Meet founder - Ilona andrews of Sleeping Stars

Welcome to The Project Baby Podcast, the show where we dive deep into the minds behind the stories that captivate our imaginations. Today, we have a very special guest: the incredible Ilona Andrews, the bestselling author duo who brings us the spellbinding Sleeping Stars. Known for weaving rich worlds, unforgettable characters, and heart-pounding adventures, Ilona has captured the hearts of readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or just discovering their work, you’re in for an insider’s look at the creative process, the inspiration behind Sleeping Stars, and what it takes to build stories that linger long after the last page. So settle in, because this conversation is going to be out of this world!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This episode is brought to you by Bayagaya, a probiotic brand trusted by families like yours, from newborn drops to daily support for all ages. Bayagaya is one of the world's most researched probiotics available at larger bootstores.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome back to the Butcher Baker Podcast, where today we're joined by Ayona from Sleeping Stars.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. So tell us what Sleeping Stars is and what made you come up with that.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

So Sleeping Stars is a family-owned brand created by me. Um and I started out as a sleep consultant because our daughter, when she was born, we were struggling with her sleep for well, Sunday one pretty much. And um I had to hire three sleep consultants before we found some sort of solution and improvement. And she was waking up every 45 minutes for six months, and after that as well. But I remember having a um phone call with my mum, and I was just telling her how tired I was because I didn't have anything longer, maybe than one and a half hours uninterrupted sleep for over six months. And then mom said, Oh, don't worry, it won't last much longer, maybe another six months. And I just burst into tears, and I was like, Mom, I can't cope with it for another six months. Um, which I did. Um, and then um, yes, so we had to hire a couple of sleep consultants. I did, I followed all the rules and just something wasn't working, and she was 18 months old when I hired our third sleep consultant. So for a year and a half, we haven't had a full night's sleep. So obviously, I was looking at other kids, you know, we went to um antenatal classes, and I could see in the chats that people were getting sleep and we were not. Um, and I was trying so much. Honestly, she would take four hours to fall asleep, which was like, right, it's not possible. When she was nine months old, we went to America, and the flight was nine hours long, um, plus two hours at the airport, getting there. Then on the other end, she did not sleep at all throughout the whole time. Even uh the flight attendant was surprised, and she said, How did she not fall asleep? And she was just buzzing again. It's a nine-month-old baby, you know. You read about wake windows, and you're like, How are you not asleep for 12 hours straight? And she was fine. Um, and she still is like that a little bit. Yeah, and then she'd wake up in the middle of the night, and then she'd be up for four hours straight. So, again, it wasn't like any other baby where you just rock them back to sleep or something. Um, and then that sort of inspired my training as a sleep consultant just because I wanted to solve my own problem effectively. Yeah, because you were, you know, you go to doctors, pediatricians, and they just say that's all right, they'll start sleeping, and but then you're exhausted, and then you don't have any time to yourself. I think that was probably one of the most challenging things. You don't get an evening with your husband, you don't get an evening to like sit, eat dinner, watch some TV. So you already lose a lot of yourself in motherhood, and then on top of that, constantly having bad sleep, and then I guess the arguments who slept less. Yeah, because the fight. Um, so then I have started working as a sleep consultant, but then I saw a big gap in the market in the UK. Um, again, that was just through some of the chats with my husband. I was uh pregnant with our son at the time, and our daughter, so she still wouldn't sleep for hours at night. At that point, we gave up trying uh because she would just like play on her own in the courts. Uh, but then I was looking at her and I was thinking, you know, she's walking in this bag, she still was too little to have a duvet. Then I was trying to find something with feet which would be safer for her, and then there are a couple of Australian brands, and my husband said, How come these are the only companies that make it? And I said, Yeah, I agree, it is ridiculous because we can't be the only people who struggle with it. So the idea of having good quality, safe uh brand of sleepwear for kids sort of came to me, and yeah, we've created a range of products, but our hero product is the toddler sleeping suit with feet so that they can again walk in their court. Because when I was working with uh parents as a sleep consultant as well, what I've noticed is uh quite often people can't get a good sleep just because they rush to their baby because they think oh they will hurt themselves or something. So as soon as the baby wakes up at night, they'll run into the room to pick them up, which is obviously not what you should do if you're trying to get better night sleep. Um so then obviously I saw that as an issue even with babies who are not as bad at sleeping. Um, but yeah, just think so.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Sleeping stars, sleeping bags have legs and have got feet. Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah, that's for the safety feature, but then also we have a range of sleeping bags um which range for uh so it's one size from three months to 12 months. Yeah. Again, because I was pregnant with our son, and I was looking at all the bags, and I was thinking you need so many of them. Most brands they would have them like every two months, every three months, and then you need a couple of them, and then you need different thicknesses. And then I was just thinking, how many bags should you buy in the first year of life? Um, so we've designed it to be long enough, it's still safe to use from three months, but then you can go up to 12 months with just one bag, you know, or two, whatever, but you don't need to buy a whole range of bags every couple of months.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

