Taylor for the first few weeks of her life and I felt like a pro, and then she WOKE UP and I was like, this is HARD. I'd nurse her gently to sleep and she's slumber softly in my arms, but the moment I'd set her ever so gingerly down in her crib and quietly tip toe out of her room she'd wake up and cry within mere minutes (usually around the time I would snuggle myself in my own bed after high-five-ing my hubbie for our awesome baby-sleeping skills)
We were desperate and sleep deprived and would do anything for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. That's why I was so stoked to hear about the Zen Swaddle from Nested Bean.
No joke, Taylor slept better with the Zen Swaddle from the very first night. Her longest stretch of sleep used to be 2-3 hours and it went immediately to 3-4 hours in a row. After 2 weeks of sleeping in her Zen Swaddle she now sleeps a continuous 6 hours at night and last night she slept for a continuous 8 hours - talk about life changing!
We've noticed too that the human-like weighted touch of this swaddle helps to sooth her back to sleep on her own. So during the night or daytime naps she may still wake up several times and even cry out, fidget, and open her eyes, but she almost always is able to soothe herself back to sleep. It's amazing!
I swaddle her up for her naps and for bedtime and always place her in her crib for consistency and I think both have helped her tremendously for developing healthy sleep patterns and being able to soothe herself back to sleep if she wakes up.
The idea behind the Zen Swaddle was conceived from a personal need by the founders. They too had a second child that struggled to calm and would immediately wake when he was put down in is crib. Guided by mother's intuition and a research team, the Zen Swaddle was born. My hubbie and I are believers!