Wide awake and ready to play, apparently. Not an issue we have had for quite some time, she's happily slept through in her own bed forever.

I do appreciate that as a three-year-old she doesn’t have much concept of time, but really, 2.13am? I can’t even blame Father Christmas for this time-keeping slip up, the kid was two days early!

So, ultimately she ended up in my bed. I found myself clinging to the edge, with no duvet at all, as she and my husband snored contentedly next to me. But what caused this issue?

The new bloody baby monitor, that's what, and it's flashing bloody red light.

The one we have had since she was born finally gave up the ghost last week, after a month of sketchy images, not holding change and disconnecting Wi-Fi. Generally, it was an arse. It's been replaced with a shiny new Ring camera that connects to our phones, gives much clearer images, means there's no need to cart a monitor around. It's a better solution, with better results. An educated guess too, this ain't our first Ring rodeo- my husband has them all over the garden.

However, I still haven't quite managed to throw the old one away (it's still plugged in on my bedside table, desite not actually being connected to a camera) and clearly, there's teething problems. It's been in place for a week and this is the first time the light has pissed her off, so I know the hiccups will fade, and we'll be left with an all-round better solution, but when you're laid there shivering at 2.30am with a toddler's foot in your back, it's easy to yearn for the comfortable familiarity of what was, and conveniently forget what a buggeration it was.

My baby monitor drama may be an (all too real, and all too tiring) situation, but it's also a very convenient metaphor for your marketing as we move into a new year.

It can be very easy to get comfy in your marketing strategy, falling into a rut of things that work, even when they might not work quite as well as they once did. Marketing is a fluid process - your business will change, your customer's requirements will change - the way you communicate to them should change too. However, making changes, jumping onto a new strategy and letting go of something you're familiar with can be petrifying, especially if you're feeling your way in the dark. Having a clear understanding of the options that are out there, how and why they may work for you, and how they could fit alongside your existing projects can make it feel far less daunting, and you might even find that a new solution provides a better set of results than the first package ever did. 

And of course, there's always the option of keeping the original monitor by the bed - there's no need to switch off Campaign One whilst testing the water with Campaign Two - take everything slowly, it's likely to be a far less scary process. 

On a side note, any ideas on how to sell a 'red Rudolph nose light' to a toddler after Christmas are very welcome!