few days to recover, but the point is I could recover, because I was in charge.  I could revive myself in any number of ways; rejigging my schedule, taking a day off, getting a few early nights, having a lie in, a massage etc., etc. if I felt like it.

Getting pregnant and then having a baby, was totally different.  It left me truly exhausted and without any real control over my situation.  Firstly, during the ‘trying’ stage, rampaging hormones (courtesy of IVF) plus a demanding job, a miscarriage and a big commute wore me out to the point where I resigned from work.  Then, becoming pregnant again (and enormous!) followed by an induced birth (which seemed to last about a week) sunk me further.  So producing a baby suffering from reflux, which made him scream all night, just finished the job.

I was totally exhausted, a long way past anything I’d ever experienced and there was no prospect of me ‘catching up’ anymore either; on-going breast feeding and my baby’s reflux saw to that.  Admittedly this is sounding like a pretty negative experience so far, but during this tired-to-the-bone stretch I also learned some useful things:

1. My whole life had changed, sleep deprivation and exhaustion were part of this new reality and there really were no days off!

2. Valuable areas of my brain that I’d relied on were barely functioning

3. I was likely to forget pretty much everything (keys, phone, bag, locking doors, common words, names, appointments, articles of clothing, switching the oven off, where I parked, what I’d gone into town for etc., etc.) and I couldn’t make even quite simple decisions

4. This was annoying to me and those around me, particularly my husband

5. It was futile being upset by my new found incompetence (that just added a layer of distress I didn’t need)

6. My sleep deprived mishaps could (on a good day) be seen as quite funny

So, rather than berate myself, I decided to see them as ‘tired tales’ to tell my son one day, the sort of thing he’d love to laugh at me for.  It would go something like this:

Me: “Oh sweetheart, you won’t believe this but once I was so tired that when I tried to give my sorry hair some shine by conditioning it with egg-white (which is supposed to be amazing), I used hot water to wash it off with and ended up with scrambled curls!”

Son: “Oh that’s funny, I wish I’d seen that Mummy, tell me another tired tale, pleeeease”

Me: “Well, you were still in my tummy and I was so tired that, when I shut the curtains one night I saw a strange space where our new car should have been.  I’d forgotten where I’d left it, so Daddy had to go out in the dark and search the centre of York.”

Son: “Ha ha Mummy you were so silly, I’m really glad you’re not like that now!’

And I had plenty of material for my tales too – a pan fire in the kitchen with impressive blue flames (which, in my defence, I dealt with very effectively), a cake made with salt instead of sugar, which didn’t go down too well and throwing baby vomit covered jeans into the machine to find phone wreckage when I pulled them out.  And many, many more.

As well as imagining my mini sleep deprived disasters as funny stories for children, I also comforted myself that some other new parents seemed to be on a par incompetence wise.  One poor mum threw her dirty washing into the toilet rather than the laundry basket – I rest my case!

Of course I was also hoping the situation was only temporary – my sense of humour has limits! – and thankfully, with the help of some very effective sleep retraining, it pretty much was.

So my message for anyone doubting their sanity due to sleep deprivation in this way is 1.  it can get better (once sleeping patterns are established/re-established) and 2. you’re definitely not alone!

 

Click here to find out  more about our #SoTiredThat competition to win BlindSides and a SnoozeShade original.

BlindSides wins Networking Mummies Best Product of the Year

We are absolutely delighted that BlindSides won the Best Product of the Year Award at the Networking Mummies Awards 2016.

The Awards were handed out on Saturday 16 April at ceremony at Aston Villa Football Club. It was our first awards ceremony and it was fantastic to win Best Product less than a year since we launched BlindSides.

Networking Mummies received over 600 nominations across 9 award categories.

We are very grateful to the organisers, Networking Mummies, which has 32 branches and 17,000 members in the UK and supports mums, dads and families in business with free networking events and affordable workshops as well as offline and online support.

This fantastic win, follows on the heals of our success in Jojo Maman Bebe’s Invent with Tom competition last summer.

Finalist for Product of the Year at the Networking Mummies Awards

We are absolutely delighted to have been selected as one of four finalists in the Product of the Year category at this year’s Networking Mummies Awards. It is less than a year since we began selling BlindSides so this is a huge achievement for us.

Networking Mummies UK Ltd has 32 branches in the UK and supports mums, dads and families in business with free networking events and affordable workshops. They provide online and offline support and they do not charge membership fees which means people can attend when they want. This is the third year Networking Mummies UK Ltd have hosted their National Business Awards to recognise the hard working mums and dads across the country.