And how old are your children now? Four and a half, our daughter is, and our son is two. Your son is two. Yes. Nice. And how long have you had sleeping styles for?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Uh two years, just over two years. Uh yeah, I've started as soon as Sophie was sleeping-ish, so from from the age when she turned two, then I've started sleeping. So, where can our listeners buy it? Uh well, we're mainly online now. Yeah. Um, there are some small retail shops which might be stocking us soon. Um, but for now it's just on our online shop.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Nice, exciting. Um, and tell us a little bit. So, you did your sleep consultancy. Yep. So, what great tips can you give our listeners that are listening into this? If they were to change one thing before they put their listen to sleep tonight, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Well, I think the most important thing for kids um is not getting overtired. So that's the um issue we had with Sophie, but because she's like a slightly different child, she's hyperactive and she doesn't feel tired ever. And she you can't see any sleep I cues with her. But then um, when they get too tired, they overproduce stress, hormone, cortisol, and then that um interferes with their sleep cycles, so then it stops melatonin gets produced as normal, but then they just can't like join the cycles as they would have, or it can cause early wakes. So the most important thing I would say is just don't stretch your child, mainly before bedtime. Sometimes it's hard to um navigate naps, especially if they're in the nursery. Um, so if that's the case, I think the best you can do is either give them um a power nap if you think they are too tired, don't just put them to bed earlier because that probably will not help anyway. Um, 15-minute power nap in a car or something that should do. Or just move the bedtime maybe by 30 minutes or so just to make sure they don't go to bed too tired.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Let's talk about sleep maps. Uh yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Um, well, a big one, which I think, again, as a sleep consultant, I see, and um I think it's way too popular with parents that the white noise helps them with sleep. Um mainly the and um you can see so many toys on the market which advertise, oh, you put that next to your baby's head with the white noise, it'll it calms them down. Um they don't need to be calmed down to fall asleep. Um white noise can be a good tool, but I think it's mainly the thing that people confuse the purpose of it. Um so the toys which switch off after 20 minutes, they do the opposite for your baby. They don't help them fall asleep. Um what they do is that they create uh an environment for them, and in order for sleep uh for babies to join their sleep cycles successfully, the environment needs to stay consistent throughout the night. Uh obviously, if the white noise switches off after 20 minutes, it means that you need to switch it back on, most likely to help them join the cycle, and their cycles are 45 minutes long, so that's actually doing more harm than good. Um, if you do want to use white noise, it has to be on the machine which is on throughout the whole night. 12 hours you have them on Amazon. Uh that's much better investment. And the purpose of white noise is to block out all the external noises, it's not to calm them down. Uh, it just increases that sort of benchmark of the noise. Um, so not every baby might benefit from it. If you live in a quiet area, it might not do much. Um, if you have noises outside of the house, it will help, but then it needs to be placed correctly as well, so it's not next to your baby's head. If the noise is in the house, in the flat, um, it should be placed by the door. So if it's you have a dog or you're watching TV, so it has to be where the source is incoming, or if it's anything outside of the window, then it needs to be on the windowsill. Um, and again, not using any shower noises, nature noises, because I've heard so many parents they do that, they put YouTube. Um it's okay you to put the YouTube thing on. Um, it's just that they think it's the nature sounds that are calming them down. But again, the purpose of it is to block it, so it needs to be consistent, like white noise, brown noise, pink noise, and don't use shower birds and all of that.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Fair enough. My son actually does, my eldest, he does go to bed and it does sound like a rainforest and he's but I remember one when he just opened the door going, What is going on in here? And he was like, I like listening to the rainforest, whatever. Like he could use it, you know, but he was 17. But I was just like, This is this is like weird, like you're never getting a girlfriend like this.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

I listen to stuff as well, like um owls, but for me, again, it's just due to sort of distress, yeah. But babies don't need that. No, they need the wine eyes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

