Newborn Hacks | Sleeping Better With An Orla Kiely GroSnug

 For the past month or so, we've been testing out the GroSnug from the brand new Orla Kiely Collection with the Gro Company. It's been a life saver as far as sleeping aids go, and we'll be investing in a good few more in the next size up to see us through the next few months. The Orla Kiely designs were released on the 6th January, and we were lucky enough to try out one before the launch.

I'm going to go ahead and start by saying I do not claim to have a sound sleeping baby, in fact, far from it. Harrison treats night time like party time, and while we've found a few tricks to have him sleeping longer 2 out of 3 nights, nothing is full proof yet and we're still fighting with the little sleep monster. I've mentioned before though that one of the things we've found to be a massive help has been swaddling: because of his reflexes, Harrison wakes himself up very easily if his arms are not all but strapped to his sides, so swaddling has allowed him to settle much quicker and for much longer. Unfortunately though, our baby is a lot bigger than he was a few weeks ago, and fitting into his swaddles has been an issue. By the morning, we're finding that he has kicked and batted his arms out of the swaddles, and as a result the material is sliding up and gathering around his neck, which is obviously just scary going forward. After mentioning this to a few people, it was recommended we try out GroSnugs, and we were lucky enough to have the Gro Company offer to send us out one from the new Orla Kiely Collection.

The Gro Snug is a sleeping bag with the option to close the arm holes, allowing the top half to be swaddled tightly, and the bottom half free - well, as free as you can be inside a sleeping bag. It's such lovely material, and is perfect for winter here in Scotland - the ability to allow his arms to be free is also perfect for daytime naps, as swaddling is less important for short sleeps. I can't really explain how soft it is, the lining still has that 'fuzzy' feeling, and considering we've been in an endless cycle of wear/wash for nearly a month, that's brilliant. The print is also still as vibrant as it was when we first received it, and the print itself was perfect for us - muted and understated. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a fan of overly bright or garish prints, I like white, grey and pastels... all of the colours that are absolutely useless with a newborn baby, but it is what it is.8f9b4003ccdfb788feaf706c7a0a0ec785cbdc79515aab82f5


In terms of negatives, the only problem we've had is the size, but that doesn't have anything to do with the product as such. Harrison may only be 11 weeks old, but he's a pretty big baby. Zipping him into it now can feel a little bit like a punishment, he's still comfortable, but there is little to no room for movement, so he's now taken to pulling his arms up as a way of fighting being swaddled. When he does this, he pulls the entire sleeping bag up, and again, it gathers under his chin, and although it can no longer wrap around his neck or block his mouth, it still doesn't look the most comfortable. Newborn GroSnugs are One Size and fit babies roughly from 5lbs to 12lbs - when we received it , Harrison was around 11lb, now though, he's over the 14lb mark and it may be time for us to retire the newborn snugs.

For the last 6 weeks, we've used our Gro Snug religiously, and I can't fault the product. The new design is absolutely lovely and a perfect present for a new baby as it's completely unisex. The GroSnugs normally retail at £22.99, and the wear you get out of them makes them ridiculously worthwhile. Unfortunately, our reality is that it's probably time to retire from swaddling altogether. Harrison is getting to the stage where he'll be rolling over in a matter of weeks, and whilst he settles in his swaddle eventually, if he's uncomfortable and squirming initially, there's more of a chance of him rolling over. Looks like its time to move up to the big boy sleeping bags, which should be another ball game completely, more to follow on that in the next few weeks....

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Disclaimer: This product was gifted to us from The Gro Company, however we were under no obligation to review and these views are entirely my own. I've used Gro Products previously and will continue to buy the products with my own money.
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