Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Before my little boy, Laurie, was born, dummies had barely crossed my mind.In fact, the only thing I did think about them was that I didn’t like them much. They were horrible looking and probably carried germs and such things.
But at some point during the chaos that was the first few weeks of Laurie’s life, I gave him a dummy. It was a massive relief. At long last I could go more then ten minutes without breast feeding him and instead of being uptight and anxious, he became relaxed and soothed. Just looking at him sucking away on the dummy, drifting off to sleep made me smile.
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It’s obvious that having a baby changes your life. But what isn’t clear before your first, is how they’ll change your view of everything that you were so certain about before. Like bottle feeding, or breast feeding, or dummies, or letting them cry… or whatever issue you are dealing with when you are so tired that it’s impossible to think straight. And it’s not just the exhaustion; it’s the crazy love that overwhelms you, meaning you put all those sensible decisions to one side, just to make your baby happy. The dummy did that for us.
For a while, Laurie slept really well. He’d have his dummy at sleep times, wake for a feed and then go back off sleep without any trouble. It wasn’t until he was about four months old that he started waking in the night for the dummy. I’d fumble for it in the dark, never understanding how it would just disappear. By the time it was found, we were both completely awake. I became exhausted, having to replace the dummy every two hours. “It’s a negative sleep association,” people told me. And one day I decided that was it. No more dummy.
The first night he cried for hours. That’s when the crazy love part kicked in again and I wondered what the hell I was doing. Once he fell asleep, he was so worked up that he kept waking again, and then he’d cry again. The next day he was exhausted and so overtired that he napped badly. Within two days my good natured little boy was replaced by an irritable, overwrought baby. I started to think that I’d rather give him the dummy. Anything had to be better than this misery I was inflicting on us all. I hated that I was making him unhappy. Which was when I decided that it wasn’t the dummy that was the problem, it was that he couldn’t find it without my help. So I decided to create an easier way to help Laurie find the dummy at night, which didn’t involve me.
A friend helped me create the first Sleepytot Comforter. We sewed Velcro onto the paws of Laurie’s favourite soft toy and used it to attach a dummy to each paw. The first night we tried it, he woke and cried for his dummy. I went to him and guided his hand along the toy to help him locate the soother. He resisted because he was tired, but I persevered. I did the same thing at nap time the next day, putting him to bed with the toy but not giving him the dummy. On night two, I helped him again. The third night, I let him cry a little, knowing he was safe and that he could find the dummy himself. It took less than five minutes for him to soothe himself and we never looked back. We were all sleeping through the night and I was literally overjoyed. It’s not until you’ve suffered sleep deprivation that you suddenly value sleep more than anything in the world!
It wasn’t until Laurie was about a year old that I decided to develop the Sleepytot Comforter and sell it as an actual product. So many of my friends and family were having the same problem with the dummy that I thought, this is something that could actually be a sleep saver for tired mums and dad’s everywhere.
Bringing the Sleepytot comforter to market has been both exhausting and exhilarating – much like those first few months with a new baby! I designed the toy and had it manufactured in China. It’s undergone rigorous safety testing and sample improvements before becoming the comforter that it is today. We’ve had many bumps along the way. But last month, we launched www.sleepytot.com and the business has changed my life. I feel great owning and running my own business, which I can fit around Laurie. It’s been, quite simply, life changing.
If you’ve invented something or had a great idea, why not share it with the rest of us mumpreneurs at TheBabyWebsite. As I’ve discovered, necessity is the mother of invention.
Lucy Fitzgerald 2008
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