Did a hammock work for your 'high maintenance' baby? DS will only nap in a sling!

[AngelDog]

DS is 10 weeks old. He gets very easily tired. At bedtime he will feed to sleep and in the night he will sometimes feed to sleep, sometimes I have to hold & rock him for ages (although last night we co-slept successfully from the second night feed .

During the day he will only sleep in a sling, or (sometimes) curled up on me as if in a sling. It's doing my back in holding him all day as he's a big baby, and unfortunately he needs lots of sleep. If I try to put him down from the sling he usually wakes up. He used to go to sleep in the pram or the car, but neither seem to work any more.

Has anyone with a similar temperament DC had any success with a baby hammock? I'm at the stage where I'll try anything, but don't really want to pay such a lot for something which may not work.

Thanks!

And any stories of when / how any similar babies' sleep improved would cheer me up no end!

Hi Angel Dog

My own situation is not so different to yours - although DD is not 100% sling addicted, thankfully. I'm wondering if you know anyone - or can ask around - to see if anyone has a baby hammock that you could try out? As you say, it is an expensive outlay and you wouldn't want to waste money if it didn't work for your DC. Maybe you could ask around at local toddler/baby groups/nurseries etc to see if anyone can lend one?

You've probably thought of this already, but just in case...

Good luck! Much heartfelt fellow feeling in your direction...

Hi Angel Dog,

My DS has a very similar temprament, perhaps even more highly strung thanks to his colic days, and we had great success with a Miyo hammock. He would regularly sleep through 3 or so nights a week in it from aged three or so weeks old and if he stirred I just stuck a lazy arm out of bed and rocked him straight back to sleep. However he wouldn't ever go in it awake and he wouldn't nap in it - only on me or in the pushchair. Another caveat, my son like yours is a big baby and he grew out of the hammock at four months. This has its plusses and minuses - he will nap in his cot BUT he hasn't slept through the night since, I never realised how good the hammock was til we lost the use of it!

I believe Amby hammocks are suitable for longer and the other option is a Happy Hangup (which are made in Australia) which can be used for children up to about the age of three...

My ds is/was similarly high maintenance and we have an Amby hammock. If I'm totally honest, its far from being a miracle worker. He sleeps pretty well at night but if he stirs, he doesn't really settle himself in it.

He is getting better and has improved massively in the last week or so (13 weeks today). The only thing that I can sometimes get him to nap in (other than sling/car/buggy) is a swing. We got the Fisher Price rainforest one but I suspect they're pretty similar. He's also been much easier to settle since he started to take a dummy a couple of weeks ago

Thanks for the replies. I think I have realistic expectations - I can't imagine that anything is going to work miracles, short of sedatives!

Still unsure whether to try the hammock or not. Unfortunately the only thing that can be relied on to work is motion and cuddling up to someone: unfortunately the sling is the only thing I can think of which fits both criteria, other than investing in an adult sized hammock for him and me.

Tillyscoutsmum, you give me hope! DS is 11 weeks on Saturday and counting...

We have the Fisher Price swing, but it is far too mesmerising for sleep to be a possibility.

The hammock worked well for my DS who fought sleep from the minute he came out of the womb! We got a really good system going where we would swaddle, dummy, and then bounce the hammock, gradually bouncing less and less over days/weeks, until we could just stick him in the hammock and leave. When he got a bit older he would bounce it up and down himself!

Can't say that it meant he didn't still wake up, but he did good long stretches in the hammock from a young age. Plus it is good in that you can pull it right up beside your bed so you can reach out and bounce it, or put your hand on him without getting out from under your duvet.

He did grow out of it by about 6 months, but he is very big. I got it second hand on ebay so it was cheaper than new.

More hammocks to consider

Amazon and other places sell them. I'm considering getting the Koala for our DD...

Hi,
We bought the hammock before DD's (16 weeks today!) birth convinced it would be THE thing. Unfortunately, she never slept in it and we put it away quite quickly.
She now sleeps with us in a bedside cot, but lately has wanted to sleep right up beside one of us most of the time. Hoping this will change because I don't get much sleep but I reckon she's still really tiny, so give it time.
The other thing about the hammock is that Amby recalled them because if two kids dying in the US. We got an emaik from the company we bought ours from (on ebay) saying that even if theirs had no problems, for safety they recommended destroying the hammock!!
Good luck with finding a solution

We had a hammock and it has been an absolute godsend. We have used it since our DS (now 7 weeks) came home from hospital and he sleeps from 8pm - 6.30am with two feeds (at 10.30 and 3.30) and naps in it for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon.
We put our DS in the cot for some playtime, but he's never fallen asleep in the cot and we dread the day he will grow out of the hammock.
He is a very tall baby and he's still got loads of space.
I got the Amby hammock off ebay for £70. Money well spent.