I love twitter, before Miss c was born I used to spend a lot of time on there tweeting and having long , hysterical conversations on there with other bloggers, I consider some of these people to be friends even though we’ve never met. One evening last year I got chatting to Cara Sayer the most fabulous and talented inventor of the Snooze shade. On finding out we were moving back to Dubai she offered me a chance to review here fabulous product. I accepted without a second thought, it was complete no brainer for me and a few days later I received it in the post. Now I can’t say I was as prompt with the review,  as  you may know from my posts last year the move didn’t go as straight forward as we planned. So finally, about 9 months later here is the review of Cara’s awesome product The Snooze Shade plus – Deluxe.

In her own words here’s what Cara says about her invention of the snooze shade and the reasoning behind it

My daughter Holly has needed her sleep ever since she was tiny.  I’d had a tough pregnancy and was in a wheelchair until she was three months old and so, once I was able to walk again, getting out into the fresh air was a priority. I also had a spell of post-natal depression and my doctor’s advice was “get out of the house, meet friends and take some exercise”.

When Holly was tiny, a walk to the shops in her buggy was easy as she slept deeply and often. As she got older and became more alert, it became harder for her to switch off and she’d fight her nap when we were out – the world was an exciting place and she didn’t want to miss a minute.

If I didn’t have something with me to help hide the world away like a blanket or coat, I ended up with a little girl who was not her smiling self, didn’t want her tea and woke up later in the night and everyone was tired.  I noticed other parents with blankets draped over their prams.

When I met friends for a coffee or a bite to eat we all ended up doing the same thing – we fed the babies and when a nap was due we tried to help them nod off by hanging muslins, blankets and cardigans over the front of the pram to help our babies switch off to go to sleep – with varying degrees of success.

Manoeuvring up and down kerbs could be treacherous too with things we’d positioned sliding off or blowing away (I lost count of the number of times I wheeled over my coat as it fell off in the road in front of me) – resulting in a wide-awake and grumpy baby.

To this day, I don’t really know when I decided to do something about this seemingly common parental problem.  A serious internet shopper, I started to hunt around to see if I could find a suitable product somewhere. Not a thing.  Mosquito, cat and insect nets let in too much light. Sun shades were too bulky to carry around and baby could still see out. There didn’t seem to be anything that blocked out the light, was portable and conveniently small enough to keep in the nappy bag, buggy basket or hang off the handles.

One day, I rather foolishly said to a few friends that someone should invent something – so they said ‘go on then’.

SnoozeShade Original launched in March 2010, since then parents have made asked for new versions and, in just three years, we have a range of products that help babies get the sleep they need wherever they need it.  There are now versions for prams, infant car seats and travel cots and my other baby (as I call SnoozeShade) is now on sale around the world helping parents from London to Sydney ensure they have a happy well rested baby.

So that’s how SnoozeShade was born.

I hope it helps make your life easier too.

Before Cara sent me the product I wasn’t a complete stranger to Snooze shade products, I had previously purchased the original classic from amazon and found it to be useful. However I did find LPV got very sweaty under the black cover. The plus deluxe is grey in colour so less attractive to the sun, as we all know black does attract the sun and here in Dubai there’s no getting away from it. What I liked about the plus deluxe is the mesh window that is still 80% UV protection but you can still see baby quite clearly and even if there awake the can still whats going on around them Miss C is very nosey so this is must for her. It also gives you easy access without taking the whole shade off the pram, which is especially good when you’re needed in a hurry!!!

The mesh window can be covered up if baby is sleeping, providing 97.5% UV protection and when not in use it has a wee little pocket to tuck it into or fill with crumbs and biscuits, if your buggy looks anything like mine. At the top of the shade there is a peekaboo window so you can check on sleeping baby without letting any sun in, my old classic only had this at the front and  as the light came in LPV was awake and perky bear!!

For storage it rolls up small and comes with a netted bag  so it can be slung in the basket under any buggy or carried in a nappy/diaper bag, it has velcro tags that can be attached to the buggy to stop it flying away, how many of have done the whole large muslin cloth with pegs trick????? It can fit under most of popular buggy brand rain covers so if you get caught short baby can still sleep, while you get soaked.

All for just 34.99

Image taken from snooze shade.com

Negatives

I don’t think there really are any negatives to say about this product, I suppose if you don’t get a lot of sun then 34.99 may seem  a bit expensive but then there are cheaper options on their website

I guess the biggest negative for me is they’re not stocked here in the UAE but here is there international site if you live outside the UK, it is available on amazon but again amazon do not ship here for free or for a small fee so unless your making an order that will be worth the P&P its a problem.

However if you do live her win the UAE and want one do what I  do and send it to your parents house!!!! As I said it rolls up small so won’t take up too much room, so there plenty of room for the cadburys chocolate 😉

97.5% UV protection and she can still have a nose around

Peekaboo