Magic Sleep Suits

Someone asked what I thought of the Magic Sleep Suits so I figured I'd write a post about how the girls are sleeping now, and the challenges that are coming up.  This has been on my mind for a while so this is as good a time as any to write this.

Right now, I'm loving these things!  The girls outgrew their swaddles a month or so ago and at the same time, someone posted a coupon code for getting these at half price so I went ahead and bought two of them to try them out.

We put the girls in their little suits and they pretty much go right to sleep.  They sleep through the night, a solid 12 hours or so and don't appear to wake themselves up much.

When we first got them, we thought they would be useless for some time because they are designed to be really snug, but the girls were swimming in them.  They come in sizes 3-6m and 6-9m.  The larger of my girls is only now crossing over from 3m clothing to 3-6m clothing.  But they've been doing fine these even though their little arms and legs barely got into the arm and leg holes and certainly didn't reach enough for the hands and feet to come out of the ends.

At first, the girls couldn't move at all.  They weren't strong enough and their limbs weren't long enough to move around.  Now they are able to move a little bit, but their movement is very limited.  They can reach their mouths with their hands when they want to and they can kick their legs, but they have to flex and use some strength to do that.  Once they fall asleep, they're just little starfish lying there.  Tina has recently been able to scoot herself around enough to turn about 90 degrees, but that's the extent of the movement we've seen.

We zip up Charlottes Wubba in the suit so that the body of it is mostly under her armpit and the nipple sticks out.  She's able to turn her head to suck on it and turn her head the other way when she doesn't want it.  But it's always right there if she wants it again.

When one of these is in the laundry, the girls do have a tougher time falling asleep.  For the most part, we're able to get it washed and dried before their next nap so this hasn't been a big deal.  It's rare that we've had to put them down without a suit.  But yeah, whichever one doesn't get her sleep suit has more trouble going to sleep.  Charlotte had such a rough time yesterday in just a plain sleep sack that I eventually went in and tightly wrapped a swaddling blanket around her chest and she finally fell asleep.

They are just now growing into the size they are supposed to be for these and we've already purchased the next size up.  At the rate my girls grow (slooooooooow), those could last until they are 16-18 months old!

Concerns that I have:

1)  Being too warm.  These are like snowsuits so I have to imagine they are really warm.  We keep the girls in either jammies or onesies, but not both when we put them in these.  It's winter now so I'm not very concerned at the moment, but when we cross over into the summer months, I think I'm going to write to the company and ask about that.

2)  Snuza muffling.  I was worried that there is so much thickness of material that it would completely muffle the Snuza alarm.  We tested it out and the alarm is a little bit quieter.  We turned up the volume on our monitor one notch to compensate.

3)  They really can't move much.  This is generally a good thing, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that all the squirming around and moving that babies do while asleep is somehow good for development.  Problem is, I can't remember where I read that and I can't seem to google anything that will tell me that again so I don't really know if that's true or not.  If anyone else can lead me to that information, I'd appreciate it.

4)  If they manage to roll over, I'm not sure how easily they'd be able to roll back.  They haven't done that yet, show no signs of being anywhere near able to when wearing these things, so I'll worry about it when it happens.  I'm pretty sure that were they to do so now, they could turn their heads and breathe just fine and they're only getting stronger with time.

5)  They only go up to size 6-9m.  For my girls, no big deal, that's going to last a while.  But what happens when they can't wear these anymore?  Are we creating a dependence we're going to have a hell of a time undoing?  We have that same question about them sharing a crib.  They are somewhat dependent on each other, getting upset when the other one hasn't made it into the crib yet, when one cries, the other grabs her hand and that often stops the crying.  What's going to happen when they can't sleep side by side anymore and each need their own sleep space?

Overall, yes I recommend these.  They seem to do what they claim to do and my girls sleep very well in them.  Added benefit if you have twins that sleep together - they can't really move enough to smack or kick each other.  Pretty much how you set them down is how you're going to find them when they wake up.


*****Update*****


A few people expressed concern that the girls looked like they were roasting in the pictures.  Their cheeks were really flushed and Tina has some drool on her chin that further looks like she's just dying.  Don't worry, the cheeks had nothing to do with the temperature.  I took those pics right when I got Charlotte in the suit and before Tina was even zipped in.  That was before their nap, not after.

When the girls get overtired, their cheeks and nose go red.  My mother commented on it this morning when we were all out for breakfast.  After about 2 hours of awake time, they get overtired and their cheeks flush.  Here's a picture from this evening, Charlotte refused her afternoon nap and had been awake for a few hours by the time we took this picture.  Big rosy cheeks and a cheesy dad.

This was the closest thing I could find to a picture taken immediately after a nap.  They go from the crib, sometimes directly into the high chair to eat, sometimes there's a diaper change in there....anyway, since Tina doesn't have food on her face in this picture and I hadn't yet put the tray in place, this must have been within a few minutes of waking up and being taken out of her sleep suit.  No rosy cheeks!

Just wanted to reassure everyone that the girls are perfectly fine.  While the rosy cheeks and Tina's drool covered chin does look like they were sweltering in the those pictures, they weren't.  They weren't even warm at that particular moment.  Y'all know how paranoid I am about being judged as being unworthy.  The last thing I need is CPS showing up at my door reporting that a bunch of people from the internet are claiming I'm roasting my babies alive every night.  And again, when spring comes around and the nursery temp increases, I'm going to really keep an eye on how warm they are in the suits.  I appreciate everyone's concern and if anyone knows anything about temperatures and these suits, please share that info in the comments.