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.
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. Chocolate2. 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
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
That’s great it worked for you guys! We bought it too, but it didn’t work for us. Our daughter hated it.
The Woombie was our magic go-to product for sleep!
cherry / 119 posts
hehe i love the 2 paci’s around him. the zipadeezip sleep sack is our go-to baby product. she’s 17 months and still sleeps in one. we were fortunate though that she was always a pretty good sleeper. if #2 ends up having some sleep issues, maybe i’ll have to try the magic suit!
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Mrs. High Heels: Aww Im sorry it didnt work for you guys. I seriously dont know what we would have done without that product. I recommend it to every friend with a baby, and so far both of them loved it for their little one too. Its such a hit or miss thing sometimes though.
guest
It didn’t work for me either!
grapefruit / 4669 posts
Interesting…I have never heard of it. LO has mastered breaking out of the Miracle Blanket so I want to get something else soon. Am considering the Woombie, but now I will have to investigate this magic suit…
pomegranate / 3008 posts
We bought one too but it wasn’t magic for us. We went back to swaddling and it was so much better for us. I’m glad it worked for someone, it just wasn’t a good fit for us.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
I still don’t understand what it is. Can you explain a little more?
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I agree with Mrs. Jacks – I don’t understand what it is (beyond the obvious, which is that it looks like a zip up pajama suit), or what is supposed to be soothing for the baby. Could you explain a little more?
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Mrs. Jacks: I think essentially its the same idea as a swaddler in some sense. Its actually recommended for the over 3 or 4 month set as thats the sizing they have (they have 2 sizes I think 3-6 and 6-9 or 12 months I forget now but its on their site) I think its basically another kind of sleeping device as around 3-4 months a lot of babies start to resist being swaddled or break out a ton (Drake was breaking out of his well before 3 months) and it makes it a nice soothing transition piece from swaddle to nothing? If you go to their site they explain it a lot better than I can and Ill be honest like I said in the post I really dont know why it works it just did for us. On the site it says its soft and reassuring for babies and maybe that was it. Drake didnt like his arms being pinned down with the swaddle but I guess he liked the security of it but he would wiggle out and lose that closeness since he wanted his arms out so he constantly needed us to help soothe him to sleep and once he was in the suit he got security but his arms free and didnt need us anymore maybe in some way? I just zipped him up everynight in a onesie (it worked since he is a summer baby that by the time it was getting warm he was outgrowing it anyway though the site says its fine for the summer months it just seemed too warm to me but I wasnt in it either so maybe its fine) and I was able to place him down in bed awake and leave and he would be comforted enough that he didnt need me to fall asleep. He would still wake up to feed of course but I no longer had to lose precious time rocking, bouncing, and walking with him as he was falling asleep which meant I could do other things or sleep earlier and just wake when he needed me to feed him. It saved me so much time and sanity in that sense and Drake loved it obviously as it changed how he was completely for sleep. And I loved that it taught him to be ok being placed into bed awake even as at 3 he is still not always loving bedtime but he doesnt cry once he is in bed, he just entertains himself till he falls asleep and I think the suit helped him adjust to this kind of transition
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@tororojo: if you’d like to try the woombie, I can ship one of ours to you to test out… Just let me know.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
@Mrs. Chocolate: but does it have like inflexible arms and legs so the child can’t move? (like structured stuff inside like a restraint?)
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Mrs. Jacks: No it doesnt have anything to stop them from putting their arms down if they want to. Its just very puffy and snowsuit like in appearance and feel.
apricot / 370 posts
We used the sleepsuit at about the 6 month mark for my LO and she slept great in it, although she did pretty good sleeping in a swaddle, we moved her out of the swaddle once she started being able to turn herself over. The sleepsuit was puffy and inflexible enough that it would make turning over very difficult for a baby to do, but still offered that feeling of closeness. But yes, I agree, flexible enough that their arms are not pinned to their sides. It was firm enough that it was difficult for her to put her arms down. Another benefit for us, was that my LO had bad eczema on her face and would try to scratch, so the sleepsuit was inflexible enough that she couldn’t lift her arms to scratch her face up. (sidenote and unrelated to the sleepsuit–sleep wasn’t my LO’s nemesis, it was her eczema; I could write a whole crazy post about eczema, and all the desperate things I bought to help her).
anyways, we bought one size up, and at about 9 months, we transitioned her to a sleep sack, and she did just fine with that. magic sleepsuit worked for us.
we have a friend who used the sleepsuit but said her baby would get all hot from being in it and wake up anyway. but it worked just fine for my LO, even when we were in hot hawaii, granted we kept a fan on to help keep the room cool.
pomelo / 5331 posts
@Mrs. Jacks: I think it’s supposed to kind of “muffle” their movement, making it so that they can still move around but not flail like they normally would? @Mrs. Chocolate: correct me if I’m wrong.
