I will admit we have a cosy bed. We have a king size big enough for the two of us plus a small one, we have a thick duvet whatever the weather, which feels like a quilted cloud nestled around your body come 3am, and brush cotton covers that are as smooth as silk. It's warm and cosy and the ultimate treat for our two young brothers.

They love nothing more than a night in our bed, with me. Not with Rich, he finds them too wriggly, like little hot water bottles with tentacle like legs that wrap around him like a spider's web. They like to be with their mama, quite literally on me, using me as a pillow, a safety net a cuddle blanket. 

They love my mis matched pyjamas, my old bobbly t-shirt that feels familiar and loved. 

I sit with them stuck to my chest with the light of the iPhone and a packet of baby wipes to take off my make up and try one handed to put my hair in a messy bun, the other pinned around them like like a protective shield. There's no bad dreams anymore, the horrors of the night terror phase have passed and they aren't waking up cold, they just like to be in our bed. 

We had thought that it was just a phase, and every now and again we get a run of a good few nights with no footsteps down from their attic bedroom, no blurry eyes at our door and a little voice. But I don't think it is a "phase" I think they want to be close to us.

Starting school, being away from their home for much longer days, busy weekends seeing friends and family makes them crave time at home, ironically in their own beds. But not their own bed, our bed. We can be locked together for hours and hours and yesterday when the alarm went off, Sammy was still snoring like a grizzly bear. I crept to the bathroom, cleaned my teeth and as I tiptoed back in, he stirred, stretching his arms up high above his head and cried out. "I put my arms out for a cuddle but you weren't here!"

I look at the big boys going into school and wonder how much longer my boisterous boys will long for a night in bed with their mama. It doesn't feel indulgent to let them creep in, it feels quite special. Like we have this secret code, a look they give me, with such twinkle in their eyes. A look that is saved especially for me, that only we get to see at 5am, or 6am or 7am whenever they first start to blink like newborn kittens.

Even the dogs are desperate to get in on the action!

Over the summer we had lots of days out and a good few trips away and they stayed on and off with my in laws. They love it with them, they have their routine and a couple of times they have just flopped when they came home, almost depressed to be back!

And when we get them home we always let them have a treat night in our room. We drag their stinky bed up to the bedroom but by 3am I feel a couple of paws on the duvet, begging to let them up on the bed. 

I am such a pushover. But you can literally hear the happiness, a great hurrumph from Moose as he collapses into the goose feather!

So we now have the perfect bed for dogs and boys! With our princess and the pea set up. Hotel like pillows, which cup your head like you are being cradled as a newborn, we've even decided to make over the bedroom next to give us the space it deserves! No more bare boards and unloved walls without our favourite photos and pictures, baskets of clean washing strewn all over the floor. 

It's a real haven for our small boys and we want to make it a haven for us too, not somewhere to crash out in when you close the laptop lid. We foolishly ripped up the carpet when we moved in, in my hurried attempt to sand and paint the floorboards. I hired a sander, struggled and gave up. And for almost a year I've looked at a half finished floor which still has the remnants of the underlay backing all around the skirting. So a quick makeover is in order before the winter sets in.

Our Slumberdown Airstream Mattress Topper has saved us from buying a new mattress, at 6cm thick it feels like we sleep on a giant pillow! Our little hot water bottles are even feel less of a problem as it's Airstream Technology is designed to keep you cooler through the night. So instead of hundreds of pounds on a new mattress we can spend that on carpet!

It's a half-way measure – a sort of temporary makeover – until we have the budget to strip the lining paper, touch-up the plaster, and re-paint properly. Our heavy dark wood furniture that we bought to fit our old bedroom dominates the smaller room and detracts from the beautiful old beams that span the width of the room. Would it be too stark to blast the walls with white? Be brave and paint the dark wood? Persevere and paint the floorboards? Help!

And do you know I'm not going to rush them out of our bed. I'm going to enjoy these cuddles, those midnight glances and wry smiles. My baby went to school this month and already any last hint of the toddler years is vanishing before our eyes.

So if their happy place is our cosy bed, how wonderful. Yes I could do with an uninterrupted night, and so could they, the new school routine of swimming and sports every day means that bedtime has been brought forward almost an hour during the week, but it takes seconds for them to settle and they sleep through til morning.

