It’s no secret Arlo doesn’t sleep through the night yet. It isn’t a huge problem really as he sleeps in a cot attached to my bed or in my bed so when he wakes up I just breastfeed him back to sleep and often I fall asleep before he does. However it would be lovely if he could sleep a little longer in the evenings as at the moment he sleeps anywhere from 7 or 8 for a couple of hours or less and I need to go in and feed/settle him which can take up to an hour, and often happens just after I’ve got in the bath or have started on my to do list. He’s old enough now at almost 8 months that I know it’s probably more comfort than food, but I’m against any sort of ‘cry it out’ method. Whisbear sent us one of their soothing bears a few weeks back and we’ve been using him to see if it helps Arlo to self settle at all.
What is Whisbear? He’s a cuddly bear that emits white noise. The white noise is turned on by squeezing him (by a parent) and stays on for 40 minutes. It then reactivates when it hears a baby cry. It will stay on for another 40 minutes unless it gets switched off. Whisbear looks like a teddy octopus hybrid as he has four long legs rather than a traditional bear body, and was designed to be how a child first starts to draw things… a simplistic way with a head and legs! These legs have magnets in them so that you can attach him to the sides of cots, or to a car seat or buggy bar. He’s really soft and plush to the touch and has crinkly bits too!
Does it work? Sort of. I wasn’t expecting it to be a magical solution to me suddenly getting more than two hours sleep at a time because I’m not naive but on several occasions when Arlo has stirred the bear has switched on and the noise has meant Arlo has drifted back to sleep. These times have mainly happened during day time naps actually! I will point out though that for a week of using the Whisbear Arlo was at the end of a developmental ‘leap’ and also four new teeth arrived, so he was pretty unsettled. I’m definitely going to keep using him though!
When Whisbear arrived I started to switch him on when I was feeding Arlo to sleep for naps and at bedtime so he could get used to the white-noise and hopefully associate it with sleep. Once he’d fallen asleep it continued until the forty minutes ended then switches back on if he cries. I’m happy to continue to use Whisbear and hopefully he will start to soothe Arlo a little more when he is unsettled without having to resort to the boob as we do now! I will point out though that I will in no way be ignoring Arlo if he cries, as we have both a video monitor and a small flat, so I can see him either from my phone via the camera or from the door to our room! It would however be nice for him to self settle between sleep cycles as that’s when I think he is waking up! There is a psychologist’s opinion on the ‘science’ here, and it makes for interesting reading.
Whisbear is available in a few different colour ways and also without cry-sensor functionality. He is washable (as the white-noise maker is removable) and made in the EU from safe fabrics and materials and also comes with his own dustbag too.