Baby Hammocks # 2

[continuing from here]


My midwife, who had never heard of them, told me to phone Kidsafe and see if they reccomend them. I finally got onto them today and they said they dont!!:(
They said some hospitals use them for the really unsettled babies but they are always supervised when in use and they wouldnt recomend we use one overnight.
I am now a bit unsure.... DH and I had a big talk about it today at lunch and we are still getting one. They have passed testing standards in NZ, UK, Japan, Aus. and have never had a SIDS case in the 15000 they have sold here so I think they should be ok. Obviously I wouldnt leave the baby unsupervised in it in a room during the day when there would be other children or my dogs around but I wouldnt with a bassinette either. I think it would be safer than a bassinette actually cause I always worried the dogs would knock into the base of it and tip it over but the hammock would just swing a little from the spring if bumped into at all. I have just ordered one and hope I have done the right thing....

I can see hwere you are coming from re the safey issue. The stats that there has never been a case of SIDS in one vastly reasurred me too.

I am only one user in 15000, but have used them for all 3 of my babies, and my gut maternal feel is that they are safer than a bassinet or a cot for small babies. In practical terms we have never encountered any safety issue at all in over 3.5 years of constant use......

...can it be done?

Hi there, I'm a long time lurker and first time poster who is having lots of fun and games getting DD#2- a very alert, light sleeping bub- to go to sleep and stay asleep during the day. We're talking 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, followed up with hysteria from overtiredness at the end of the day. You know the drill.

Anyway her preferred method of falling asleep is wrapped and upright against me whilst being patted on her bottom. Which I am quite happy to do...except I have DD#1 who is 2 and a half and needs her mummy's attention and hands to be free too.

So I have pulled out my Amby hammock, which unfortunately hadn't been a success with DD#1. To cut a long story short, this morning I popped DD#2 in and gently bounced her. She grew hysterical until I picked her up and patted her to sleep before popping her back in.

My questions are:
1. Do you think it is possible to make the transition to the hammock at twelve weeks or am I too late? How long should I persist?

2. Should I try both day and nighttime sleeps in the hammock at once or daytime only?

3. During the day when you hear your bubs stirring do you go in and give the hammock a bounce before they wake up, or do you allow bubs to attempt to resettle themselves first?

Thanks in advance for you help.

ETA: Awake after twenty minutes and grizzling....

Hi hissychick, I know what it's like! My DS used to only sleep in the day if I held him, otherwise he would wake after 10 minutes or so in his cradle. We bought him a hammock when he was 10 weeks old and it took him next to no time to get used to it. I used to bounce him for a while until he dropped off to sleep. It sounds like it is harder for you as your DD gets hysterical, but I think it is worth persevering with. Our hammock changed our lives!

We only used the hammock for daytime sleeps, but it was great to pop him into it in the middle of the night when he was unsettled. It is up to you whether you want to use it for daytime/nighttime sleeps, it doesn't do them any harm if they are in it all the time and there are no reports of SIDS with any baby in an Amby hammock (that's what I read anyway).

In answer to your third question, I personally used to go in as soon as I heard my DS stir and bounce him back to sleep in the beginning because he wouldn't self-settle and would get too worked up to go back to sleep. Eventually he learned to bounce himself back to sleep!

I wish you all the best with getting your bub used to the hammock!

Trish

Hissychick........

Long time lurker....lovely to see you pop up!

The upright thing.......sounds very like Miss Olivia in the early months.

As you know, I am a fan of the hammock, so I would say go for it.....try it for a week or see and see?

Do you have a wrap/sling/BabyBjorn/HAB? If so, could you pop Miss Freshie in there, pat her off to sleep (whilst doing jobs/seeing to Miss Frosty etc), then transfer a sleeping baby to the hammock? Would that work d'you think? (It worked a charm for Olivia in the early months..........)

Good luck sweets. xx

Thanks for your replies Lucy and Trish.

I am pleased to report that after an initial grizzle at the 20 minute mark my little miss proceeded to take a THREE HOUR nap! She is also still asleep after going down for what is usually her 5pm ish post BF catnap.

Looks like we might be skipping a feed and bath tonight but clearly she has needed the sleep!

I think i will definitely keep persisting with the hammock for now...I'm even game to try overnight provided little miss doesn't pull her wrap up over her face. Hopefully she will learn to settle to sleep in the hammock over the next few days. Otherwise I'll stick to the pat to sleep/sling to sleep as you suggested Lucy (and yes we must catch up!).

Cheers
Em

WoooHoooo! That is great news........bet you were at a loss to know what to do with the time as she napped the day away! (Or maybe not, depending on what Miss Frosty was up to?!)

That is great news....hope the long naps continue and that you start getting some long and blissful night sleeps too.....

It's me again.....