So, what does the perfect bedtime routine actually look like? Because it sounds to me like most people would think bath story bed.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah. Um, it's well, so the first again myth is that you have to have a bath every day. And um, I was I've gone through all of it. So when my daughter was little, I was giving her, you know, when she was four months old, five months old, a bath every day. And I remember just thinking, I'm so tired of giving her a bath every day, you know, it makes the whole routine so long, but then because you think she needs to have it in order to prepare and to have it. So um, and what I found out actually, sometimes having a bath before bed can do absolutely opposite, it can get them over excited and overstimulated. Um, because obviously kids, well, they respond differently. So for some, it might be okay. Again, for our daughter, it was doing the opposite. She would start playing, she would get very excited, happy, and then she would be running around her bedroom nowhere near ready to sleep. And I was thinking that's not doing anything it's supposed to. Um, there are a couple of reasons for it. Um, in the bathrooms, most people have very bright lights, and again, because you usually see right overdue the blue light before bed. So then you're putting them in this environment with super bright light, which is stimulating on its own. Uh, plus, well, you would have probably toys, then uh sometimes um babies or kids can get stimulated by the smells as well. Yeah, so all of that uh it could be frustrating, and sometimes it's better uh to move back to um bath time like a bit earlier in the day if you can, have a little bit of a break after it just to let them calm down. Um, and again, if you don't want to, if your child has a bath like twice a week, that's alright as well. Doesn't need to be related to the bedtime. Uh, reading a book is a good one, of course, just because it gives them some time to calm down. You can dim the lights as well. This is what we do with our daughter. Again, it depends on the age. Slightly toddlers, they can sometimes become a little bit pushy and start arguing. Can we do two books, three books, four books, right? Then it becomes a battle. Um, so I think whatever your routine is, it's important just to stick to your boundaries and set number of, for example, oh, we're only doing two books today, and that's it. And then don't shift because once you give in, then it sort of grows. And again, I've had a family where they were reading 10 books every night.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

And so it can become quite daunting. Um, I think another good probably tool you can use, but that's for baby toddlers, um, like a visual sticker chart. We had to use it with our daughter again. When our son was born, she was around two, and we had um period where she well, she didn't like sleep anyway, and then the stress of having her newborn brother was so much that she didn't want to go to bed because she knew I would be taking him to bed, and then it was a bit of an attention battle, uh, and then she would she refused to wear pajamas for two weeks because she was like, I'm not going to bed. So that was a very challenging time, and I think um, again, they feel your stress levels as well. And we were in a bit of a circle where both my husband and I would be getting stressed, she would feel it, then she would be getting stressed, and then the whole evening time it was just way too much for everyone. Everyone was stimulated and overstimulated, and then she would end up crying, screaming, we would end up getting annoyed, and um sticker chart helped us, saved us because, first of all, um they're very visual at this age, and then it gives this instant gratification, which is sometimes um I've heard you can do like a pasta in a jar as well, yeah. An instant one, and then when it's full, you get a toy or something like that. For us, we had a whole printed um visual chart of what she needed to do before bed. One of them was to put pajamas on to get her out of her day clothes. Um, then we had to do brush her teeth, again, a picture of that, um, like go to the toilet, read the book, and then we had um her white noise as well, so she because she was doing that. Um, and then yeah, she she was getting the sticker chats. It helped to switch attention from fighting us into a bit more of a cooperation mode, uh, which sometimes it works with um toddlers to let them choose which pajamas they want to wear. Instead of fighting like over not going to bed, they will switch again in the cooperation mode. But depends on the child, our daughter was just dead on set. I'm not going to sleep, doesn't matter if how however many things you give me to choose, I'm not doing it. Um, so that's really I think useful part of the routine. You don't have to do it all the time, but if you're going through any sort of sleep struggles, I found that, and even for us as well, because it was taking an hour for the whole routine, which was a lot, but then we also set our own, let's say, sticker chart of sorts, and we said, right, it's an hour, we know it's an hour, no one is getting stressed, and we need to make it through bedtime without any of us losing it. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Um, yeah, and it's hard, isn't it? Um, I think that is the juggle. How do you find the juggle between family life and running a business now?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Uh well, I think it's um it's a positive, but then it can be a bit harder. Like it's good uh some days because then it gives you a bit more flexibility, obviously, with kids' holidays and everything, but then also it means that sometimes you're doing work after you put them to bed and then like you know, you never stop. Um, it's a juggle. Yes, it is, but I think having kids in general doesn't regardless of what you do.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Oh my goodness, absolutely. Uh like I said earlier, I've got three children, and yeah, it I've got a 20-year-old now, and then the seven and a three-year-old. So it absolutely is a juggle, and I don't think it matters if you have one child or three children or five or six. Like family life is a juggle.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yes, it is, and I think sometimes again, because I was a so close in age, it can be sometimes easier because they can play together, but then it can be way harder because you can't explain to her to a four-year-old that, for example, she needs to share her toys or something. It's much easier, I would have thought, with a teenager, because then they wouldn't be fighting over mummy or something. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

And how important is sleep for the baby's development, for their brain development in those first five years?

