Putting your child to bed can be hard. Are they comfortable? Are they too hot or cold? But most importantly, are they safe? There are so many different approaches to safe sleep and I am not here to tell you how to put your child to sleep! I found what worked best for myself and my baby and want to share how I transitioned Joey from the swaddle to a sleep sack.
Let's talk about the swaddle. Most babies love it! Joey loved it too. We swaddled him for the first 3 months for naps and bedtime. We used a few different kinds but ended up loving the Happiest Baby Swaddle because it was so easy to take on and off. You could unzip it from the bottom and still keep their arms swaddled if you needed to do a quick diaper change! It was breathable and not too thick so we could still put him in footie pajamas. I got the small when he was first born and moved up to the medium size a little later. It's only $25 and worth the investment to buy a few in case they have a blow out or something and you need to wash it lol.
At about 3 months, Joey was still sleeping in his bassinet, but we noticed he was starting to move around. One morning I woke up and he was on the complete other side! He also was starting to look big in it too. At that point we knew that he was ready to transition to the crib, and also out of the swaddle. He was not rolling from tummy to back yet, but was scooting around so I felt it was time to give him a little more freedom. We switched to the marshmallow suit. The Merlin! The Merlin is AMAZING. Joey slept so well (maybe too well) in it from months 3-5. This was a good next step after the swaddle for us. It kept him warm and cozy and it is weighted so it felt like he was still swaddled. They cannot move much in this which is the point since most babies still have their moro reflex and can wake themselves up.
Now some people keep their babies in the Merlin up to 9 months old but around 5 months I noticed that Joey was moving (during the day) so much! He was rolling from tummy to back (typically the first milestone) and was soon going to be able to roll from back to tummy. I felt bad restricting his movement and wanted to find a new alternative. We ended up going with the Nested Bean for about a month and it was great! This suit has their arms totally out and a weighted bean on the front by their chest so it feel like your hand is on them.
After Joey rolled from back to tummy consistently (even in the crib) it was time to move him to a normal sleep sack. I got nervous about him rolling in the middle of the night and having that weighted bean against his mattress and stomach so we landed on the KYTE baby sleep sack. It's super soft and cozy and they have different levels of thickness depending on the time of year or how cold/hot your house is. We keep our house pretty average (between 68-70 degrees) so we went with the 1.0 thickness. He has been sleeping in it for about a month and loves it!
Hope you found this helpful! Like I said before, every baby is different and will have different needs but this worked well for Joey!
xoxo On To The Next Trend