When my baby outgrew her first swaddling sleep sacks, we were ready to enter the wide world of the wearable blanket. We tried the gunapod Wearable Blanket and are so happy we did!
What I really like about the gunapod Wearable Blanket are the different zipper options, which add so much flexibility in terms of how your baby likes to get into and out of the sack. We mostly use the traditional front zipper up the middle, as this seems to be the easiest way to use the sack, but the other options do come in handy on occasion. During one attempted nap where my daughter was crying more than usual, I was able to use the zipper around the bottom and sides to open the sack and take a peak at her diaper. Another time when it seemed she was over-heating, I unzipped the bottom and opened the blanket to allow some cooler air in without having to take her completely out of the sack. Unfortunately, while the zipper around the bottom is very flexible, it’s harder to use because it gets caught on itself, so it often takes a few back and forth attempts to get that zipper closed all the way. I’ve occasionally had the same sticking issue on the front zipper, but it seems to close easier most of the time.
The snaps that secure the top near her shoulders are one of the most convenient and helpful options. As opposed to the small arm holes in other sleep sacks that required me to bend my baby’s arm in awkward directions in order to slide her arms in and out, these top shoulder snaps allow me to assemble the sack around her shoulders while she lies with her arms in a natural position. Especially at the end of a long day, when my daughter is really tired and ready for sleep, this is a solution that adds a lot of peace to the bedtime process. And in the morning, when I go into her room and lift her out of her crib, I just unsnap the shoulders and open the front, leaving the blanket behind in the crib. This allows me to pick up and hug my daughter and move on to the next activity (diaper change, feeding) without having to then get her out of her sleep sack.
The blanket material is incredibly soft, and a little thinner than your average fleece, so I feel it keeps her body warm without overheating. It’s winter here in California, so we wear fleece footy pajamas underneath it, and that seems to be the perfect combination. After machine-washing the gunapod Wearable Blanket, the material seems equally soft, and hasn’t pilled up. I do recommend washing it separately the first time you wash it, as it seemed to have shed some of its white fuzziness in the dryer onto some of my darker items (You’d think I would have learned by now, not to mix light and dark loads like that!)
Overall, if you like using sleep sacks, you won’t be disappointed by the gunapod Wearable Blanket, as it’s super soft material, flexible zippering options and roomy fit make it one of our bedtime favorites!