Please talk to me about the Merlin sleep suit

natalie115 · October 2013

We're hitting critical mass over here :-P for the last 5-6 weeks DS is up every 2 hours or less at night and while he naps fine at daycare (unswaddled) he will only nap 30 min tops at home (in his crib) and wakes up so cranky and still exhausted. I was trying to wean off the swaddle and we do done arm out for 4 weeks with him still constantly waking himself up before I went back to full swaddle at night. I'm wondering if a sleep suit would help him. His arms are seriously spastic when he gets in his light sleep stage and they go straight to rubbing the crap out if his eyes until he wake up.

So if you have one...do you like it? Do you think it may help soften DS' crazy arm movements? He's 16 weeks

amie444 · October 2013

We started with the suit last night. It is for swaddle weaning. LO was up 2x but slept VERY soundly . We are on night 2 as I type. But I am optimistic that by next week we are back down to once a night waking.

HeartLikeMine3 · October 2013

BLang23 said:
I was curious about this as well. The only thing that worries me is I feel like it would be super hot which is a SIDS risk. I remember a while back someone on this board said it doesn't seem to get too hot but I checked the reviews and there were a lot of people saying their babies woke up super sweaty and stuff. Also something about legs getting stuck up inside the suit when they bend them or something.

Sounds horrible, but I've gotta find a solution for swaddle weaning. I keep my house pretty cold so it might work.

MdWestMom · October 2013

Just curious, where does your little one sleep? In your room or in the nursery? For us, moving little man to a cosleeper situation made a huge difference in his sleep. In the nursery, he was up every 2 hrs. Now he SSTN. I don't know anything about the suit, but good luck! It's no fun being up every 2 hrs.

natalie115 · October 2013

BLang23 said:

I was curious about this as well. The only thing that worries me is I feel like it would be super hot which is a SIDS risk. I remember a while back someone on this board said it doesn't seem to get too hot but I checked the reviews and there were a lot of people saying their babies woke up super sweaty and stuff. Also something about legs getting stuck up inside the suit when they bend them or something.

It's regularly 20 degrees or colder overnight here and in order to avoid a ridiculous heating bill and a room too hot for DH and I to sleep in we keep the house pretty cool overnight. I've actually been wondering how to keep DS warm enough so this might be a good solution.

I guess it's basically like everything else, it works for some babies & not for others. Although looking at amazon reviews it works great for most...hard to know. I'm getting desperate over here so I'll probably just cough up the money. Thanks for the heads up on it being warm!

natalie115 · October 2013

MdWestMom said:

Just curious, where does your little one sleep? In your room or in the nursery? For us, moving little man to a cosleeper situation made a huge difference in his sleep. In the nursery, he was up every 2 hrs. Now he SSTN. I don't know anything about the suit, but good luck! It's no fun being up every 2 hrs.

He's in the bassinet part of his PnP next to our bed. I've been trying to get him to nap in his crib more often so he naps in there a couple times a day. He usually takes one long nap on me in the evening.

MdWestMom · October 2013

Hmmm....maybe he's not totally comfortable in the bassinet? You said he sleeps fine at daycare? Maybe a different sleep surface (crib or a co-sleeper) would help? I should have mentioned, little man hated the fancy bassinet I bought him. He basically refused to nap in it. We kinda had to experiment with various sleeping places (crib, RnP, cosleeper) until we found what worked.

amie444 · October 2013

We keep her room72-73 and she was not hot at all. I was amazed.

natalie115 · October 2013

MdWestMom said:
Hmmm....maybe he's not totally comfortable in the bassinet? You said he sleeps fine at daycare? Maybe a different sleep surface (crib or a co-sleeper) would help? I should have mentioned, little man hated the fancy bassinet I bought him. He basically refused to nap in it. We kinda had to experiment with various sleeping places (crib, RnP, cosleeper) until we found what worked.

It's not bassinet, but a pnp with the mattress in the bassinet position. A pnp is what he naps in at daycare so I don't think it would be that much different...thanks for the idea though! We have a smaller pnp that he used to sleep better in maybe we'll go back to that, I just liked having him further from the sides....I'll have to think on it

Bbtj · October 2013

We have been using it for a couple weeks after failed swaddle weaning. I put LO in a onesie then the suit on top and she seems to be the perfect temp. The suit settles her and she now only wakes up once in the night and is sleeping flat in the crib! It looks ridiculous but we are all sleeping much better

Ballet513 · October 2013

MdWestMom said:

Just curious, where does your little one sleep? In your room or in the nursery? For us, moving little man to a cosleeper situation made a huge difference in his sleep. In the nursery, he was up every 2 hrs. Now he SSTN. I don't know anything about the suit, but good luck! It's no fun being up every 2 hrs.

It was the opposite for us! She slept about 8 hours a night in our room in the RnP. In the crib in her own room she sleeps 11-12 hours with zero wakeups.

Regarding the sleepsuit: I've heard great things! Two of the moms in my mom group swear by it. If it works for you a decent night sleep is worth the money!

BunnyLove416 · October 2013

natalie115 said:

Hmmm....maybe he's not totally comfortable in the bassinet? You said he sleeps fine at daycare? Maybe a different sleep surface (crib or a co-sleeper) would help? I should have mentioned, little man hated the fancy bassinet I bought him. He basically refused to nap in it. We kinda had to experiment with various sleeping places (crib, RnP, cosleeper) until we found what worked.
It's not bassinet, but a pnp with the mattress in the bassinet position. A pnp is what he naps in at daycare so I don't think it would be that much different...thanks for the idea though! We have a smaller pnp that he used to sleep better in maybe we'll go back to that, I just liked having him further from the sides....I'll have to think on it

This might not be true for you guys at all but I found when LO slept in the pnp with the mattress up in the higher position he slept way worse, I finally realized it was because when he would have his spastic movements at night it would swing the whole mattress portion and startle him awake.

Anyway I'd love to hear how the sleep suit works, we're trying to wean the swaddle also and it's so difficult!

bennyandthejets13 · October 2013

Mostly a lurker but I always feel the need to comment when someone asks about the sleep suit. Lol DS has been it for a month and half and I love it. We started the sleep suit at the same time we moved him into his crib in his own room and he's been STTN ever since. DS doesn't get hot his suit and I live in Arizona! The inside is cotton and I just put a onesie on him and he is just fine with it. It is goofy looking and we refer to it as his austonaut suit lol but for us, it's does the trick and we get 10-12 uninterrupted hours of sleep every night. It's magic! Lol

Murphie82 · October 2013

I got the sleep suit a couple of weeks ago when we started transitioning to the crib. (As an aside, we never swaddled because DS slept in something similar to a rock and play.). The suit didn't end up working for us because he was going through a super gassy period and he couldn't pull his legs up in it. Also, he likes to be able to put his hands on his face/suck on his fingers, and the suit inhibits that. It doesn't make it impossible, but it's certainly not easy.

He slept in it for 1.5 nights before we gave up on it, but I could see it working for babies who don't do either of the two things I mentioned above. Also, we keep the house about 72 degrees each night, and with a light onesie underneath, I didn't think it was too hot for him.

Eta: clarity

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