Has anyone else found their routine changing since they started back at school? The new regime after those weeks and weeks of summer holiday laziness have hit us hard! There just doesn't seem to be enough time, especially on days when the boys stay for after-school club until 5:45pm, to squeeze in homework, reading, and relaxing! In bed and asleep by 7pm is tall order for our pair of boys in their twin beds, and the novelty of starting school is keeping Ollie chatting way past lights-out time.

New school mums – are you finding the same? What's working for you?

So what would you do? March them back or let them cuddle into you?! I don't know whether I'm helping or hindering their precious sleep by letting them snuggle in. When Sammy started creeping in at around 3 years old I never thought he'd still be doing it at 6. Should I save this "treat" for a Saturday night? Or can it not be a treat, can it just be what it is, that they want the warmth, the security and the love.

Sometimes I think it would be an idea to have a double bed in their room too! 

I'd love to know your sleep routines in your house, is it musical beds with you too?!

I am a Slumberdown Mum this year, testing their range of products and sharing our family sleep patterns and problems! You can find Slumberdown's wonderful products in the following Stockists.

It's no secret that we've struggled with bad dreams with our boys. We went through, what can only be described as, a hellish 18 months of night terrors with Sammy. Every night with almost no exception, we would have to console a sobbing, wet, sweaty mess every 2 hours. Nothing helped and we became completely exhausted with the situation. Exhausted and frustrated. I cringe when I think of how cross I got on a number of occasions at 4am when we'd only just got back to sleep.  It wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it and we felt powerless to stop it.

We tried it all, dream catchers, changing the temperature of his room, letting him sleep with us (which led to 18 months of Richard sleeping in the spare room - I promise that is not a good recipe for a happy marriage) and anything else Dr Google came up with.

It is horrible to watch your child have a nightmare, it's horrible having one yourself, but at least we can calm ourselves down. We know it's not real within a few seconds. They can't and it's heartbreaking. 

I'd like to think ours have never watched a film they shouldn't. Even the Lego movie felt a step too far. They are so impressionable, so vulnerable. I on the other hand, am a hopeless romantic. My ideal film finishes with two people getting married and having babies with a fast forward to the future to show that they did indeed have a happy ending! 

You feel like you are in a hopeless cycle, unable to soothe your most precious person who is literally screaming for your help. As one of the Slumberdown Ambassadors I am pleased that I have a way to share our experiences, to try and help other parents who are awake in the middle of the night with a distraught child, to know you are not alone. 

I ended up consulting our health visitor who as helpful as she tried to be, talked about this awful period as a phase, but it felt like a never ending phase! Two years on the bad dreams are back to a manageable amount. Once a week we will hear a scream, an inconsolable cry for one or both of us. The heat doesn't help. This muggy, sticky heatwave that is sweeping across Britain just leads to a soaking mess at 2am for us. Hot and bothered and full of vivid dreams that leave them confused and tearful.

But nightmares aren't just for children. I suffer occasionally, so does Richard and I've even woken up to a text message from a friend saying "I had a terrible dream about you last night, I just wanted to check all was ok." 

So I wanted to do something different on the blog, to get the boys opinion. 

Here they are...

Slumberdown recently carried out a study to try and find out what films make us adults petrified in the night. My sister is totally in the 25% category who need some sort of light on at night. For years she slept with the tv on on mute! 

We all kiss our children goodnight and often whisper sweet dreams as we leave their rooms. That's what we all want, the sweetest of dreams.

Have you seen any of these films?! I don't think I could get through any of them!

I'd love to know if your children suffer from nightmares too and what you have down to help them. Literally as I finished typing this at 11.54pm we heard a familiar sound... help!

With a heatwave hitting the UK this week, I have joined hundreds of thousands of other parents and set up water play in the garden, slapped Factor 30 on the boys before school and even managed 10 minutes in the garden yesterday for a long overdue hit of vitamin D.

I can't help it, I love the sun. I love the feeling of the sun on your face when you close your eyes, that powerful sensation of the sun's rays blasting your skin with warmth that transports you back to holiday memories, that stepping off the plane moment and being engulfed by heat.

But after a lovely brunch with the sun safety team from Boots, I was amazed by how little I knew about really being safe in the sun. I listened to the horror stories from the pharmacist, the tales of the little babies being brought in with sun burn after every spike in the weather. And the everyday stories that I just hadn't given my full attention to. Holiday tips, device for the children, easy things to forget.

The brunch took place at the beautiful Folly Restaurant in London. Every where you looked was a photo opportunity! We headed downstairs to a private room, with a table laden with goodies and suncream!