Awards Ceremony

The winners will be announced at their black tie awards ceremony on Saturday the 16^th of April at Aston Villa Football Club in Birmingham where they will also be raising funds for Meningitis Now on the night.

We wish all our fellow finalists the best of luck!

The three Bs of baby bed time

For many parents bedtime is often the most intense time of the day. Many experts advise getting children into a predictable bedtime routine so that little ones gradually wind down for bed and know that sleep time is approaching.

When I had my first child I initially had no clue about routines – reading books about them is one thing but actually instituting them is quite another. As the evening approached I would start to think about how long it would take to get my son to sleep, how many times he would wake that night and how much sleep would I manage to get. I’d seen friends with babies put them to bed quite painlessly at about 7pm so after a couple of weeks I decided to try the same.

Let’s just say the process wasn’t quite so painless. I’d read about taking the baby somewhere quiet and dimly lit so up we went to the bedroom and so we stayed for three hours! No amount of feeding and winding and waiting until he was drowsy/sleeping before putting him down would get my son to sleep in his moses basket.

The three Bs of baby bed time

After a few nights of this (and feeling like a failure – why couldn’t I get my son to sleep in the evening) I asked a friend how she did it. And she shared these little words of wisdom – Bath, Boob/Bottle and Bed. The three Bs of baby bed time.

I decided to leave it a few weeks before trying to introduce our new bedtime routine and at seven weeks old it worked a treat. And from that day we haven’t looked back, bed time (baring the craziness that bath time seems to breed) is fairly smooth. When my son was a little older we added our own fourth B – Book.

And it wasn’t a fluke – we did the same routine with our second child and again from around six weeks we introduced the three Bs of baby bed time and he soon got into a straight forward bed time pattern. Though this time round we were a little more relaxed and let him sleep in his moses basket in the living room until it was lights out for us too, rather than racing upstairs to check on him every 10 minutes.

We’ve since added a fifth B, BlindSides, which can help encourage children to go to sleep when it’s still light outside in the evenings and stop them from waking prematurely when the sun rises early during the summer. They do this by blocking out the light that still manages to creep in down the sides of blackout blinds.

Of course there are many other ways to ease bedtime struggles such as quiet stories for an hour before bath time. We’d love to hear what works for you.

BlindSides appoints Ardega as our exclusive UK distributor

Hot on the heals of winning Invent with Tom and being stocked by Jojo Maman Bebe, we’re delighted to announce that we have appointed Ardega as our exclusive UK distributor. Ardega will be responsible for getting BlindSides™ into UK nursery retailers as well as stores which sell home furnishings, including blackout blinds.

Ardega will build on the interest from nursery retailers already generated following BlindSides’ success in the Invent with Tom competition. Moreover, Ardega is aware that it is not just parents who can benefit from BlindSides™ and will therefore also be approaching stores which are not exclusively targeted to the nursery market.

BlindSides™ have been developed to quickly and easily block out the light that creeps in down the sides of blackout roller blinds. Sold in pairs, BlindSides™ are portable, effective and easy to use. They simply hook over the top of an existing blackout blind to bridge the gap between the material and the wall. This blocks out any light slipping through the sides of the existing blind to create a dark space.

Jenny Leahy, Owner/Founder of BlindSides, commented,

“As soon as we met Ardega, we felt that it was a natural fit for BlindSides™; Ardega represents a strong stable of sleep-related products which are complementary to BlindSides™. We are excited to be working with Ardega to grow BlindSides™ into a product that every nursery and blinds retailer wants to stock.”

Nick Hampton, Director of Ardega, said,

“We’re always looking for new and innovative products to bring to the UK market for the first time and we are delighted to have been chosen to represent BlindSides™. BlindSides™ fits neatly into our existing product range and we are eager to start introducing it to retailers. Products which help sleep deprived parents are always popular!”

About BlindSides

Invented by mum of two Jenny Leahy, BlindSides™ is a simple, easy and cost effective solution for dark rooms. Available in pairs, the products hook over the top of existing roller blinds and create a barrier between the material edge and the wall. This blocks out the slivers of light and ensures that rooms are kept in the dark. They can be fitted in a matter of seconds and are light enough to take on holidays, business trips or other journeys.

About Ardega

Ardega Nursery Distribution, based in Suffolk and formed in 2006, is a leading distributor of new and innovative products with major brands including Motorola Baby Monitors, Samsung and Respisense; Ardega also distribute child safety & travel products from JL Childress and Kaboost.

