Sleep Sacks: Brands We Love for Each Stage

Elle has been a really good sleeper since she was an infant, and I credit our success in the sleep department to always keeping her warm and cozy – and also on a routine! Among other things, Elle has always had a sleep sack on at night (or a swaddle in her infant days). Here’s what worked for us:  

Early Weeks / Swaddle Stage:

In her early weeks, Elle was in a swaddle almost 24/7. We concentrated on keeping her warm – but most importantly “tight” and comforted. Don’t forget that they were really cramped (in a cozy way!) inside your womb, so it’s best to mimic that environment as much as possible. When we weren’t changing her, feeding her, or doing skin-to-skin, she was always swaddled.    For both daytime and nighttime in those early stages, Elle wore this SwaddleMe velcro swaddle (and these hats..babies lose most of their heat through their head, so hats are super important, too)! The velcro on the swaddles was a no-brainer. They always stayed in place and kept Elle really comforted, especially at night.  

Transitioning-from-Swaddle Stage:

After the infant swaddles, we moved on to this Halo sleep sack (with velcro “arms”). The one we love is fleece, and it has velcro “arms” that you can wrap around the baby’s chest/back to give them a hugging sensation. It was a great transition piece from being totally swaddled (ie baby’s arms inside) to having the baby’s arms outside, while still maintaining just a bit of the swaddle sensation, around their chest.  

Post-Swaddle Stage:

When it was time to ditch the swaddle completely (ie any type of “wrapping” your baby up..your doctor can tell you when is right for your baby!), we moved on to regular sleep sacks (without velcro “arms”). I had heard a lot about the Nested Bean Zen Sack, which has a little weighted portion on the baby’s chest, so we got one! The weight mimics a hand being placed on the baby’s chest and comforts them so they can fall asleep more easily – and stay asleep! It’s pretty good.

We also love this Halo sleep sack (without “velcro arms”). This sleep sack is great for babies that are totally past the swaddle stage and don’t need their arms inside or any type of weight mechanism (like the Nested Bean). (PS – it’s the same exact sleep sack as the Halo one above, except it doesn’t have the velcro arms). Even though it’s getting closer to summer months, we still prefer a fleece one. We keep Elle’s room on the cooler side, so she’s totally fine in fleece even when it’s warmer out – but obviously make your decision based on how you like to keep your babies’ rooms! The regular cotton version is here.

This Carter’s sleep sack (seen in the picture above) is another cute option. It has long-sleeves and a cute puppy pattern. To be quite frank, we use the Halo one way more..this was just an excuse to buy one with a cute pattern. Also – again totally up to you and how warm/cool you keep your babies’ rooms – but be careful with any sleep sacks that have arms, as you don’t want the baby to overheat wearing long-sleeves on top of long-sleeves. But if you live somewhere with warm weather all year-round and your baby is always in short sleeves, this long-sleeve version is probably right for you! Always use your own personal judgement.