We all shared our sun safety stories, I told them all how I cringe when I look back at our holiday photos, because there's a common theme. Not only did we seem to only take holiday photos at dinner with a drink in our hands but all I now see are burnt faces, orange skin, all natural, but all damaging! At the time I remember feeling more confident, happier about my body and without a care, smothered my precious skin in Factor 15 and Factor 8 oil. OIL! What was I thinking?!

Quite frankly I can see now I look ridiculous. I can see in a lovely photo with our best friends that they look healthy and sun kissed and I look like a female David Dickinson (Oh and spot the helpful red eye correction tool baaahhhh!). And this year when we head to warmer climes I am going to put to the test everything I learnt from Boots. You can still tan and protect yourself! You can fake it rather than bake it!

I sat in a school assembly last Friday and was chatting with one of the other mums whilst we waited for the class to arrive. And we got onto the subject of sun cream before school and she pulled up a photo on her phone. A friend of hers specialises in skin analysis and she had been for her own comprehensive skin test. The sun damage photo was frightening. You can't really see it when you look at her, it's what you will see as she gets older.

As much as I would love to have my own face analysed I'm not sure I'd like the results. I know I've been silly, worn cheap sunglasses, not protected my body on a sunny Saturday in England. I've burnt the skin on my chest numerous times and that will show when I hit 40. Already I can see my chest is a little bit crinkly instead of smooth. Aaah! I've peeled like a snake, burnt my lips, all for an orangey glow that fades before you've got up to date with post holiday washing. 

As parents we do everything we can to protect our children. We know they need to wear sun protection suits, stay out of the midday sun, wear hats and high factor protection. But we don't seem to apply the same care to ourselves. So here are a few tips I heard from the Boots team that I won't forget in a hurry.

• A wet t-shirt offers you ZERO protection from UV rays. UV sun suits are more expensive than regular swimwear and so it should be! 
• Look at your surroundings. Grass, the pool even buildings are all reflective surfaces and bounce sun rays back onto your bodies. So if you are heading to Greece where a lot of the architecture is white - remember even in the shade those stone and painted buildings will reflect the UV rays right back at you!
• Sunglasses are not a fashion statement! I think there's a common misconception that sunglasses are cool for a photo and not a necessity. I know I've got the boys to pose for a photo and then the sunglasses get discarded onto the grass. Protecting your eyes is an absolute essential. Look out for the CE mark on labels to be sure even a cheap pair of sunglasses offer UV protection. As parents we persevere with hats for babies and kids but we let them not wear sunglasses. We need to think if them as equally important!
• 80% of your eyes lifetime exposure to UV light and damage will have happened by the time you are 18. That is a scary fact! I know I've let the boys play with iPads or our phones for some quiet time around the pool but NO don't do it! Screens act as a terrible reflector bouncing the UV rays straight into your kids faces! So I will be leaving the screens in the hotel room this year. 
• Suncream has a shelf life of just one year. Boots unlike many others, don't rotate their stock so you know when you buy your new supply each year it's in date and good to go! Don't keep it in the fridge either. When you apply it don't rub too hard or it will separate and stay on top of your skin in cloggy lumps, which we then work even harder to rub in! Lotions are much more moisturising for your skin than aerosol sprays and a golf ball sized amount is enough to cover a toddler head to toe. 
• If you suffer from insect bites in the heat wear light coloured clothes and avoid perfume, they love it! Be extra careful with your ankles and wrists too, it's where we often miss rubbing lotion or spraying a repellant and they get us!
• Your skin remembers where it was burnt, which is why you will burn again and again in the same place. Sun burn is not big and it's not clever. It just hurts.

Thank you to Boots for opening my eyes to all these top tips. I shared with the group how I almost felt embarrassed to be the "over protective" British mother with her lily white children on the beach in Spain last year. Covering them from head to toes in UV suits and taking them off just for 20 minutes or so to get a vitamin D burst (which they all need everyday!) towards the end of the day.

All children under 5 should take a vitamin D supplement and have around 15-20 minutes of sunshine every day without being smothered in sun block. 

Neither of mine have ever taken vitamin supplements and it's made me realise, in a busy life, how easy it is to rush home from school, eat tea, watch some television and miss out on that precious time outside. Tell me I'm not the only one?!

We are heading for a hot country this month - any other tips you'd recommend for keeping them cool?!

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