To find out more about becoming a stockist visit www.ardega.co.uk

Sleep like an athlete

With the new football Premiership season nearly upon us (shudder…!) I was interested to read an article on the BBC News website about pre-season training methods which included the top tip “sleep properly…use blackout blinds…”. Ok, so I admit it was my husband who pointed out the story, but it was worth a glance.

Good quality sleep

The crux of the matter was that athlete’s bodies adapt to their training during periods of rest so it is important that they have plenty of good quality sleep. And that means sleeping in a dark room, among other things.

I think this same principle applies to everyone, not just elite sportsmen and woman. We all need sleep to give our bodies the chance to repair and rejuvenate. Moreover, it is now believed that sleep plays a crucial role in the brain development in infants and young children. And for adults, sleep, and lack of it, has an impact of their ability to learn and perform a variety of tasks.

Light coming through the side of the blinds

To ensure good quality sleep there are several things we can do including; keep noise to a minimum, avoid looking at phones and tablets etc. before we go to bed and, of course, install blackout blinds. Frustratingly though, we are sometimes thwarted if the neighbours are having a party or the birds are singing for example. And blackout blinds, which do a good job of blocking out the light from the parts of the window they cover, often leave light coming through the side of the blinds. Luckily, this is where BlindSides come in – they are quickly and easily installed to stop the pesky light coming through the sides of the blinds.

One last thing, football fans may be interested to know that so seriously do some clubs take sleep that Real Madrid have a hotel next to their training ground for it and Swansea City have sleeping pods at their training base.

BlindSides wins ‘Invent with Tom’

We are delighted to announce that BlindSides™ has won the latest round of  Jojo Maman Bebe’s ‘Invent with Tom’ competition which is run in conjunction with Tom Pellereau, winner of the 2011 BBC Apprentice programme. A big thank you to everyone who voted for us.

BlindSides™ was the runaway leader of the online poll, garnering nearly two thirds of the vote and will now be stocked in Jojo Maman Bebe’s stores and online.

Nursery retailer Jojo Maman Bebe has been running this national competition in conjunction with Tom Pellereau to provide inventors of nursery products the chance to reach a broader market and the opportunity to be stocked in its boutiques.

BlindSides™ have been developed to quickly and easily block out the light that creeps in down the sides of blackout roller blinds. Sold in pairs, BlindSides™ are portable, effective and easy to use. They simply hook over the top of an existing roller blind to bridge the gap between the material and the wall. This blocks out any light slipping through the sides of the existing blind to create a dark room.

Mum of two and inventor of BlindSides, Jenny Leahy said,

“So many parents come up with great product ideas as a result of raising their children. For most, product development is a huge learning curve which culminates in attracting the interest of retailers. Invent with Tom provides a fantastic opportunity for us inventors to raise the profile of our products and to be stocked by a major player in the nursery industry. We are delighted that BlindSides™ has been selected.”

 

Shift work and sleep – the darker the better

As I spread the word about BlindSide™s I am repeatedly reminded that it is not just children (and their parents!) who can benefit from sleeping in a pitch black room. When I think about it, shift work and sleep is an obvious challenge. There are more than 3.5million shift workers in the UK, and of course most find it easier to sleep during the day if there is no daylight coming into their bedroom.

Shift work and sleep problems

According to the Health and Safety Executive, shift workers suffer from disruptions to their internal body clock, fatigue and difficulty sleeping. Consequently, performance can be affected, possibly increasing the chance of mistakes and accidents at work and may affect their health.

By ensuring they are able to sleep in a dark room, those working shifts are helping to improve their chances of good quality sleep. This delivers a host of benefits not least better health and wellbeing for the individual and a reduced risk of accidents. At the same time, employers also gain from a more productive and efficient workforce.

While many of those working at night and sleeping in the day will have invested in blackout blinds and curtains, the pesky daylight can often creep in around the sides, this is where BlindSides™ can help. I’m only sorry there’s nothing we can do to guarantee silence!

BlindSides Shortlisted for Invent With Tom

We are delighted to announce that BlindSides™ has been chosen as one of three finalists in a competition run by nursery retailer Jojo Maman Bebe* called Invent with Tom.

Invent with Tom

Jojo has teamed up with former BBC Apprentice winner Tom Pellereau to give inventors of new nursery products the opportunity to reach a wider market and the chance to be stocked, for a limited time, online and in its stores.

It would be a fantastic boost if BlindSides™ was to be chosen and we would love your support. Please click here to vote for us.

Thank you!

Jenny

*About Jojo Maman Bebe
Established in 1993, JoJo Maman Bébé is a leading retailer of maternity clothes,  baby clothes and nursery products. They have around 70 stores across the country.