I love sleep and always have.  Nothing is more heavenly for me than to curl up under my blankets, snuggle up to my pillow and blissfully float away to dreamland. Pre-Drake I regularly took naps since my high school days. Sleep is my ultimate bliss and not only do I love it, I need it — when I don’t get enough I truly am a monster.  So needless to say before Drake was born I prayed for a child who cherished sleep to same way I did, and hoped they would sleep through the night quickly like I had as a baby (at 6 weeks and I slept from 11PM to 5-6AM). Sadly after Drake was born, I learned that my baby not only did not inherit my love of sleep, but he seemed to hate sleep and also had insomnia like Mr. Chocolate.  It was like my worst nightmare come true.

Drake and I had a lot of breastfeeding issues that never resolved themselves, so I do think some of his sleeplessness was due to those issues, but as a whole he just seemed determined to never sleep.  Mr. Chocolate and I would literally spend hours every night walking, bouncing on a exercise ball, rocking, and just praying that those little eyes would start to shut.  The worst part was the moment we tried to place him down in his crib, he would immediately wake up and we’d have to start all over. Mr. Chocolate and I would try to alternate this back and forth and half the time by the time we got him to finally fall asleep, it would be like 20 minutes until he would need to wake up and eat again.  We tried everything we could think of to help Drake fall asleep easier: feeding him more, swaddling, white noise machines, sleeping in his swing vs the crib, etc. but nothing would get him to settle and stay asleep for longer than an hour, maybe two.

As the weeks rolled on, it really began to take a toll on us, but more me than Mr. Chocolate.  Because Mr. Chocolate has battled insomnia for many years, he has learned to adapt to getting very little sleep and still being able to function, but I was beside myself.  I simply couldn’t survive on the little sleep I was getting because on top of trying to get Drake to sleep, I also was the one who had to wake up and feed him, so I was lucky to get 2 straight hours of sleep some nights.  I was a walking zombie.  After about 3 months of this I was starting to get desperate.  I belonged to a mommy forum at the time, and it seemed that everyone else’s baby was starting to sleep longer and longer stretches while Drake still only maintained about 3 hours of sleep max.

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I started to look into a night nurse, a sleep trainer, anyone who could take control of the situation and help us.  I went as far as to call a few sleep trainers based out of NYC, but the cost was simply prohibitive for us in the end to justify, though honestly I think I would have paid any sum but Mr. Chocolate would not.  I bought all kinds of sleep training books but I simply couldn’t let him cry it out on his own at such a young age.

Then one day on my mommy forum, someone talked about the Baby Merlin Magic Sleep Suit and how it was a miracle lifesaver. Her daughter seemed so content and happy in the suit she was able to simply place her in it, put her in the crib and walk away even if she was wide awake. This, of course, was music to my ears. I peppered her with questions and went to check out the website.

At first look I saw a snowsuit made for babies; it reminded me of the little brother in A Christmas Story who was so bundled up he couldn’t even lower his arms.  I wasn’t sure why this product would be any different from the million of other swaddlers and blankets we already tried. And at $40, it was still a little high for what I felt was basically another swaddling device. I emailed the company owner asked her some more questions, and made sure to ask about a return policy as I simply didn’t believe it would help us. I even remember Mr. Chocolate saying “There goes another $40 on a worthless baby product,” after I told him I was planning on trying it out.

Mr. Chocolate and I had a lot of skepticism when it came to this product or any product at the stage we were in. We had simply tried so many things that didn’t do anything to help improve our situation.  Still once the suit arrived, I washed it and that night we zipped Drake into it all the way, laughing at how silly he looked in it. Per what my mommy friend on the forum said, we placed Drake down in his crib, said our good nights, turned on his white noise machine, turned on his night light and walked out of the room, all the while anticipating that moment when he would start screaming for us to come soothe and hold him as usual.  And then came the surprise — not a peep came from his room. We ran over to the monitor and looked — was he really asleep?  No he wasn’t, but he wasn’t upset either.  There was Drake in his little sleep suit staring around his room, perfectly happy and content.  We kept checking back at the monitor, and soon enough he was asleep with no rocking, bouncing, cradling, nothing.  It was amazing.

From that day on, Mr. Chocolate and I became believers. What started off as a $40 waste of money became a $120 investment (we went on to buy 2 more suits in the bigger size) in our sanity, time, and most importantly sleep.  While the suit didn’t make Drake fall asleep any faster, it allowed him to be placed in his bed without the need for us to help him fall asleep.  I have no idea why this is, other to say that the name is spot on — it’s magic.

Whenever I see someone talking about the struggles of putting their baby down to sleep, I wholeheartedly tell them our story and how this suit changed our lives.  What was even better about it was that because we used it with Drake until he outgrew it (around a year), even after the suit was gone Drake had learned to be able to fall asleep in his crib without any help.  At almost 3 Drake still doesn’t care for sleep and naps and bedtime are hard, but once I place him in his crib he is fine.  He doesn’t always fall asleep right away, but he is content enough I think through the training of the suit to be by himself in the crib and entertain himself for the most part until he does fall asleep.

If you are struggling with sleep issues, I urge you to try this product out as it was a lifesaver for Mr. Chocolate and me, and it was one of the first things I hunted down in storage when I found out we were pregnant again. I simply can’t imagine life without this product anymore!

Is there any baby product that you simply could not live without?

Swaddling part 1 of 5

1. How Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit Changed My Life by Mrs. Chocolate
2. The Double Swaddle by Mrs. Pen
3. Swaddle Blanket How-to's by Guides
4. Best Swaddle Blankets by Guides
5. All About Swaddling by Mrs. Carrot