A Lovey?

I have read about some of you letting you kids have loveys? At what age?

I have a thumb sucker and I think she really wants to be twiddling something with her non-sucking hand and I was thinking about a lovey but I didnt know if she was too young for one. We are moving this weekend so I thought it might be a nice gift for the girls to have one if they are old enough.

Also, whats in your cribs? My girls have a sheet on a mattress. I know I wouldnt want to sleep in there (and I am probably grasping here) but that being said, I am wondering if that might be why they have a tough time sleeping. I bought them some jersey sheets today because thats what I sleep on and I love them.
Does anyone do anything special to make the cribs more comfortable? Or is this it: cotton sheets on cold hard mattresses? Or do the babies not care and I am being a dork? ardon:

 

I ended up using flannel sheets for my girls in the winter. I was like you, poor babies sleeping on cold cotton sheets. I didn't have anything in their cribs until recently when we put pillows in there. I tried giving them loveys and stuffed animals, etc., but they never wanted any of it. Even now, they will try and throw it out.

Do you have a small stuffed animal that's attached to a small piece of blanket? Maybe that would be good to try out for now.

 

Ours have "woobies." I put them in their cribs probably at about 5-6 months and for the longest time, they never cared about them. Now Derek sleeps with his in his hand most of the night (tiny Carters stuffed giraffe clutched at the neck) and Tyler gives his to Derek every night so I secretly give it back when I check on them at night. Then when I go in to get them in the morning Derek has them all again. So, one is attached and the other likes to give his up.

We use just a cotton sheet and a mattress pad. Too hot here for flannel.

 

It was around 7 months when we started letting them sleep with one small stuffed animal. Around 9 months they started using a small flannel receiving blanket too. Thats all we have in the cribs now.

 

I gave mine loveys after they started rolling, or got mobile and strong enough that I wasn't afraid they'd be trapped under them. For Kevan this was around 4 months, but for Karina it was closer to 6 months.

Nadia (my older DD) has been an avid thumbsucker since about 8 weeks old, and she adores twiddling the tag on her lovey with the other hand, to this day.

(Funny story about that -- Gund changed the tags on their animals from embroidered to smoothly printed, and when I tried to sneakily switch out a lovey that had been loved to death, it became an emergency situation, because the new smooth tag no longer offered the same tactile experience. Good heavens, what a nightmare -- I ended up cutting out the old tags and sewing them onto the new loveys.)

Anyhow. Both my little ones love snuggling with their loveys. We use these:

http://www.aspecialgift.com/comfy-cozy.asp

Nadia has a pink bear, Karina has a cream lamb, and Kevan has a cream cow! I think they do wonders for sleep -- who doesn't want to sleep with something cozy? In addition to those, we have one other very small stuffed animal in each crib.

In terms of sheets -- I have mattresses with sheets, and then I have the Ultimate Crib Sheet over that....anything cushier is not recommended for infants. Knit sheets sound like a great idea, but I love the convenience of the Ultimate Crib Sheet too much to give it up!

 

i too never used anything in their crib. i was too afraid. but after reading the pp's i am going to get one of those gund bears for them. maybe they would like it.

 

I started giving DD a lovey at about 5 months once she got pretty mobile, she instantly went from fussing herself to sleep to playing with her lovey and drifting off (well, on good days anyway ). We also use crib bumpers, DS never moves, so it's not an issues, but we have to tuck DD's between the mattress and crib rails b/c she thought it was fun to put her hands underneath it and i didn't want her to get stuck. DS could care less about his lovey, but still sleeps iwth his positioner, I have tried multiple times to take it out, but he won't sleep without it, he looks ridiculously overgrown in it, but hey if it makes him happy and able to sleep 12 hours I"m not gonna take it from him!!

 

We have sateen snuglys fromBaby Gund. My babies won't sleep without them. We have used them from the beginning. THey are great and then you don't have to drag a big blanket around. This is the lamb for my DD My DS has the frog.

We have bumper pads and several kinds of sheet. The t-shirt type material(jersey knit?) they like. In the winter I had a fuzzy type sheet they loved. I don't remember what it was made out of.

 

We have a couple of those animals (in our case, Pooh bears) attached to a folded blanket doohickeys. We still swaddle them at night time, but sometimes I'll give them the blankets to cuddle at nap times in their swing (where I can see that it's not bunched up in their faces). Our DS especially relaxes as soon as he touches it.

