Ever since Elle was born we have used a Cocoonababy in her cot, bassinet, on the lounge, on holidays. It has slept her safely and comfortably.
If you have never heard of one before then read about why I love it here
Long story short babies sleep longer because of the comfort the Cocoon provides them!
It is recommended to use a cocoonababy until 4-5 months of age or until baby can roll consistently. Elle was born at 6.2 pounds (2.8kg) and hasn’t been a massive gainer so I knew I would get good use out of the Cocoon. She is 6 months in a week and this week I transitioned her out of it.
I first started with the shorter day sleeps around four months. Once she got the short sleeps perfected on the flat cot surface I then moved her out of it for her long lunch nap. After 2 weeks I thought I had it down pact and while in the heat of a bad few nights I felt like she was ready to stay completely out of it. I went in and committed one night to transition all sleeps.
I can honestly say that was the worst night of my mum life with sleep haha! So much so that I gave up at 11.00pm and instead of giving in to the cocoon I just snuggled her in my bed the rest of the night in a bid to not give in to the cocoon to hope she would forget!
How we transitioned
Essentially when transitioning Elle the advice is to generally replace with a new comfort solution. but being a paranoid mum there was no blanket, no comforter, absolutely nothing. Just a blank cot and her. She woke every 10 minutes because that was when I would lay her down flat. We repeated again and again from 830-11pm until I just cuddled her.
After that terrible night sleep I didn’t want to do it again but I knew I just had to persist. I spoke to other mums and realised that perhaps I needed it to feel more like a comfortable place for her too.
I had to break down my paranoid mum walls.
I put a blanket in as a cot sheet that I knew smelt like us, put a blanket to tightly wrap over her and comforter toy that smelt like us (removed this before we went to sleep). I had much better success this night. We made it to 3am before I pulled her into bed because she wouldn’t resettle in the cot again due to the change.
The third night I decided to keep the above approach but also swaddle both arms in. Success!
It was what worked. As she isn’t fully happy to roll onto her tummy I knew I could do this so am currently back to keeping her arms in for sleeps. I will put one arm in and the other out for some sleeps for a while and in another month or so move her back to both arms out but I figured this just works for now and we seem to have successfully transitioned out of the Cocoon! As you can see it is all trial and error.
I will use it for my next baby!
After night one of terrible sleep through the transition I asked myself whether it was worth it?
It gave us 5 and a half months of the best sleep we could possibly get with a newborn/infant. I don’t regret it. I loved that it kept her in the one spot and snug. I loved that I could have it on the couch next to us when she was a little babe. I loved that we could bring it on holidays when we went away and was too small to sleep in a portacot she could happily sleep in the cocoonababy.
Like anything you introduce to a baby to have day in and day out you will have to transition them from it eventually whether that is a dummy, the breast, bottles, a comforter or a cocoonababy. We all have to face a transition phase. The benefits far outweighed the downside of the transition phase here. Three days and we were in the clear!
The Cocoonababy is a new parent must have.
I also found the best priced red castle Cocoonababy on the market for you which you can
check out here