@tororojo: Wow, breaking out of the Miracle Blanket?! That is a serious Houdini!!
@Mrs. Chocolate: thanks for the review, we are going to attempt the Rock n Play-to-crib transition (again) this weekend so I have this sleep suit on the back burner in case it proves to be a difficult transition!
guest
This worked great for the baby I use to nanny. And babies just look so ridiculously cute in it.
guest
It was magic for us too! When our son outgrew his swaddle, it was the only thing that helped him clam down and stay alseep. We had noticed earlier that he loved sleeping in his real snowsuit and had used it desperate attemps to make him nap, so we had high hopes that baby merlin’s suit would do the trick (but with out the hood and feet!) Not sure what we would have done without it eaither!
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We’ve been using the Sleepsuit since 3.5 mo, since my son starting breaking out of swaddles. We also used it to transition from rock ‘n play to crib. If works wonders. We still rock are son to sleep but he doesn’t flair and wake himself up. The problem I have now is he’s almost 8mo old and trying to roll over in his sleep, so we figured it’s time to transition him out. But if I put him in a sleep sack he just kicks and flails for an hour before I give up. Once back in the suit he falls right asleep. I wonder if he’s really not ready to transition out, or if I have to just let him not sleep for a couple of days?
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Karen Drake started to roll around in the suit around 8 months too. I was a little concerned at first too since I was worried the suit would make it hard for him to roll back but I watched him on the monitor a few times at night and saw he could move fine on his own so I left it. Its a personal decision I think but I was confident enough with Drakes rolling abilities at that point and let him stay in it and it worked out but its up to how comfortable you feel I think. I am guessing you are thinking SIDS which is what I was but I figured if he was strong enough to roll one way with it on he would be able to roll the other way too and he did so I felt ok with my choice.
guest
Any suggestions for transitioning out of the sleep suit?
guest
We were so worried about transitioning our LO out as well. Not too long after I posted the last question we saw that the suit was getting too small too so we decided to do it. We bought a good sleepsack (something substantial but breathable) and just did it. I was shocked to find there really was no transition. Most of the reasons you need the suit like arm flailing are gone by the time to transition so it only takes a nap of two for them to get used to the new feeling. Be prepared though that your LO may have a lot of movement now. In the sleep suit he used to rotate maybe 90 degrees at night, but without it he moves all over the crib. Good luck!
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I just ordered mine. I went with the 6-9 mo size because my lo is already 14lbs at 15weeks. Question, when do you put your lo in it? I typically feed her before bed and before that will change her diaper and put her swaddler on. What do some of you ladies do? Also, do you take them out of it at all for the night time feeding? And finally, do you stick to just a onesie underneath? Thank you! I’m excited to get it.
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Just started using the sleep suit and it is awesome! However, I’m already worried about weaning my baby off it when the time comes. Can you share your experience with weaning your babe from the suit? At what age did you do it, how did you do it, and how long did it take? Thanks so much!
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Nicole Sorry I just saw these. By the time I moved Drake out of his suit he was close to one (yes I used it for a long long time) so honestly by then the suit wasnt really doing anything for him anymore it was just more part of the routine. Sorry I dont have better advice but hope things work out for you
@Tiffany Sorry this took so long to get to I hope things are working well for you. I use to just put Drake in a onesie for bed, long sleeves for winter short for spring. I wouldnt take him out once I placed him in for the night and would feed him in in the middle of the night I never changed him in the middle of the night unless he did number 2 which was always what I did even before I got the suit. Hope that helps
@Jody Sorry this took me so long to get to. I didnt take my son out of it til he was close to one. It was perfect for the winter months and once it started to get warmer it was the perfect time to stop and he was close to one anyways I think because I waited so long he honestly wasnt really using it anymore for that purpose so transition was easy He was so conditioned to going to sleep on his own once placed down that even at 3 1/2 now its the same he entertains himself in his bed til he falls asleep on his own. Hope that helps
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I have been using the Magic Sleep Suit since my baby was 2 months old and she just turned 6 months old and it is, BAR NONE, the **BEST** most amazing baby item I’ve owned! My baby hated being swaddled but loved the sleepsuit. It kept her gently on her back and kept her arms and legs down when she startled. It’s a happy, warm place for her and she loves the suit. Now, at 6 months old she is about to out-grow the larger sleep suit and I’m very sad!
guest
I know this is an old post but how old was your son when you started using it? Our six week old is already in 3 month old clothes and the swaddle doesn’t seem to be doing much for her.