Night waking and losing sleep for the first few months is part of being a new parent to a gorgeous new baby. Caring for my own baby son, I expected to have interrupted sleep for some time as he navigated this new world and needed feeding and care throughout the night to grow and thrive. However as the night waking wore on and on, month after month, both he and I became desperately tired and frustrated as the lack of rest took its toll.
We both needed deep, restful sleep.
The reason he was waking was due to his startle reflex (also known as the Moro reflex), that all babies are born with. It is where a sudden movement of their arms will wake them, causing them to cry and need calming and soothing from a caregiver to return to sleep. Many babies are swaddled to help calm the startle reflex and mimic the comfortable sensation of the womb, helping them to sleep through the startle reflex. However my boy, like many others, liked to move his arms as he slept and his little hands would escape the swaddle, leaving him without it’s calming sensation when the startle reflex occurred.
Many sleeping bags that were available restricted arm movement and my son hated them, so armed with an idea and a sewing machine, I created something new: a sleep suit that was roomy enough for arm movement, but with just enough resistance to keep the startle reflex from waking him.
And it worked. It wasn’t long before my baby was sleeping through the night in the very first Sleepy Hugs sleep suit.
Since then, several other innovative sleep solutions have joined Sleepy Hugs. The swaddle wrap has been reinvented by Baby Loves Sleep to gently keep arms within its calming layers and the Hands In & Out sleep suit allows for babies who enjoy self-soothing with their hands, but also need their startle reflex calmed. We even have an ingenious Toddler Cozy Suit!
So many parents are losing sleep as their child wakes through the night and I believe in sharing these sleep solutions with tired families everywhere.
I know that parents and babies who sleep well are able to navigate everyday challenges in their stride, growing and thriving together.
Baby Loves Sleep is committed to providing innovative sleep products to parents worldwide, through all stages of your baby’s development.