I'm pleased to report that little miss is sleeping really well at night in the hammock but only after taking ages to settle. I'm pretty sure this is thanks to going back to her usual catnapping nonsense during the day (the Friday 3 hr sleep was sadly a one off). How do I stop this catnapping without tears, on my own and without having to spend ages resettling at the expense of time with my two year old?

Also...how do you stop your little ones from slipping down in the hammock and dragging their wraps up close to their face?

HELP!

Yay my amby turned up and I love it! Wish they would make adult ones hehe. Lucy did you ever use a cot for your bubs or did they just stay in the amby till they were big enough for a bed with safety rails? The baby room is tiny and already has a single bed in it so I would like to avoid having a cot and hammock in there as well! Did you have trouble with your little ones "escaping" at all? Dont really want to get a cot for very little use.

Sazz, My babies have gone hammock to cot to bed.

But the cot we had for Olivia is a cot that turns into a toddler bed, so she was in it for over 2 years, so we got the use out of the cot. And now Charlie has that cot, and in time he will go to the toddler bed, and in tuen Lexie will get use out of it.

In terms of escaping, do you mean from the hammock? If so, no, none at all.

Hi Lucy,
quick question, how old were your babies when you moved them onto the cot?

Also I love the idea of co-rooming. I did with Eithan until he was 10mths old . I miss having the kids in my room and would love to have them both sleep with us or in the same room, sigh...

Love

Ok, Olivia was 11 months old. She was still tiny and still sleeping well in the hammock, but for some reason we decided to transition her. She moved to a cot no problem at all.

Charlie was bigger and wrigglier, so he was moved into his cot at 9 months. He was probably the "hardest" to transition" but looking back he was a little sick at the time too (ear infection) but it still was only a day or two of him getting used to it.

Lexie, she was a week short of 12 months......just last week! She transitioned no problems at all.read aboout it on my blog: Lucy's Blog

The rooming in thing worked brilliantly for us too......

Lucy, did you ever have probs with the kids kicking around in the hammock?? Just the past week or so Oskar is waking at 4am and lifting both legs and kicking around and I also caught him trying to look up behind him... arching his back and looking up and behind. I am wondering if he wants to go into his cot. He's 6 months old... and I've had him bed with me the past two nights to see.. and this morning he was even rolling onto his side and going back to sleep. I'm going to move the cot to my room if that's the case cos Helen I'm with you... I still want my baby with me. :)

Hi Cass,

Lexie had a habit of shuffling up to the back end of the hammock, but it wasn;t really an issue at all.....

She and Olivia would also kick around but only enough to get the motion going themselves, not as a means of escape IYKWIM? (Both v.small petite little babies.......)

Charlie (much bigger and much more active) kicked and turned, so as soon as he started doing that, I transitioned him to a cot......

Cass we had Eithan in his cot in our room, I hope you have room for it if you need to make the transition.

Love

I measured it all up and the cot will fit in our room :D Andy has been away for work most the week so Oskar has been sleeping with me and doing very well. With each day *touch wood* he slept a little longer and even self settled again. So, it's looking like he wants more room so he'll be going into his cot. Thanks Lucy and Helen :)

Hi all
I'm considering using a baby hammock (e.g. Amby baby's Natures nest) for my bub due in April.
I'd love to hear from any mum's who've used a hammock - good points, bad points, would you recommend one?
Did you use it exclusively as the baby's bed or have a cot aswell?
Many thanks
Citrus

We got ours when Yasin was about 2 months old.
I wish we had got it earlier it was one of the best baby buys we made. Neither of our boys used the cot they both slept with us and in the hammock.
It's so easy getting them to sleep in the hammock because you can bounce them with a toe while you read a novel or watch TV and since you're distracted by the novel they seem to go to sleep so quickly.
Even though I'm not planing on having any more babies i ahven't yet been able to bring myself to get rid of the hammock.

I got one for my son when he was 4 months old (we hired it) and used it until he was 7 months when he was ready to go into the cot and was trying to roll onto his tummy :) It was the best thing we could have done to settle him and he slept so much better when he was in it. We also co-slept but less after obtaining the hammock because he was happy to sleep there instead.

The Amby is VERY portable too!!! It can be moved from room to room and it is easy to put together. Far easier than putting up the portacots which is great if you go anywhere.

I am a huge fan.

I have used it for all 3 of my babies: it was honestly the best bit of baby equiment we ever had!

I have reviewed it here: Amby Hammock

The only downside (and it is a tiny issue, LOL!) is that they never look as cute as a made up cot. But I was always MORE than willing to trade in looks for sleep!

I would TOTALLY recommend.

My 3 children stayed in the hammock until at least 9 months (Charlie). Lexie only moved to a cot at 12 months.

