I love sleep. I love swaddles. But I can’t tell if this Woombie contraption is the best of both worlds or the worst?
Help a nearly-born-again rookie mom out! There’s a video on woombie.com if you need more help deciding (turn your volume DOWN before you head over).
I haven’t tried the Woombie, but I was disappointed in another commercially-made jersey-knit swaddler. It was too stretchy and my little girl always slipped out. We had much more luck with 1.25 yd of flannel (in 45″ wide fabric, it’s a square) and Dr. Harvey Karp’s technique. (He’s the Happiest Baby on the Block guy).
We tried nearly every swaddle contraption out there. Aden & Anais blankets were the far-and-away winner. But, they’re not the easiest to redo at 2am (and 3am, and 4am…), so we investigated a number of these “cheater swaddles,” as a friend of mine calls them. The woombie was… eh, ok. Mostly, the fabric was so stretchy that it didn’t keep his arms down by his side (which, for us, was the key to sleep). We had much better luck with the swaddleme but, even then, we needed one of the not-too-stretchy fabrics (the flannel-y one was the absolute best – and not too hot, but the fleece one came in a close second).
We didn’t use the Woombie brand, but loved the similar one we used. My daughter would manage to get her little fingers stuck out of the neck of it, but it didn’t mess up her sleep. She would ALWAYS escape from a swaddle and end up waking herself up, so we bought one of these and it was the best! We made sure to get the one that wasn’t as stretchy and I think that helped a lot.
We’ve used the Amazing Miracle Blanket with both kids.
We loved the Woombie! We used the Aden + Anais blankets for the first 3 months but then he started breaking out of them too easily, no matter how tight we swaddled him, and they ended up wrapped around his neck one night (scaring me to death, of course). That’s when we switched to the Woombie and he loved, we loved it… it’s hands down the #1 product I’ll recommend to every new mom I encounter! I really liked that it’s a little stretchy because he could move his arms just enough to get comfortable but without startling himself awake. They make convertible Woombies with optional arm holes that make the weaning process easier. My son is 6mo and sleeps without it now!
I second the Miracle Blanket. My first baby was very colicky (I think part into him being 4 weeks early), and the miracle blanket worked wonders for us.
Another vote for the amazing Miracle Blanket here! LOVE them. Love them so much that it seems criminal to me that they are not standard-isssue to be sent home with new parents from the hospital! : )
However, I have not heard of or tried the woombie, so I can’t speak to that.
Oh – follow up comment. Have you ever tried a postpartum Belly Bandit? Or can you do a post similar to this one finding out from your readership if they really work?
I am so tempted, but it also seems a bit gimmicky to me– like the idea that a cream would remove cellulite or something like that.
How does anyone who raves about them really know that their stomach wouldn’t have shrunk down just the same without one? I guess that’s what I want to know. Or if they really do work, then can someone explain to me *how* they work? Would it just squish my belly fat to other areas of my body, or am I to believe that compression alone can somehow eliminate mass?
Sorry for the long-winded, off topic comment!
Thanks for the feedback. We used, and loved, the Amazing Miracle Blanket for two kids as well.
@Kate, I would be curious to get feedback on that belly bandit… sounds like another post!
Oh.my.word we LOVE the Woombie! Our oldest son escaped from every swaddle we tried that involved wrapping and/or velcro. One night I awoke to find him with part of a swaddle wrap over his face. He was a strong little newborn! We got the Woombie, and that solved the problem. Eventually he was able to get one arm out the neck hole, but for some reason he seemed to find that comfortable and it didn’t bother him one bit. Though swaddling didn’t last much longer after whatever age he was then. Baby #2 is napping in a Woombie as I write this.
It does look vaguely like a torture device, however.
I also *love* the Miracle Blanket! Besides the fact that it’s hard for my daughter to get out of (but not impossible), it also allows her to move her legs and hips freely. It’s comical to watch her sleep in the morning. So active- but she doesn’t wake. If I try to use a swaddle blanket, like the Aden and Anias ones, she kicks out of them so quickly. The Halo fleece in NB size worked in the beginning, but when we moved up to size Small and in cotton (for summer), it was too stretchy and she’d break out of it within a few minutes. She loves being swaddled and needs to be to sleep right now. I wouldn’t use the Woombie because it restricts the full body. But I don’t think that all babies are as “kicky” as mine!
