Merlin Magic Sleep Suit Review
*Below is my honest review of the Merlin Magic Sleep Suit. I was not given this product to try but paid for it at regular price. I just wanted to help other moms who may be contemplating buying the suit.
Catherine loved her swaddle. We were gifted the Ollie swaddle which I highly recommend! All the other swaddles we tried (Halo, Zen, and swaddling with Aden and Anais blankets) resulted in Catherine getting her arm out and being way too interested in her hands to stay asleep. The Ollie was amazing for keeping Catherine swaddled all night and never once did she get her arm out.
When Catherine turned four months old, I suddenly realized that she would soon be rolling over. It was as if at that point I hadn’t actually grasped the fact that my baby wasn’t a newborn anymore. She was growing quick and shouldn’t still be in a swaddle for fear that she could roll onto her belly and get stuck. I quickly realized we needed a change. I was definitely not looking forward to this change because my sweet girl was basically a terrible sleeper at this point and the Ollie had really helped (meaning now I got up 4-5 times a night rather than every hour). Yeah, sleep was bad.
So I started researching some transitional products that would help Catherine out of the swaddle but still give her arms some resistance since she still had the startle reflex. I had tried Catherine sleeping without any swaddle/sleep sack product and that went about as horribly as you think it would (work herself up constantly with her startle reflex and couldn’t get herself back to sleep). It seemed there were two popular transitional products-Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit and the Zip-a-dee.
After looking at some positive and negatives I decided on the Magic Sleep Suit. Yes, it looks ridiculous. Your baby will look like a mix between an astronaut and the Michelin man. But one of the reasons I feel that Catherine loved being swaddled so much was because she felt so secure. I wasn’t sure that the Zip-a-dee would give her that sense of security. Based on how little it looked like babies could move in the sleep suit I thought she may do better with it. Plus I also saw a few reviews where parents said that terrible sleepers slept the entire night when they put on the Merlin and since I was still pretty sleep deprived I decided I had to try it.
I was so excited to use the Merlin when it came in the mail. It went on for her first nap of the day. Her normal naps are only about 40 minutes at most (1 full sleep cycle) but I had hope that maybe the Merlin would help her sleep through two sleep cycles for a chunky nap.
Well, 20 minutes later Catherine was up. I felt so defeated. I tried to get her back to sleep but she refused. I tried again later and this time kept a close eye on the monitor so I could see what was going on while she was sleeping. To my dismay, she had no idea how to sleep with a little more freedom for her hands and again she was up 20 minutes later. She definitely still had the startle reflex and while the suit helped muffle it, she just wasn’t used to the freedom. I was pretty frustrated. I made the decision that we wouldn’t begin the Merlin at night at least until she was a little more used to it. I started with one nap a day and increased to an extra nap every few days until she was sleeping in the Merlin for all her naps. After the first three days her naps went back to their normal length. It was at that point I had her sleep in it at night. Because she was already used to sleeping in the Merlin during the day the transition to night wasn’t difficult at all.
She definitely never slept better in the Merlin (until we sleep trained at 5 months) but she slept just as well as she did in her swaddle after the initial adjustment. Would I buy it again-yes, definitely. It gave us the confidence that she would have her arms free if she did somehow roll while still helping suppress her startle reflex. It was a great segway for her to having her arms free while she slept. I don’t know that this would necessarily be an amazing product for everyone but the comfort of the padding making her feel safe like she felt in the swaddle and the ability for it to stifle movements was great for her.
At six months we had to give the sleep suit up because her DOC band made her too hot for the sleep suit. Again, I was afraid to transition and have her arms completely free but at that point her startle reflex was gone and the change was very simple. I honestly think the Merlin helped this transition to the sleep sack go smoothly. I can’t imagine going from arms by her side in the swaddle to free in the sleep sack all at once. I like that she had a nice gradual transition.
Has anyone else tried the Merlin? Likes/dislikes? Or if there was another transitional product you used, I’d love to hear about it!