SPEAKER_01 16:59

So it is a very interesting topic because all I've been doing is researching sleep for the past four and a half years. Um, mainly because so our daughter, for example, she still doesn't sleep, and when I speak to other parents and then I tell them about her sleep patterns, most of them get shocked and they say, How do you survive? How does she survive? Um, she can easily have three hour sleep, wake up, be up for five hours, have another three hour sleep, then go to school, have a full day at school. Uh, so she she is running on low. Uh, some days then she would compensate and have 12 hours sleep. Uh, but obviously it's led me to reading a lot of books and like listening to some conferences, doctors. Like, I'm attending a conference tomorrow with uh specialists. Um and it is um interesting because part of the brain, right, it's wired while they are, well, in the mother's belly effectively. And this is why we have neurodivergent kids, because there is not much you can do about how they are, especially if we're talking like ADHD, ASD, high-functioning auditism, which is called now, which used to be Asperger's, because there is no sign of delay in development other than them being sort of different. Um, so for example, kids who are on the spectrum, uh, they don't need as much sleep, and it does not impact their performance. Um if they are on the autistic spectrum, for example, they don't need as much sleep. Um, and uh what I was listening to one of the specialists who works with um high-functioning autistic kids, um, that they said they have done tests and their school performance was fine on the level with everyone else, um, which sort of I think is probably good to know in case you were worried that your child is not sleeping enough and uh would struggle with development. But I mean it is obviously very important in general for health, um, because it helps us, you know, it helps them grow, process all the information, process all the skills. Um, so it can be, I think uh in kids who don't sleep as well, it can sometimes cause maybe delay in speech. But again, it's nothing that they wouldn't learn later on. Like our daughter was a bit slower uh with her speech, but then once she caught on, she's like absolutely fine. Um her main struggle probably is that when she is on very little running on low on very little sleep, she would struggle to concentrate and focus. But again, I haven't noticed with her having bad sleep for almost five years, I haven't noticed any sort of developmental delays with her. Does your youngest sleep, Ralph? He does. Um, I don't know again if it's uh because he's a boy, he's a typical boy, he loves his food, he loves his sleep uh 12 hours straight. We had to even wake him up when he was younger because he was struggling to put up on weight, because he just wanted to sleep and he was sleeping through the feeds. Um, so he was different from birth. But then there are a lot of differences between them. Like he was doing eye contact much earlier, which again, um, so our daughter, because she's considered on the spectrum, like she doesn't have the diagnosis yet, but mainly we had to take her to the doctor um because there isn't much help for kids who don't sleep. Unfortunately, nobody wants to um well prescribe them with anything. Um, she has slow release melatonin, which still doesn't help her sleep. This is why she's like this is what I'm saying, she's on a different level. Uh, when I speak to the doctors, they said that the next step would be to put sensors on her and monitor her sleep. I was thinking there is no way she would let that happen. Yeah. She wouldn't sleep, that's it. Um, so I think the hardest part probably I had to accept with our sleep battle is that there is only limited um stuff you can do. You can influence it only up to a certain point. Um, but obviously having a routine and all of that, it helps. But now having a second younger child who is absolutely different, I can tell that it's not always hard because in the early years I was thinking, how do people have kids? How do they cope if it's this hard? If you can't sleep for years, or if you because with the routine with our now again it's better, but when she was younger, it was like a 20-step routine, and it had to be done with precision. Like the light, for example, on her camera, she has the monitor where you can do the light, and it had to be set on like 30%. And when I did it at 25, she was screaming at me and showing, like, mummy, switch it back so she could see the 5% difference in the monitor, and it's just one of the examples. Like, I had to sit in a specific spot, my husband's in another one, she had to go to the corner, then she had to sit a song, do rotate three times, run to us. Honestly, like whoever saw, like, my mom helped us put her down once, and she was like, Is this what you do every night? And we're like, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it was quite exhausting. Now you see why I was so uh keen to train as a sleep consultant. Uh it did get better in the end. It's something again for older kids. Um, she had to work on her window of tolerance. So how comfortable she gets when things are not exactly as planned. So, for example, she would sometimes throw a tantrum. I don't remember one of the steps. We'd have to pick her up, and then I think I picked her up, and then the husband had to switch off the light, and then I had to put her in a court. And then one time I picked her up, he switched the light. So the light was switched off at a different, like either a bit earlier or a bit later. And then again, meltdown, instant meltdown, sort of start from scratch, start all over again, and that's at the 50th step of the routine. Um, so with age, it got better, and now if something is not going how she wants it, she can self-soothe much quicker. Um, but I think it's just hard in general because toddlers at two, they're trying to learn how to self-regulate as well, you know. So even those who are good at self-regulating, they're struggling to self-regulate. Um yeah, all of it is a challenge.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Yeah, and trying to teach a child how to self-regulate.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