Thanks for your responses. I love the idea of the hammock, it seems to mimic the movement of the womb better than anything else, and your responses have convinced me its the way to go!
Glad you all had success, and hopefully some good nights sleep when you used yours!
Cheers
Citrus

I would say definately get a hammock. The only bad point about our hammock was that we had a severe reflux baby who needed to be rocked to sleep an awful lot, and constantly trying to put him in and out of the hammock was a strain on our backs. Our son loved it, it did wonders for us and we often travel and taking the hammock with us was much easier than taking a portacot.

Go the Amby hammock!! We used one for our first DS who was a terrible day sleeper and it changed our lives! You won't regret buying one :)

we used an Amby hammock in the hostpial when DS was born and it was a lifesaver. MIL ordered one for us as a present and it arrived the day I got home from hospital. I loved it and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Do you find the hammocks an issue if you have pets?
Im looking at getting one however I have a cat and am wondering if it would be a problem.

skittlebub - I don't have a cat so I can't speak from experience, but I think it would be pretty hard for them to jump into the hammock, but who knows how crafty cats can be?! You can buy a mosquito net with the hammock that would solve the cat problem. You can order them from the Amby website.

We had to use the mozzie net if we were going to leave the room because our cat loved getting in there for a nap.

No cats in this house, but the mozzie net would work like a charm as a deterrant.

Our dog Perry used to always sleep unter the hammock, under whichever baby was in it. Lexie 9our youngest) finished with the hammock 4 months ago, but we had a 5 months old little baby over on a play date who borrowed our hammock........& Perry was under the hammock like a shot, and they were both fast asleep in minutes!

We hired one and she hated it but I think the hammock wasn't quite right.

Hi there. First time on here. We have a hammock for our little girl (got when 4 months and would not settle and screamed her lungs off when was time for sleep. Was told to rock cot which was great and helped her heaps but absolutely exhausting for me. After 10 days ordered hammock and has been such a blessing - no screaming and lots of good sleeping). She is now nearly 8 months and all going well...only thing is that she has to bounce hammock to get to sleep. She does this herself (I put her down and leave room) and she bounces it wildly till she falls asleep. Can hear it up the other end of the house. This is great, cute and makes us laugh a lot :lol:...but I worry about the cot transition when she can no longer bounce. I wonder if others had a baby needing this amount of bounce to sleep and how the cot transition went. I cant physically rock the cot again and she hates settling in my arms so that is out too. Also she is not into co-sleeping (was my wish for her originally, but not her preference at all). Any experience in this much appreciated. Thanks.

Jessicat, I am giggling becaue all 3 of my babies did the rigorous bouncing themselves: it was hilarious!

Like you, I was REALLY nervous of the cot transition, particularly with my first (Olivia). She was 11 months when we transitioned her, and still on 2 sleeps. So on the day of the move into the cot, we kept her up in the morning and went for a swim (and exhausted her!) and then at lunchtime gave her a cuddly milk feed in her room (keeping everything else in the routine exactly the same, aside from the actual bed) and then popped her in the cot.

She slept for 3 hours! Same deal at night: kept everything the same, and she transitioned perfectly. No boucing required.

My son Charlie was a bigger baby, but was still being wrapped in the hammock, so when we first transitioned him to a cot he was not happy as I think he didn't feel as secure. So it did take a few days. Then we put him into a grow bag/sleeping bag for sleeps: problem fixed!

Lexie, my youngest, transitioned at 12 months. She as always been addidcted to a "blankie" in her hammock, so when we transitioned her to the cot, blankie went in too, and she transitioned perfectly.

So no problems here. The idea of transitioning was much worse than the reality!

Good luck!

Thanks Lucy - and such a prompt response - I needed it- Thanks :)! Yes I've been wondering whether the anticipation I'm experiencing is worse than the actual transition will warrant. Your message suggests it is!

Think I was also feeling a bit guilty (Shock horror - a mum feeling guilty!) that she (Matilda) was still in cot and had not learnt to 'settle self' without bouncing...and that I should be transitioning her asap so she could learn this. Almost wanted to do it so I can get over the anticipation and guilt, but I also dont think this is the best reason to do the change. She seems pretty happy in there still, so will wait for a few 'signs' whatever they may be???? before the move and meanwhile just enjoy the boucey noises and learn to relax about the whole thing.

When we do her blankie and grow-bag will follow her into cot with the familiar routine - good to hear that its worked well for your little ones (even if took a little while for little big :) Charlie.

Thanks so much Lucy!

In terms of "signs", here were ours:

Olivia.....very petite little baby, who was VERY reticent to move much (ie was still not rolling at 11 months?!) So I decided to move her into a cot to help her get moving. (But she could have stayed in the hammock for another 6 months I reckon.....)

Charlie: bigger and MUCH more mobile.....to be honest, I probably should've transitioned him earlier, but we had an OS trip and I wanted him in the hammock for that, as it is a very transportable bed. Upon our return, we kept him in the hammock for a week or so to get over the "jet lag" in which time he rolled over in the hammock and totally freaked me out, hence we cot transitioned.