I never tried a woombie, but we loved the (as another poster put it) “cheater” swaddles. Velcro was key for my dd. She also always got her little fingers out, but that was the way she needed it to be, like she was holding it. I also liked that the one I used, you could take the swaddle portion off and use it as simply a sleep sack when they get older. Finally, the velcro one was great for us because as we weaned her off the swaddle, I could just make it a little less snug every few nights, but I knew she wouldn’t get it over her face.
@Katie and @tobasco, I’ll admit I’m (pleasantly) surprised that you had good results with the velcro things because I hated ours. My 3 week old could already bust out of the thing and we never looked back.
Great. Am I going to learn that all babies are different?
Oh my goodness I love the woombie! I really think it has helped my daughter be a great sleeper and so much easier than swaddle blankets, I had a couple swaddle mes with the velcro too but she busted out of those too easily. I really love the double zipper feature that lets you change a diaper in the night without taking the whole thing off!
We loved our woombie but our little guy (who is now 2 months) only fit in it for a short time and we don’t have the smallest size. He loved sleeping in his woombie and it was easier than swaddling. 2am diaper changes were also easy with the woombie because you can unzip from the bottom and get their legs out without his arms being out. We are mainly using aden + anais swaddlers now and love them.
Another vote for LOVE – the Woombie was great for middle of the night diaper changes! Also, for those who say there was just too much stretch, they do make different “levels” of swaddle – the Houdini is a much tighter swaddle than their original. We used swaddle blankets too, but found ourselves reaching for the woombie at night and swaddle blankets for naps.
Our son was a Houdini baby and it was an endless source of cries. We got the Woombie for number 2 (or Baby Straight-Jacket as everyone else called it), and she slept so well in it. So easy to get her in and out. Of course, she’s a different baby to my son (and we were different parents!), so it’s hard to say if it would have helped first time round. Definitely worth giving it a try though!
I never tried the woombie but i tried others and they were always to big for my babies. then we stopped swaddling so it didn’t matter. To me the easiest and best thing was a flannel recieving blanket, but I think the other commenter who said she had a bigger flannel fabric square has the right idea! I would love to try a woombie though!
On another note, I haven’t tried the belly bandit, but I have heard of it and others like it. They basically all say the same thing, “wear this and you will be small again” and the way they are “supposed” to work (i’ve never used one so i can’t say if they do or not) is by holding you all together and your bones sort of realign. Think of it like this, when you are pregnant your hips (and feet) get bigger, right? It’s because there is a hormone floating around in the body that loosens up all your muscles, allowing them to stretch out so that when you push an 8 pound ball of baby out it lets your hips and bones and all stretch so its actually possible. Supposedly, that hormone stays in your body for up to 8 weeks after birth and if you wear the belly bandit it holds your hips up and allows your muscles to tighten back up in a smaller spot, holding it all up and making you smaller again.*****CRAP! I just realized I’m talking about 2 different things! Shrinkx Hips is the product I just described. I assume the belly bandit works the same way, only it works with the AB muscles to help it stay held up close to your stomach so that the ab muscles sort of shrink back into the right place and aren’t all stretched out….
I apologize for the misleading information. I didn’t delete it because I bet people will want to know if the Shrinkx Hips will actually work too!! LOL.
My oldest did really well with a Velcro swaddle however my youngest who was a very big and tall baby could easily bust out of a Velcro one and a Miracle Blanket. The woombie has been a godsend and we are now on the 2nd size. He can get his hand out but it doesn’t wake him up.
We didn’t use the woombie, but we used the similar swaddleme blankets and I loved them!! My daughter slept just as well if not better in these “baby straightjackets” as we called them, as she did swaddled in blankets. Plus it was way easier for me to do half asleep too!
I was in a trial for a newspaper where they sent us 9 products similar to (as well as the Woombie). My son liked being really tightly zipped in, but the zip cover on the woombie annoyed him (as it would touch his chin)
We used the swaddle me. I liked it because that one thing sorta transitioned into a sleep sack of sorts when my kiddo wanted her arms out, but still needed to feel swaddled. She was a swaddle baby until about 7 months.
Loved the Woombie. Borrowed all the other kinds (blanket, miracle, velcro) and they worked fine until the arms popped out. Only one I actually bought (plus emergency poop backups) was the Woombie. The arms/hands sorta creep up to the chin (similar to the picture), but stay tucked in. Lots of happy sleep until the day she rolled over.