What tips do you have?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Oh, yes, well, quite I don't know, just let them do it. Uh, well, it depends again on a child because I can see the intensity of tantrum our daughter had to do, and our son, again, that's completely different. She could easily scream for an hour, an hour and a half, and I was like, how do you have the energy to do it? And the persistence, you know. When he he doesn't get something he wants, 10 minutes maybe tops. That's it, he's over it, you know, he's on to the next thing. Um, I think it helps. Uh, our daughter, she had a soother, um, like a blanket thing, small, so that helps her to self-regulate. Now she needs it much less, obviously, because she's just learned to do it um by herself. Um, sometimes drinking water, I've noticed again, just little things like having a cuddle that helps because uh it works for young babies, it reduces their cortisol levels. So if you have a newborn, for example, who is struggling to sleep, or if you're struggling with this last nap, um putting them in a carrier usually helps. It helps for reflux babies, right? And it helps just in general, uh, but also because they get this like cortisol level reduction, and then uh it sometimes can help them to settle at night. And I think the same goes for kids when they are just distressed the first thing. Even um our daughter's school teacher one day I picked her up, and I don't know why something happened at school, she was just stressed, so she was holding it in, then she saw me and she burst into tears, and I gave her a cuddle. And our teacher later she said, Oh, that was like an interesting thing I saw you do, because she said, Usually we try to go straight away and start asking her what's wrong, what happened, and then she's dysregulated, she's not ready to share it, so you're not getting anything out of it. So I think sometimes just as simple as giving someone a cuddle just to let them calm down, it helps a lot.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Yeah, so my my youngest is uh on the spectrum himself, and actually he he's only three, so he once again, like yourself, doesn't have an official diagnosis, but we see lots of neurologists and we work with lots of different um teams, but for him, he needs like an iceoly or a bath. Oh, okay. So that's what he needs. So if he gets too much, it's would you like a bath? And he's like, Yeah, like like several times a day some days. Having a bad day, it's the bath who's running, the water bill is sky high. That or an ice lolli. Like my little boy loves just like I don't know, he just maybe. It might be the temperature, you know. Yeah, it just helps, like, but it helps instantly. Yeah, yeah, it just does. It's almost like it's like a total, like, oh okay, divert my attention to this, it's freezing.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Like, yes, yeah, it could be that. Like our daughter, she would she usually drinks water, I think, you know, similar to maybe people smoking or something. Yeah, it's very tight straw, but then again, when she was now it's better, but she was drinking so much water, and we were like, You will burst. But I think because we couldn't understand why she's drinking so much, but that was probably like she came up with it.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

And my son Reggie has meltdowns all the time, and my husband was like, Why is he crying now? And I'm like, just because he's Reggie, literally, just because he is Reggie. Like, what is what is wrong with him? Nothing, it's just Reg. Like just having a moment, and he's gonna just take a time to get through it.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Just learn. Um, I mean, our daughter, she went to play therapy, and that helped her a lot with the regulation of her emotions, just understanding. So I think that's a great tool, but obviously, they don't offer it on NHS, and it's like it depends on parents if you can afford to. Um, but yeah, we were lucky to be able to send it.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Yeah, my son's preschool is very good, and um, they have taught him about the colour monster. Have you heard about the colour monster? So he there is a book about him, okay, and all and you learn all the different colours of this monster. Okay. So if he is red, he is angry, but if he is light blue, he's calm, and all the colours in between. Now, Reggie did a picture the other day at school, and this monster was bright red, like as red as you could imagine. And his teacher asked him why. Yeah, he said that I cut his hair. Now, Reggie has got long hair and he will not cut it. Yeah, but when he says I cut it, I took like a tiny, tiny which you wouldn't even see probably the fringe. But he noticed. But he noticed. So the colour monster is such a good tool.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

