Tag Archives: Review

Product Review: Summer SwaddleMe

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We really love the Summer SwaddleMe blankets. We rely on them for most of the swaddling we do, which is essentially every time we put them down to sleep. We’ve taken to calling them "peanut suits" because when they’re all swaddled-up nicely, the boys look like such neat little peanuts. As newborns, the boys seem to like being swaddled, just as most people say.

baby boys, twin brothers, sam and max, wearing Summer SwaddleMe blankets, sitting on a Boppy Newborn Lounger

Sam and Max at 1 month old, enjoy their Summer SwaddleMe Blankets

The key we’ve learned is to wrap their upper bodies first in a non-stretchy receiving blanket; then they go in the SwaddleMe. The reason is that the SwaddleMe is just stretchy enough that the babies—especially Max—usually find a way to get one or both of their hands free. Sometimes it’s out the sides, but usually it’s up by their faces. (Actually that happens less and less as the babies grow and the swaddle suits become tighter.)

baby boys max and sam, twin brothers, wearing Summer SwaddleMe blankets

Max and Sam at about 2 weeks old, wearing patterned Summer SwaddleMe Blankets

The second trick is to keep the fabric away from their chins. You have to fight the urge to pull the swaddle high up near their shoulders and neck because when they’re hungry, any fabric that comes close to their mouths triggers them to start looking for something to suck on, and then they won’t sleep. We have them sleeping on a slightly inclined mattress (to prevent spitting-up), so they slowly writhe their way deeper into the SwaddleMe, and the fabric often comes higher, near their chins. We’ve learned to swaddle them a little lower, around their shoulders, knowing that the SwaddleMe can creep higher-up on them when they are on an inclined bedding. We’ve found that by 8-10 weeks old, they can stick out of the top more and it still stays on well.

Depending on the baby’s size, when you pull the first flap across their bodies (from the baby’s right arm to his left) and tuck it in tightly behind them, we have found that it can leave its thick vertical seam running down their back. That might be really uncomfortable to sleep on, so we try to fold or roll the end of the flap away from their backs toward their left arms.

baby boys, twin brothers, max and sam, wearing Summer SwaddleMe blankets, sitting on a Boppy Newborn Lounger

Max and Sam sporting striped Summer SwaddleMe Blankets

I wish the SwaddleMe came in a wider range of colors. They mostly strike me as light patterns and they’re all really boring. You can find onesies in a hundred colors, and all kinds of patterns and prints, but the SwaddleMe is what you see when you look at the babies because it’s on the outside. I vote for dark colors like Navy blue and dark green or red. Or black, like their daddy wears. OK, maybe not black.

Product Review: Argington Bam Bassinet

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The Argington Bam Bassinets have been a real winner in the nursery. With twins, we didn’t want to take up the whole room with huge cribs when the babies are so small. We decided, based on the advice of another twin mom, that mini-cribs or bassinets were the way to go, and we started with the Bam. Later on the Bam has the ability, if we choose, to transform into a full-sized crib or a toddler bed.

Max and Sam, swaddled in side by side, matching white Argington Bam Bassinets

Max and Sam in matching white Argington Bam Bassinets

What really appeals about the Bam is the wheels. The crib sits on lockable casters that roll around smoothly on our hardwood floors. We figured that we’d be able to wheel them into whatever room we needed to—and we occasionally do. But more often than that, at night, the bassinets get wheeled close to the bed we have in our nursery so you don’t have to get up to replace a pacifier or give a soothing pat.

We got white bassinets, and it was essential to me that they’re a green product, E-Zero (0% formaldehyde emissions) and all of the materials are non-toxic, low VOC. No baby deserves to sit in a dangerous formaldehyde stink cloud. It was a bonus that they are easy to assemble—Kathryn did it while 6-months (twin) pregnant.

Twin baby boys Max and Sam under a blanket in an Argington Bam Bassinet

Twin brothers Max and Sam share an Argington Bam Bassinet (Note: We rarely put them together like this, but it was cute.)

Baby boy Max looks askance from his white Argington Bam Bassinet, with a Graco baby monitor tied to the side with a rubber band

Max looks askance from his white Argington Bam Bassinet

Our postpartum doula showed us how a folded bath towel could be positioned under the mattress to prop up their heads, and that may help with their digestion.

The Bam comes with a 1-inch foam mattress pad covered in a soft cotton quilted cover and two white sheets. We should point out that the sheets are special for this mattress, and you can only use the Argington sheets with this mattress.

Product Review: Boppy Newborn Lounger

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The Boppy Newborn Loungers have become a fixture on our daybed and a mainstay in our newborns’ feeding / sleeping routine. The Boppy Lounger is like a broad, pocketed pillow that the babies can sit in comfortably without rolling around.
baby boy sam sits in a Boppy Newborn Lounger wearing a monkey-themed outfit
Sam enjoys his Boppy Newborn Lounger

Most of the photos we have of the two babies together are taken with them both on the same Boppy. We don’t usually do this for long, since they’re both essentially falling into the center indent, and if you remove one baby, the other rolls into the center. But for short periods, it’s fun to put them together there.

We place the Boppys on our bed in such a way that if the babies ever did roll out of them (hasn’t happened yet) they would simply land on the mattress around them.

Our babies tend to spit up quite frequently after feeding. The anti-spit-up strategy we’re following is to have them sit slightly upright in the minutes after they’re done eating, before we put them back in their bassinets. The Boppy is ideal for that.

You can place it flat on the bed, or put a rolled up towel or the edge of a pillow under one side to give them a little more angle–and the boys seem to like it. Even before they can hold their heads up on their own, being slightly upright lets them look around and settle down.

We feed them, burp them, change them, burp them, swaddle them, burp them, and place them on the Boppy under a warm blanket. Soon they chill-out, settle down, start to yawn, and drift off, and then we gently move them to their bassinets. The Boppys have a printed warning saying they’re not for sleeping. I’m sure that’s because they’re soft and people worry about babies and pillows.

Here’s a bonus strategy tip from our postpartum doula. She sometimes feeds the twins two-at-once, by putting them side-by-side in two boppies and propping their bottles on crumpled blankets. Then it’s like a self-serve milk bar, and everyone’s happy. If you do that yourself, of course you have to watch them closely to see that everyone’s happy and not choking.
baby twin boys sam and max together on a Boppy Newborn Lounger
Twin brothers Sam and Max share a Boppy Newborn Lounger

One more thing. They’re not just for babies.
Bichon Frise in a Boppy Newborn Lounger
Bichon brother curls up in a warm, recently-vacated Boppy Newborn Lounger