Lexie: a tiny baby girl, and average in the gross motor skills. And the decision to transition her was all down to beds.....Olivia had moved out of her cot so the cot was ready, Lexie's room was totally decorated.....so we tied it in with her birthday.......but again, she could've stayed in it for another 6 months.......

Thanks Lucy. Tilly is pretty mobile and active, but is not a roller. Did it on the floor a few times at four/five months, but hasn't been interested since. She seems pretty comfy in the hammock (as long as she holds her blankie over her face!!!! Not SIDS friendly!! :(After she is asleep I have to come and take it off - although not ideal it is pretty funny to hear her snoring under her green frog blankie! That and rocking only way she falls asleep!) so will keep at it for a while. cheers. :D

Mmmm, I've been thinking about hammocks for a few days. I never knew this thread existed until tonight!

My DS is 10 months, and an erratic sleeper. Sometimes his day sleeps are great, sometimes not. He goes down in his cot at night, but I nearly always have to go in two or more times to resettle him before I go to bed. He comes into our bed sometime during the night, the time he does this is getting earlier and earlier. I like cosleeping, but I would prefer a little more time in our bed before DS comes in. And I wouldn't complain if he spent all night in his cot ;)

Would a hammock help us do you think? Or is it too late, is he too big? Would it help to teach him to resettle, or just create a whole new set of problems for us?

Any thoughts appreciated :)

Hi mate - Mmm. That is a hard one. I do know someone who shifted their baby at seven months and had great success. She had never got more than 2 hours seelp before. But that is just one person.

Its hard to work out what to do. Not much help am I. What you could do is hire one and see how you go. I think baby hire does them for 3 months at a time.

Good luck with decision making - hopefully someone else has some more info. Also check out the testimonials on the hammock web sites (I have an Amby).

cheers,

Jess

Hi Janie, I used an Amby hammock for my first DS and I know it sounds bad, but we used it up until he was nearly two! He never tried to get out of it himself and never rolled over in it so he was safe and he fit fine in it. He learned to resettle himself in it by bouncing it. The only way to find out if it will work for your DS is to try one out. You can hire them from Hire For Babe, I noticed you're in Melbourne, I am from the eastern suburbs and if you aren't that far away you I can give you the number of a hire place in Vermont. Just PM me if you'd like me to forward it to you.

Janie, my gf (also called Jayney, funnily enough!) swapped to her hammock when her DS2 was 6 months. Her DS2 was big for his age too. He is now 13 months and still in the hammock and sleeping wonderfully.

So it might be worth a try?

As Triash says, maybe hire one? They are only about $15 a week to hire....which is nothing if it helps you all get some big deep sleeps?

Hi,

Our baby is 5 mths old now. We co-sleep with our bubba for the majority of the night. I feed him to sleep and put him in his hammock next to our bed and bring him into bed with me at about 12.30/1am after he wakes for a feed.

For day sleeps I've found that feeding DS to sleep on our bed and then moving away after he's fallen asleep is working really well.

However, tonight has been different - he wouldn't go in the hammock and so I've fed him to sleep on our bed like I do during the day. I have no idea what my night will bring!

My question is this: I think our DS is outgrowing his hammock, or at least not feeling comfortable in it - he's often really hot when I pick him up and seems to sense when I go to put him down having been on the boob. What have others done when their baby's outgrown their hammock? I don't own a cot, and have no desire to buy one either. One thought I've had is to buy a cot mattress and put it on the floor so I can settle him to sleep for the first evening stint and then bring him into bed as usual. Has anyone done this? Is putting a cot mattress on the floor for my DS at this age too dangerous?

Hi Melody,

I can't really help you as I am sort of wondering the same thing, in anticipation.
I have a 3month old and she is still really happy in the hammock, it is proving to be a sleeping wonder, 12-13 hours a night sleeping with one-two dream feeds. We are also like you in that she is put to sleep in the hammock and then spends the rest of the night with us co-sleeping after a 4am feed. However I am worried about what I will do when she grows out of it... I too have no desire to buy a cot.

With regards to your question, maybe his fussiness in the hammock is just temporary? (hope so!) Maybe his hotter temperature is due to the warm weather... you would have considered this I am sure, I guess I am hoping for my sake that your boy will remain happy in the hammock so I feel assured that my girl will too!!
I wonder whether your boy, sensing he is being put into the hammock after being fed to sleep, would be the same if you put him down into a bed rather than feeding him to sleep lying next to him? ie its not the hammock but the realisation that his much loved boob is no longer attached!

I would hope he hasn't grown out of it as I have had friends sing the praises of the hammock when their child reaches about 6 months and learns to self settle by moving around and rocking themselves back to sleep.

Hope you can work your way around this little hurdle!