I know it sounds a bit crazy to have a disco before bedtime, but trust me, it works! Get in your pjs, switch the big lights off and put your disco light on and some music and bounce around the living room for 20 minutes. You get a work-out and the kids go to bed happy and tired – win!

I’ll give you a bit of background as to how we came to have this unusual bedtime routine. It was around the time Tyler started Reception, Lily was 2-3 months, I had a bit of PND and Tyler was having meltdowns due to being over-tired. Things had to change, so I decided to get the kids ready for bed earlier. At the same time I realised listening to my 90s RnB music from my uni days lifted me out of this depression that I was suffering from. It just brought back that feel-good feeling for me. Where am I going with this? Well, I’d make sure we were in our pjs by 6.30pm in time for KISSTORY on Kiss FM! I’d put on the disco lights and Tyler and I would dance around Lily in her bouncer for 20 minutes. They LOVED it. We all loved it. Lily would gaze at us, I’ll never forget how she used to look at us while we danced around. At 7pm Tyler would get into bed and watch a bit of trains on YouTube while I fed Lily, before they both just fell asleep. It was a perfect routine!

The only thing that was wrong about our routine last year was that we had a terrible disco ball that we had bought from a discount supermarket. It didn’t even spin. It was loud, you could hear the motor running over the music. We put up with it, I don’t know why. All I can say is don’t scrimp if you’re getting a disco lamp – it is worth paying more! For 2018, we now have a brand sparkling new disco ball from Maplin and it has made the world of difference!

It’s more compact at 7 inches, and it is so quiet – no annoying motor sounds, just a gentle whirring. Ahhhh 🙂 It lights up the room so nicely and it actually spins. YES! The switch is on the side so it’s easy to switch on and off. And we can replace the bulb if it runs out – so hopefully this disco ball will last us for life. As it’s little and looks nice, we just have it permanently plugged in and on our sideboard. It really doesn’t take up too much space, so I’m happy having it out.

Nowadays we dance around the rug to the Trolls CD rather than Kisstory (which isn’t even on at 6.30pm anymore – what?!?!). It’s lovely to have Lily joining in our discos. I now have two music-mad children. And I love it. We’ve also shifted our timings, so we do the baby disco at 7pm, get into bed with a book at 7.30pm, and then lights out at 8pm. They eventually fall asleep at 8.20pm. I know this is later than most kids’ bedtimes, but it works for us.

I can totally recommend doing a baby disco as part of your bedtime routine, it really lifts your spirits as a parent, and there’s nothing better than hearing music and your kiddies’ laughter, right?! We don’t do it everyday, the days they have a bath we skip the disco. So it’ s like every other day. They are good days, we all go to bed happy.

Do you have a bedtime routine that works? Would you considering including a baby disco?

Sabrina x

Disclosure: I was sent a Maplin ProSound Lighting 7-Inch Disco Ball for the purpose of this post. These are my honest words and opinions, as always.