An interview with Baby Annabell ambassador Katy Hill

Many of you know Katy Hill from her time on Blue Peter. These days the TV and radio presenter can be heard on Heart breakfast although you may have seen her on ITV’s This Morning as well. She’s married to producer and presenter Trey Farley and they have two children – daughter Kaya who is nine and son Akira who recently celebrated his sixth birthday.

Katy also has a wonderful blog which she’s uses as a platform to maintain her voice. She loves blogging and has found the friendliest of people within the community, all of whom are in the same boat. You can read her reasons for blogging post here. Last year her blog won Fresh Voice at the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Deservedly so, her corner of the Interweb is a down to earth, honest place about the reality of parenting and that it’s not always a bed of roses. We all know this time of year can be particularly stressful as Katy outlined in her Be Present post.

As an official Baby Annabell ambassador, it was great to chat to her about the bedtime routine she’s adopted for her children. Zapf Creations recently commissioned some research that found three quarters of UK parents still rely on traditional lullabies to get their children to sleep. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star came out top, at nearly 70%, with Rock-A-Bye Baby second and Hush Little Baby third. For those adopting a modern approach, the most popular songs were Make You Feel My Love by Adele and Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. Reading a bedtime story and providing their child with a favourite doll/teddy or comforter also featured highly.

Katy’s children have not always been the best sleepers. Kaya woke up a lot in the night until she was six months old with Akira waking in once or twice until he was four! Over that time she tried black out blinds and white noise but never left him crying. Often the sound of her speaking would help soothe him in addition to a dummy in the early years.

These days, with Katy up at 3.45am, the family has a rigid routine to ensure both Kaya and Akira are asleep by 7.30pm. They wake up at 6am every day even if they’re on holiday and go to sleep later. Once they’re in bed they can read but there’s no playing. Their evening routine consists of a bath which they have every night as it chills them out. Kaya and Akira then have a lot of stories with Katy adopting an array of different voices to accompany them. Given how positive she is, you can only imagine how entertaining this will be! She then stands in-between their bedrooms, which are opposite each other, singing a song she’s sung every night since they were born. It’s not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but a song about building a house that was a tradition passed down. Given her children are now nine and six, it’s great to hear it still has an impact on them and Katy can see their eyelids becoming heavy. Unless she sings it too fast and they’ll ask her to start again and do it properly! This song marks the end of the day, not just for the children but for Katy too before it’s her bedtime.

Part of Kaya’s bedtime routine will include talking to and nurturing Baby Annabell before putting her to bed in a cot. Katy mentioned the Baby Annabell 2-in-1 changer which we absolutely have to get for POD. She’ll be five on Christmas Day. The wardrobe has a changer on the top of it so doesn’t take up a great deal of space. Katy’s grandparents gave her a dolly, that looked like Hamble from Play School, when she was young and her grandma knitted all her clothes. Similarly POD’s grandma knits all her Baby Annabell clothes – she loves changing her outfits, giving her a bottle, winding her and getting her ready for bed. It’s brilliant that Kaya still plays with her Baby Annabell at the age of nine plus she’s a fan of science too so the MC2 range will certainly appeal in the future. Katy hopes Kaya will keep Baby Annabell to pass down to her children. She’s a big fan of keeping traditions alive and Baby Annabell is certainly durable.

So, what are Katy’s top tips for establishing a bedtime routine? Consistency is key she says, even if it’s the weekend. Kaya and Akira might watch Strictly in their PJ’s but they will still have a bath, stories and their song. Katy has also created a chart for Akira in the past which broke down tea, bath, teeth etc so he knew when his day was done. He also has a Gro Clock so he knows not to go downstairs until after 6.30am.

Bedtimes can be quite challenging in the Dove household with POD preferring to play (until 9pm or 10pm) rather than drift off to the land of nod. That said she was asleep at 8.30pm over the weekend for the first time in months so perhaps there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Funnily enough the day after my chat with Katy, I heard some useful advice from the 3 day nanny, Katherine Mewes, about children that won’t sleep. I’ve also had a chat with someone at POD’s school who has provided some behavioural tips so hopefully we’ll be turning that corner very soon!