Product Review-HALO SleepSack Swaddle

Probably around 3 months, give or take a couple of weeks, we moved Baby T from the swaddles in this post, to the Halo SleepSack Swaddle. Oh Em Gee, love it!! It's may favorite by far. See it here. While I truly loved the aden + anais easy swaddles, there were a few times that Baby T somehow wiggled her arms up towards her face and some of the material bunched up too close to her face for my comfort. Again, this post shows you what I'm talking about.

Anyway, when we went to one of our "preparing for baby" classes, there were two women there that showed us the product that they recommended for babies to sleep in. I made a note of it, but didn't run out to buy one. Thankfully, one of our friends sent us one as a gift. Once we started using it, almost all my worries went away regarding baby being in danger of something covering her face. The way its made just doesn't allow for it. It comes in various colors and materials. Although we are beginning to transition Baby T from the swaddle, they also have non-swaddle options that we may try as well.

Photo is from the Halo website

See an informational video here.

***These are solely my opinions due to my own experiences with this product. This is not a sponsored post.***

HALO® SleepSack® Swaddle: The Safe and Easy way to Swaddle

Product Review-Sleep Blankets, Swaddles, etc.

There are all kinds of information (overwhelming) regarding sleep. It honestly created the most anxiety for me. I was so concerned that Baby T would be cold...or hot...or not comfortable. But mostly the concern is about safety. There are so many horror stories floating around about devastating things happening to babies in their sleep. The first few nights with Baby T, I made my husband sleep so I could stay awake and stare at her, then I slept when he woke up in the morning. I mean, I just couldn't fathom feeling comfortable enough to sleep while she slept. Of course that initial panic and fear subsided a bit, but for me, still hasn't gone away fully even now and she is six months old.

Sleep sacks/swaddles, etc. seem to be how a lot of babies sleep. I heard all about them and saw them in the stores while I was pregnant. We got a few as gifts and Baby T loved being swaddled so they were awesome.

receiving blankets

At first, for naps during the day, we used receiving blankets as Baby T was a tiny 5 pounds 6 ounces coming home from the hospital. (We tried these for overnight sleep as this is how she slept in the hospital, but I was too nervous to do it for long--a few nights at the most.) These worked well until she got a little stronger (a week maybe?) and she was able to wiggle which made me worry that she would get the blanket too loose and it would cover her face. We did continue using them for naps as long as she was monitored while she slept. You can find these everywhere and they have a million different uses. Some examples here and here.

easy swaddle- aden + anais

For night time sleep, we used the aden + anais easy swaddles seen here. I really liked these. Not only do they come in different sizes, they also have adjustable snaps to loosen/tighten the swaddle as baby grows or feels more comfortable. The material is lightweight so depending on how you keep your house, then you can dress baby in pjs underneath or either a onesie. We used a onesie and socks for a while. They also have an option for organic material if you so choose. They are more secure for wiggly babies and eased my mind when it came to Baby T getting anything over her face. Thee were a few times that she wiggled her arms up towards her face so far that some of the material bunched up near her face. Its a little loose in the first picture below and fits much better in the second picture. I didn't like this, but figured out that if you pull the material down and then tightly around her shoulders, it helped this issue a lot. Here she is in these aden + anais easy swaddle.

aden + anais swaddle blankets

As Baby T outgrew the receiving blankets, we used the swaddle blankets by a + a seen here. These are awesome as well. They're large enough to swaddle bigger/longer babies easily, lightweight material and comes in organic as well. We used these for naps, but not night sleeping for baby for the same reason--if she wiggled too much, then the blankets came undone and risked covering her face. She is 14 pounds, 26 inches at 6 months and can still be swaddled in these if we choose to do so for naps. I've used these for many different things including, a carseat cover if its bright out on a walk or in the car and she's napping (also works great to keep strangers away from your new baby if you have to go out in public with them), she snuggles with the soft material sometimes, I cover her legs from the sun in the stroller with these, and I stuffed them in the bottom of my ergo until she was big/tall enough to not need extra support. Endless ways to use these.

Here is an example of her wiggling out of the swaddle and is why she didn't sleep unmonitored with them.

See more on swaddles.


***These are solely my opinions due to my own experiences with this product. This is not a sponsored post.***

Product Review-Blooming bath

Blooming Bath for Babies

Source

Price Range: $40

When we were searching for must-haves for Baby T, we knew we needed some type of bathtub for her. But we have limited space with only two bathrooms. Our master has just a shower so we'd be bathing the baby in our spare which is the one guests use. I didn't want to get one of the more common tubs that are bigger and take up a lot of space because I knew I would want to hide it when we were having people over.  I found the Blooming Bath for Babies and decided it was the one for us.

This product has worked very well for Baby T. She was very tiny at birth, so she got baths in the kitchen sink for a while. I did have to put a bowl underneath the Blooming Bath for extra support or else the petals would fold up too much and not allow baby to lay properly, but other than that, it made me feel like she was comfortable and protected for the hardness of the sink. Some water will puddle in the bottom, but not enough to emulate an actual bathtub. If you are trying to keep baby warm with the water, then maybe not so good, but otherwise its fine.

Now that Baby T is older, we lay the Blooming Bath down in the bottom of the tub and she loves it. She likes to kick freely in the bath and this allows her to do that where I don't think other baby bathtubs would. You can see a picture of her in this blog post. Like I said, its super soft and provides cushion for her to just lay in the bath and kick around.

Overall, the product's pros outweigh the cons for me and I do recommend this especially if you have limited space for storage and a baby that likes to kick in the water. (Baby T's head is far enough out of the water when she lays on this to to be worrisome as long as you don't fill the tub too much.)

PROS:

*Very soft and flexible for easy storage; can be stored underneath our bathroom sink of in the linen closet
*Can be used in the sink or the tub
*Soft and cushiony for baby's comfort
*Can be packed in luggage if needed on a trip
*Its cute!
*I've seen people use it outside for baby to lay in the grass on as well. It doesn't have to be a bathtub I suppose

CONS:

*I mentioned earlier that it needed some support underneath it in order for it to work in my sink. This could depend on the size, depth, width, etc. of your kitchen sink.
*It gets really heavy with water--One of my biggest complaints (which is probably silly) is having to pick the Blooming Bath up after Baby T's bath and squeeze the water out of the foam. It seems trivial but it just annoys me.
*You will need somewhere to hang it after bath time to ensure proper drying. I'm not sure, but it seems to me that mold could grow because of the moisture in it if its not dried properly. We haven't had any trouble with this yet and we've been using it for 6 months now.


You can find the products here:

www.bloomingbath.com

Target

***These are solely my opinions due to my own experiences with this product. This is not a sponsored post.***