But it is interesting how tiny things can really throw them off. Um, and I read that actually kids on the spectrum they have to take, they take in 80% more information, and this is why quite often they have delay in speaking, just because they're taking everything in. Yeah. And yeah, we had things where we wouldn't be allowed to move. You wouldn't even think that, but you know, you'd just move one toy and then she'd have a meltdown. She's like, you know, something's wrong. We didn't even know it was moved because you don't even think about it. No, it's as if she has a snap photographic memory in the room.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

Yeah, absolutely. It's so interesting. It is unchallenging. Unchallenging, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

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SPEAKER_01 29:11

They're so soft as well, aren't they? They're real soft. So I was again, like I've mentioned, um, I was designing them when I was pregnant with our son, and I, well, there were a couple of things that I was thinking of. So we received first samples from the factory just to see the quality and everything. And then I was um telling my husband, I said, Can you please go and bring me the 2.5 talk bag? And he was like, which one is it? So I thought, right, I can't be the only woman with this problem. So I thought, right, we need to put the talk label on the outside so that any man can see it very clearly. Nice. Yeah, and bring it for the bedtime. Then um I again didn't want to use any sticky lay like sticking out labels, not to irritate the tiny little one's skin. So we printed it all on here, uh, which means there is nothing else on the inside which 95% organic cotton. Yes, it is amazing. So, and yeah, just 5% LST10 just to make it stretchy. But again, the cotton, because I think um all sustainable fabrics are so popular now, bamboo, um, especially, but it doesn't last as long, and also it can't be washed on high temperatures. So then I was thinking, as a mum, you know, you get a nappy leak or something, you want it washed on a high temperature just to kill all the bacteria. Definitely. Um, and also bamboo can't be tumble dried. So then I was thinking, again, how many bags do you need if one leaked at night and then you need it for the nap time? Because ideally, naps should be in the cod. Um, and um uh organic cotton can be both washed on a high temperature and tumble dried, so you can have it ready within you know a couple hours, maybe even less. So that was my main um idea to choose.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Yeah, so anybody who's listening and not watching the video, these um sleeping bags. So we're looking at two of them, we're looking at the newborn, and they've got beautiful legs. Fold over fold over, yeah. Fold with fold over feet um to keep the toe, the toes um nice and warm. And then on the toddler one, we actually have sticky pads at the bottom so that um it stops any slipping when the toddler is walking, which is genius. Um, and then they have both got zips as well, so rather than any kind of buttons or anything like that, um, and they are 95% organic cotton, and they are very soft and beautiful. Um, so definitely have a look online to check those out. So, tell me a little bit about who designs your sleepwear.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

So we have four prints which were done by a UK artist, and then we've just added a new range of four prints, they're absolutely adorable. We have avocado and toast, that's probably one of my favorites, uh, because obviously I come up with ideas and I work very closely with designers. So the new range was done by two Ukrainian ladies, um, and they are all hand painted in watercolor and digitally printed on the suits. Um, yes, we have dragon print, owls, um, and parrots as well. That is a more summary one, but they are absolutely adorable.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

I love that. I love that you're supporting your family back home. Yes. So obviously, on the UK market, there are so many sleep bags and lots that are so unregulated. Um, what do Sleeping Stars have to offer? So many things.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

We we have our organic quantum has squats certificate, and we also have an e-cotex certificate, uh, which means that um they have tested for hundred harmful substances during the manufacturing process, and our products are free from all of them.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

So, thank you so much for coming onto the Project A podcast today. Um, one question to ask everybody as they leave the podcast is what is your love language?

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I think my love language is actions and you know, just bring in a coffee in the morning, or I think for parents, like letting another person sleep a bit longer when you look after the kids. That's probably the most uh important part. And then we tend to alternate with my husband, like sometimes on the weekends, he will look after kids and let me have an extra hour, and then I'll do the same the next day. Just keeps us both a bit more energized and fresh.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

Absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on the Project Rade podcast. If our listeners want to know more about sleeping stars, where can they go?

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Uh, they can go on our website, uh, which is www.shopsleepinstars.com. Perfect. And are you on socials? Yes, we are on Instagram as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Sleepingstars UK. I'll tag them below. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. And if you would like to see more episodes from the Project Maverick podcast, make sure that you hit the subscribe button and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode.