Transitioning out of Merlin sleep suit...how did you do it?

sundaesprinkles · December 2013

My DS has been wearing the Merlin Magic sleep suit to bed every night since just before he turned 3 months old. He is now 7 1/2 months and he is starting to roll in it. I know he's not supposed to be using it anymore once he can roll in it so I want to get him used to sleeping without it. The main problem is he has no idea that he can sleep on his tummy. Once he rolls onto his tummy he thinks it's play time. I tried a fleece sleep sack a couple of nights and he woke up a ton during the night since it's so much easier to roll in. How did you transition out of the sleep suit and/or get your baby comfortable with sleeping on their tummy?

LisaLisa1980 · December 2013

We transitioned from a woombie swaddle to a zipadeezip just fine so check those out. They are made as a transitioning device and it gets great reviews! The rolling over on tummy does take awhile for them to learn but they will get it. I remember watching him on the monitor everynight whenever he'd move & wake up. I thought "come oooon baby, sleep on your tummy, it feels so much better!" After a few weeks of being in his crib he finally got it. There's nothing yu can do to help them, they'll figure it out in their own like everything else.

honeydew01 · December 2013

We did it cold turkey when DD was 4 months old and had started to roll. We actually had bought the Merlin Magic Suit and were going to use it to transition but upon much research we decided to go cold turkey and I highly recommend it. It was rough the first night but she had it figured out the second night.

As far as sleeping on their tummy, DD one day decided she liked to sleep on her tummy and she was 6 months old. We didn't encourage it or anything, I always laid her down on her back and left the room. She decided on her own to sleep on her tummy. I would just let your LO be, if he wants to sleep on her tummy, he will do it on her own.

Pitterpatter44 · December 2013

Cold turkey from the sleep suit. We use a halo sleep sack and it helps to keep her feeling snuggly (safely) and from getting her limbs caught in the slats. Took 2-3 nights after ditching the sleep suit of terrible sleep (or lack of) before she figured out how to get comfortable. Good luck!

megandscott07 · December 2013

adl3399 said:
Cold turkey from the sleep suit. We use a halo sleep sack and it helps to keep her feeling snuggly (safely) and from getting her limbs caught in the slats. Took 2-3 nights after ditching the sleep suit of terrible sleep (or lack of) before she figured out how to get comfortable. Good luck!

This.

NDarya · December 2013

Cold turkey. We transitioned DS from Merlin suit to a sleep sack around 5 months when he started to roll. It took him almost a month (!) to figure out tummy sleep (not partying). We co-slept back then and I was turning him on his back all night long as he got so frustrated with rolling on his tummy. It will take some time so hang in there!

sidey1 · December 2013

We ended up going cold turkey around 6.5 months because DS started sleeping horribly in the sleepsuit, I think it was making it hard for him to get comfortable, it was kind of still restricting his movement but not much and he didn't want to be on his back anymore. We're just now at almost 8 months getting back to occasionally sleeping 10 to 11 hours at a time. So be prepared, it took him a while to figure out how to get himself comfy on his tummy. Now when he sleeps on his stomach he will wake up and turn his head and fall back asleep pretty quickly on his own.