Baby Bumpers & Sleep Positioners

So Houston we have a problem.  We're in the process of teaching Munchkin how to sleep in his crib.  It's a bit of a slog.  Well actually a lot of a slog, but that's all for another post.  I will share the "wisdom" we have learned then.  This is more about a specific issue with the crib.

Our little guy has learned to roll over in one direction so far.  He can get from his back to his tummy but not back again.  The problem with that is that he's not super fond of his tummy time and it wakes him up when he does it.  The rolling will improve with time, however, when he does this he often ends up with a limb sticking out of the crib which makes things worse for him.  

So I looked into what we can do about both issues.  For the rolling I thought about a sleep positioner.  You can find lots of them on the internets, but with a little bit of research it looks like they can actually be quite harmful to baby.  So don't get one.  Which is too bad as it would be so lovely to temporarily keep him from rolling onto his tummy.  At least until he learns to roll back.

Now I did get a better option for the Baby Bumper.  Baby Bumpers are in fact not recommended for cribs.  They can contribute to SIDS and suffocation, strangulation and all that unfun stuff.  But they do a really good job of keeping the limbs in the crib.  With a bit of piking around I did find an alternative.  A mesh baby bumper with no ties and the like.  Keeps the limbs in and breathing feasible.

We're hopefully going to be grabbing one today from Toysrus and we shall see how it works.  

Loveys

In our Quest with a capital Q, to get our Munchkin to sleep all by himself, we decided to get him a "lovey".  It's basically a little blankie that you snuggle with him and put him to sleep with all the time in order to get him to attach to it and feel secure with it.

I will warn you, some kids latch onto one, others don't.  Munchkin seems to be somewhere in the middle.  Who knows where it will go.  But he does like it.

The one we got is the giraffe from Angel Dear.  And the neat thing is that they will sell them in sets of three!  This is a good thing, trust me.  Especially if this becomes the toy they will not do without.  That way one can be in use, one in the wash and a spare in case of loss.

I was a little skeptical, but though....well why not get the three pack.  I figured perhaps if it got lost eventually I wouldn't be able to get another one.  Within a week I had used all three due to spit up on them.

We still aren't there with sleep yet, but that's a post for another day.

Co Sleepers/Bassinets

So here's the thing about our little guy.  He likes to be with us in bed  He didn't seem to like the cradle we were putting him in.  Actually correct that, I was so tired with having him home at first that I would bring him into bed with me to feed him and then fall asleep.  This is generally not the safest move out there.  But he wouldn't really sleep in the cradle either it would seem.  So we went out and got a co-sleeper.  The one we got was the First Years Cosleeper.

They cost about $50 at Toysrus and other places.  We ended up buying it off Craigslist.  It was half the price and the person had used theirs twice.

Please do note that pretty much all the medical community says not to let your baby sleep in the bed with you.  There are a number of dangers, such as rolling over on the baby, bedding doing suffocation etc.....

The cosleeper worked reasonably well.  I will caution you not to get one of this particular kind unless you have at least a Queen size bed or are going to kick the hubby out.  My hubby and I were pretty much sleeping on the outside edges of the bed.  It does make for safer sleeping for the little one.  Another thing to consider is that they will grow out of it fairly quickly.  We only used it for a couple of months.  He grew too long after that.

I think perhaps if I was to do it again, I would either make sure I got out of bed to nurse and put him back in the cradle (avoiding the whole sleeping in the bed issue even though it can be super cuddly at times) or perhaps look into one of the  Arms Reach Cosleepers.  They look like they could be useful.