 

QUOTE(LV twinmama @ Mar 26 2008, 12:40 AM) [snapback]687521[/snapback]
We have sateen snuglys fromBaby Gund. My babies won't sleep without them. We have used them from the beginning. THey are great and then you don't have to drag a big blanket around. This is the lamb for my DD My DS has the frog.



We use something very similar to these and my two both love them. DD needs to be touching the satin side and she is very content with that. DS just plays with it and then falls asleep with them.

On the matress, I only had a cotton sheet, but everytime the kids went to bed on them they would wake up completely, So now I have flannel blankets that I made them on the matress tucked into the sides of the crib so they dont move, and both love it! I also have bumpers in the cribs and they have not been any kind of problems

 

My baby babe Soren freaking LOVES his taggy and without it he wouldn't fall asleep. He's six months old. He basically makes out with it all night. Asher on the other hand is content with a pacifier.

 

Started giving the boys a lovey around 4-5 months old and my two love them. Mine don't seem to have a preference for which type either...I have about 3 sets and I can them out as long as it has a satin side, they're set.

 

My DS Conner won't take a pacifier or his thumb & he's not overly fond of any special lovey. For him, all he needs is a blanket to rub on his face. Doesn't matter what material (even a burp rag has worked in dire circumstances!) & as soon as he's asleep, I pull it down. Ever since I can remember, he's liked to sleep with something on his face/over his head. It bothered me at first, but he's a thriving 8 mo old & fine now, so whatever.

My other DS Aiden became a thumb sucker around 5 mos. Along with that, he's attached to his "Silkie". At first it started with a blanket that was fleece on one side & silkie on the other...and now we've got squares of silk fabric in all different colors (courtesy of my SIL...I can't sew to save my soul!). I'd say they're about 10x16ish. He usually has 2-3 silkies in bed with him at any given time so that he can find them when he wants them. He is always laid to sleep on his back, but immediately rolls over....takes his thumb...scrunches his silkie up in his hand & chews/sucks his thumb/silkie to fall asleep. It's funny. Even if he's fussing on the floor...give him a silkie & he's content!

Our cribs have the mattress, mattress pad, & cotton sheet. My boys have had a blanket on them since day 1. We live in WI, it's cold, & I can't sleep without a blanket, so how could I expect them to? Again, they're 8 mos old...thriving...and fine. The thickness of the blanket depends on their pjs...if they're in thinner pjs, thicker blanket...thicker pjs, thinner blanket. Conner usually has his bunched up on his upper half with his poor feet hanging out, but Aiden keeps his on pretty consistently. We also have small stuffed animals in the corners of their cribs, but to be honest, I don't think they've ever really even noticed them!

 

The girls each have a small crocheted blanket they sleep with. I slept with them one night to make them smell like me ! The girls love them. They chew on them and Cassidy, my thumb sucker, sticks her thumb through the holes and sucks it that way. It's too cute! I'll try to get a pic soon .

They love to pull them up to their faces, but I don't worry too much about them suffocating, because even when they've pulled them all the way over their heads, they are loosely crocheted so they have lots of little holes! I used to worry about their fingers getting stuck in the holes, as both love to stick their fingers in them, but the yarn is stretchy enough they never get caught.

IMO, if they weren't crocheted and therefore full of holes, I would be very leery of giving other blankets, at least for MY girlies, because they love to pull things up to their head and often over their heads!

For sheets, we alternate between "the ultimate crib sheet" and a velor type sheet.

FWIW, I DO think it helps us to have an item associated solely with their cribs and sleep.

 

The twins had small "lovey" blakets (about 8x8 size) that were satin and fleece. Morgan is now almost 3 and STILL carries it with her everywhere. We seriously take it with us all of the time. Reagan still has her lovey too...only she graduated to a much larger blanket...lol...yep that goes with us also! They initially got those small loveys when they were 6 months old and they were in their crib with them at that point...but still nothing else in the crib. I never changed their sheets to a different fabric, just used different sleep sacks. Thin cotton ones in summer and long-sleeve fleece for the winter.

On a side note, my twins will be 3 in June and they sleep with a zoo of animals right now...along with loveys, pillows, blankets, etc. I can't take anything out of their big beds b/c they will definitely notice...lol!