SPOILER ALERT: For anyone who can't be bothered to read my waffle about this fluffy, friendly sheep, I'll put the short of it here. This sheep Is brilliant! He really made my life easier when D was first born, there are a few things that could be better but overall it really helped everyone in our home get a good night sleep!
Before my little boy was due to be born I heard no end of horror stories about sleep. From babies who would wake up every 20 minutes to babies who just didn't sleep at all and would spend their time screaming their annoyance at the world. I was dreading it. I'm not ashamed to say that I bloody love sleep, bed really is my happy place and the idea that some little wriggling sleep thief was going to come into my home filled me with dread. How was I going to cope? What if the baby just never slept? I would spend my whole life in a foggy haze, never to enjoy the comfort of my bed again! No!
So I went on a mission. A mission to find something, anything that would help my little boy snooze his way though the night. As Facebook sometimes does, one night it displayed a scary sixth sense for my plight and adverts for "Ewan the dream sheep" started popping up on my feed. The reviews for this little sheep were excellent, people seemed to love him because he did an important job. Kept baby asleep!
So off me, K and my sister-in-law marched to the baby show in Birmingham. Everywhere we looked nearly everyone had a bag with a wide eyed Ewan starting out from his circular container. They were so popular that they had sold out by the time we managed to get to the stall (there were ALOT of cute things there, so sue me!) but we managed to order one to be delivered in purple. He does also come in grey but purple just seemed to much cuter to me.
Ewan has a circular controller that is placed inside the sheep, closing with a very strong Velcro that baby will not be able to get into as well as a soft rosy glow. Even at one my little boy still never manages to get Ewan open, despite his many attempts. The controller itself has two noise level settings, a low and high. I will admit I've always found the low setting to be quite loud especially when you consider its going into a silent room. The noises Ewan makes are as follows:
* Womb and heartbeat
* Hoover and heartbeat
* Music and heartbeat
* Rain and heartbeat
Every setting will last up to 20 minutes which is considered the appropriate amount of time for baby to move from light sleep into a deeper sleep. Baby D developed a love of the music and heartbeat setting when he was very little and now it has actually become one of his bed time cue that never fails to make his little eyes start to droop! Now he seems to like the rain and heartbeat setting when he's having a unsettled night. SO! pros and cons of this little "baabaa"
Pros
1. Baby might find it easier to transition from belly to bed with Ewan due to the womb sounds. D found them quite soothing in the first week or so and helped settle him fairly quickly.
2. With his heavy duty Velcro tail Ewan can be placed anywhere, we attached him to the baby bag, to the side of the moses basket and now he lives on the cot bars where D can reach him.
3. Ewan can become a means to keep older babies entertained when waking in the night. Sometimes D will wake up at 3 in the morning, he doesn't need me or his daddy but he just wants to be awake. So he pulls Ewan over the rail and plays with him till he feels tired. A win for me not getting out of bed!
4. Emits a very soft light that can be good for children who are a little nervous of the dark.
5. Noise adjuster for quiet or loud sounds
6. Four different noises to suit most babies preferences
7. Provides familiarity for little ones when they are somewhere unfamiliar. When we took D on his first holiday Ewan really helped to settle him, the familiar sounds soothed him to sleep despite the strange room, smells and noises that he wasn't used to. After the first night he was sleeping through just as he would at home!
Cons
1. This sheep takes a LOT of batteries. Four triple A batteries to be precise.
2. The batteries don't last long enough, especially if you have the soft light turned on. Normally you can tell when the batteries are going to go as the sounds get a little crackly, so you do have enough notice to change them but there is nothing worse than Ewan going dead in the middle of the night!
3. The sounds only last 20 minutes. Sometimes D is fussy, he won't fall into anything more than the lightest sleep for up to 30 minute sometimes! So when Ewan goes off after 20 minutes it means getting up with the baby to press the button again or if I've managed to ninja myself out the room, It means D is sat up wailing and I have to go back in.
The Verdict: Honestly despite the millions of batteries we've had to go through over the year I can honestly say that Ewan has been a life saver. He was a comfort to D when he first went to stay at Nanny and Grandad's, he now see's him as part of his bed time routine so getting him to sleep takes minutes and I really feel like in the early days he helped to stretch the time little one was waking up and in fact helped to put him into a nap routine. Ewan retails at £29.99 currently but if you can get him at the baby show you can get him as cheap as £20!
RATING: 
