Sleep Training and the Magic Sleepsuit – Part 1

06/25/2017

Let me just preface this post by saying, that I started writing it like 4 months ago and it’s just finding its way to the blog… it’s a hard knock life over here.

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There comes a point in every mother’s life where you start to negotiate with the powers that be (usually the baby) about what you’d trade for sleep. “Please, I’ll take an hour, just an hour… I won’t ask for anything else ever in my life if you just let me sleep for 60-mother-bleepin’-minutes.”

If you’re one of the lucky moms who has had a sleeping baby from the get-go… we can’t be friends! For a lot of us, being a zombie mom is what bonds us. Let’s be real, 3 a.m. feedings are the perfect time for making mommy friends online no?

I’m on baby number 3 so you can imagine how much how little sleep I’ve had in the last 4 years. The great thing is that Baby Bear was a pretty good sleeper until we hit the 4-month sleep regression. That shit hits you like a ton of bricks. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 1^st time or the 10^th. Going from moderate sleep, to no sleep is a crime against humanity. I could feel myself starting to get crotchety and I was never able to squeeze in any work. When we got back from Great Wolf Lodge (after all sleeping in the same room), I knew it was time.

We had just had Triona of Tucked in Tight come in and speak to our Mom & Baby class and I was reminded that I was doing Baby Bear such a disservice by not teaching him how to sleep. Neither of us were getting any truly restful sleep and that wasn’t good for either of us.

Insert sleep training and Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit.

I first introduced Baby Bear to the Magic Sleepsuit at 3 months. He wasn’t necessarily ready to break out of the swaddle yet but we had been letting him nap on his tummy (under a very watchful eye) and I wanted him to learn to sleep well on his back to put my mind at ease.

When I first bundled him up and put him down, he fell asleep almost instantly and I thought ‘the suit REALLY is magic.’ But then Baby Bear woke up 10 minutes later and I was done before I began. At the time, sleeping wasn’t a huge issue so I put the Magic Sleepsuit on the shelf and continued on with our swaddle.

Then Baby Bear turned 4-months-old *cue ominous music* and all hell broke loose. He wouldn’t sleep for longer than an hour and a half (max) swaddled or on his tummy. He literally spent the night with my boob in his mouth to keep him asleep… it was not working for me.

So a week after he turned 4-months-old, I cracked. With Sister Bear and Brother Bear, we sleep trained them at 5 months each but something about being sleep deprived for the last 4 years said we wouldn’t last through a month without sleep. I pulled out the Magic Sleepsuit again and gave it a go in combination with the Ferber sleep method. Now, before anyone has a panic attack about the little bit of crying Baby Bear had to endure (he was checked and patted in regular intervals), my 2 other nutso well-adjusted children will tell you they don’t even remember learning to sleep and the fact that I have to scrape children off of me lets me know that we are sufficiently bonded.

So, onto the sleep training!

Night 1: I dressed Baby Bear in a t-shirt style onesie and slipped him into the Magic Sleepsuit. He looked like a tiny little yellow marshmallow. I nursed him in the sleep suit and then laid him down in his bassinet. I checked on him in the traditional Ferber method intervals and was worried he wasn’t going to make it. It took him 57 minutes to fall asleep UGHHHH MY HEART! He slept until 3 a.m. woke up, nursed and put himself right back down.

Night 2: Down in 20 minutes. I hate hearing him cry but the crying wasn’t ongoing for the entire 20 minutes so it let me know that he was learning to put himself down. I still sucked but I just kept reminding myself how happy he would be with some restful sleep.

Night 3: Not a mother-effin-peep! I swear to you I put him down and he knew the drill. I closed the door behind me and he put himself down! *enter happy expletives here*

It took him 3 nights to get the hang of sleeping by himself and learning to self soothe. One thing that’s different about my journey in sleep training this time around is that Baby Bear still sleeps in our room (in a bassinet) so he had to learn to put himself down and stay down as we came to bed. With Sister and Brother Bear, we sleep trained them in their respective rooms so they learned to sleep with no one in their room.

A typical night for Baby Bear at 5 months looked like this:

6:30 – 7:00 – Last nursing session. On and off for comfort.

7:00 – 7:15 – Lay Baby Bear in his bassinet

7:15 – Asleep. I don’t usually hear him after I put him down so I’m not sure how long he stays awake but he’s super quiet and I think he falls asleep shortly after I put him down.

3:00 – 3:30 a.m. – Up for feeding (Baby Bear is exclusively breastfeed so he wakes up to top up his belly before his second stretch).

5:00 – 7:00 – Depending on the day he is up anywhere between these 2 times. I usually just pull him into bed and fall asleep nursing him so I can get a nap in.

Now, at 7-months-old, Baby Bear now sleeps 12 restful hours! #winning

Stay tuned for Part II where I break down my thoughts on the Magic Sleepsuit and Part III where I talk about breaking him from his Magic Sleepsuit and transitioning him into his crib!