After I posted this photo on Instagram I got a lot of questions about T’s Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit.
Little T has been a swaddle buster since day one. The girl has broken out of every swaddle she’s ever been placed in, starting with her first swaddle at the hospital at two hours old. That being said, she still really enjoyed the confined, secure feeling of being swaddled and for the first three months it was one of the only ways to calm her down enough to fall asleep. She loved her swaddle but was also great at escaping. Our solution to this problem in the beginning was to use the Miracle Blanket. The rule at our house was to always make sure there was a clean Miracle Blanket because without one, we were screwed.
In addition to the swaddle, the Fisher Price Rock n’ Play Sleeper was an integral part of our sleep arsenal. If she fussed, it would start rocking, and then she’d fall back to sleep. Little T slept in our kitchen most nights, since there wasn’t room for the RNP in our bedroom. Swaddle + RNP = pretty good sleep for a new baby.
A few weeks ago she started moving around so much that it wasn’t safe for her to stay in the RNP. She scooted herself down too far. So she started sleeping in her crib, which is sidecarred to our bed. The transition wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. She was sleeping the same good stretches in the crib as she was in the RNP. Next, we needed to wean her off the swaddle. I remember weaning Q from the swaddle and it was a nightmare. I didn’t really feel ready to wean T but she wasn’t staying swaddled so it was necessary. She was consistently sleeping 5-6hr stretches at night and I didn’t want to lose that.
I started asking other moms what they did to transition from the swaddle and learned about the Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit. Moms were swearing by this contraption that makes your baby look like a little astronaut. The suit works by muffling the baby’s startle reflex enough to help them stay asleep. It also functions similarly to a sleep sack, eliminating the need for blankets to keep warm. The baby can still move freely. T can still get her hands into her mouth and she kicks around in the suit.
Our Experience – Week 1
We got the Sleepsuit on Monday night and she slept similarly to how she slept in the swaddle. A 2 hour stretch, a 4 hour stretch, and a one hour stretch.
Tuesday we spent the day away from home helping a friend and then attending a memorial service so we were gone from 8:30am to 9:30pm. T was very tired from being out all day and she slept for 9 hours straight, (OMG!!) ate, then slept for 2 more hours. I was amazed and so excited. She kept napping for most of the day Wednesday and it became apparent that she was starting a growth spurt.
I had high hopes for Weds night. She went down at 7:45 and when she woke at 8:30 she ate and went back to sleep instead of getting up for a few more hours like she had been. The night she had a 4.5 hour stretch, the one hour, then two hours. Definitely not as exciting as that 9 hour stretch on Tuesday night.
The rest of the week she slept 2-3 hour chunks over night and has been eating a LOT. I’m hoping it’s all the same growth spurt and she’ll go back to sleeping longer stretches. I’m worried that it’s the start of the dreaded four month wakeful period and it’s just going to get worse. Only time will tell.
I was hoping for more “magical” results from the Sleepsuit but I’m not totally disappointed. We are successfully out of the swaddle and she is still sleeping reasonably well. We have accomplished the transition and it was MUCH less painful than it was with Q. Also, T has a positive sleep association with the suit now. She knows that when she puts it on, it’s time for sleep and that is helpful too.
We will keep using it for sure, and I’m hoping very hard that she’ll go back to sleeping 5-6hr stretches like she was in the swaddle. I’ll update again next week!
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