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At five months, Tavi’s getting to that age where he’s so excited about his increasing mobility that he’s squidging non-stop in his sleep. A blanket laid over him when he goes to bed is a blanket that he’s squirmed out from underneath in about half an hour. Or, even worse, he wakes up screaming with his blanket shifted over his face.
Of course the solution is a sleep sack, and we had a couple cheap polar fleece sleep sacks … but I never really liked them because the synthetic fleece made Tavi all sweaty. Nothing like unzipping a fleece sleep sack in the morning to find a schvitz-slathered sticky baby.
So I was stoked when the folks from Merino Kids sent me a lightweight wool sleep sack to review. I got this sack, which made from lightweight wool for warmer seasonal use. Here’s my review:
Tavi can’t kick the sleep sack off overnight, and unlike the synthetic fleece, with the wool he doesn’t wake up in a little zipped up sack of his own sweat in the morning. Yay for breathable natural fibers! I know that living in Seattle, polar fleece is like our Official City Fabric, but I don’t think I’d want to sleep in a sack of fleece — so why should the baby?
My biggest complaint about the sleep sack is that it has a HUGE (like 3″x4″!) Merino Kids label on the back. After about a week, I got out the seam ripper and cut it off. I’m all for branding, but yeesh! It’s also not cheap, but I gotta say that the quality is extremely solid so the pricing makes sense. This isn’t Babies R Us-chintzy, and from reading the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like the sleep sack holds up excellently.
I was a little daunted by the care instructions: the tag says basically to wash it as infrequently as possible, something that’s just not an option for a baby who spits up as much as Tavi does. But I’ve been washing it on the wool cycle and tumble drying it on low once a week, and it seems to be fine.
The sleep sack also has a little slot for use in a car seat or stroller, but I haven’t tested that out yet. Although I do find the slot helpful for sticking my hand into the sack to check Tavi’s diaper. All ‘n’ all, I’m definitely happy with it — although I do have note that since I received it as a review sample, I can’t say if I feel like it’s worth the admittedly high price. (This might be a good one for a budget mama’s baby registry.) But I can say Tavi’s slept in the sack every night, and that I’m super happy to have him out of the polar fleece sweat sack.
I was just looking at this website earlier today. I’m glad to read an actual mama’s review of it. Thanks!
Me again. I bought a Merino sleep sack for my baby. We put her in it starting at six months when she decided she needed to start sleeping on her belly and we decided that she had to be unswaddled to sleep on her belly. She has been it almost every single nap time and night for the last 8 months. We only get around to washing it every 3-4 weeks so it is a bit stained. She also enjoys chewing on the neck, which doesn’t help. Aside from the drool stain, it’s great. It keeps her nice and warm. It’s got a great, sturdy zipper. My baby has no problem crawling in it. I’m sure she will be fine walking in it once she decides to try. Now that my wife is pregnant with #2, we are going to buy a second one for him. For how much we use it (about 16 hours a day), it’s totally worth the price for how well it’s holding up and how well it works to keep our daughter warm and comfy.
Sweet-and bonus-no need for chemical fire retardants on wool. One of the many marvelous properties of wool it is naturally flame retardant. (It also naturally repels water and odor.)
I am a wool lover and have washed lots and LOTS of garments with tricky instructions and dry clean labels.
One thing that will help is to always use one temperature when washing and drying the bag. Wool will felt from friction (i.e. an aggressive washing machine or dryer) and temperature shock (hot wash then cold rinse or cold wash then hot dryer.) Keeping everything cold on your washer and dryer settings and using the gentle/wool cycles should do the job. From personal experience, Soak is an excellent (but pricey) detergent to use and I have also used a little baby shampoo on my sweaters. Avoid bleach at all costs when you need to spot treat stains, it will eat holes in the wool.
Great find!
Ooh, Le! Thanks so much for these tips. Super helpful.
One other option is this one:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snug-as-a-bug-sleep-sack
I’m not sure if that link is viewable unless you’re on that site, but it’s basically a knit version. The pattern is SO simple that even if you only know the basics of knitting you should be able to do it 🙂
Plus it only takes 1 skein of yarn. I immediately thought of this pattern when I saw this post.
I have a question which might sound silly but… I’ll ask anyway!
If my 2 1/5 yr old daughter wakes up in the morning in this sleep sack, will she be able to walk from her room to mine as she does every day? Or will she be screaming for my help to take the sleep sack off her at 8am?
Hi Katerina,
You’re question’s not silly at all, so many people seem to think sleep sacks and walking are incompatible. Not the case!
Both our kids (now aged 4 and 3) were walking in their merino sleep sacks very early on. Not only that, also climbing stairs, even running across the room!
I see that there are some types of “big kids” sleep sacks that have holes in the bottom for kids’ feet to stick out. I’d ask why? Surely their feet will get cold, defeating the purpose of the sleep sack?
As for screaming to take the sleep sack off, our experience was quite the opposite, our two were so comfy in them they’d often emerge from their bedroom in their sleep sacks in the morning and keep them on until we told them the sleep sacks had to come off for breakfast.
I’ve been using a merino sleepsack on my son, now 16 months, since he was a newborn. Sure they’re more expensive than fleece, but the benefits outweigh them 10 fold. He’s a big pee’er and will often pee through his diaper at night but the fabric is able to absorb the moisture and keep him dry and asleep. We’ll definitely be buying a toddler sized sleepsack when he outgrows this one.
I have a question about this — it says it has a cotton outer layer. I am curious how this affects the wicking ability of the wool. I just bought some merino interlock to make a sleepsack and am wondering if lining it or putting a layer on the outside will help or hurt its performance? Also, does anyone have links to great patterns to try for something that will grow with the baby for as long as possible?