I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the latest crazes and most coveted kids accessories on the market at the moment – the Lulla Doll. And no, on a completely unrelated topic turns out you don’t need a liver and that they attract quite the profit margin on the black market ..
As mentioned in my IG posts, Hunter isn’t what I would consider a bad sleeper. I’ve been to mums groups and heard enough horror stories to know I don’t have it too awful. But in his short six weeks here, he’s had a hospital stint for Bronchiolitis that he is still recovering from, and a viral rash last week, so the poor babe has been feeling pretty poorly. Plus, he’s a boy and boy’s are notoriously needy (can I get an amen woop woop).
For those of you who don’t know, The Lulla Doll was invented in Iceland by 3 mums. She is a soft, non gender/race/color etc specific doll who breathes and has a heartbeat. Ahhh yep, and it is a little bit as creepy as it sounds. You press down on her ‘heart’ for 2 seconds to start/stop and she goes for 8 hours at a time. The heart beat is fine, but the breathing is a little odd – and quite heavy. Chris calls her emphysema doll, but lets leave that there. Once you get used to it, you don’t even notice. Promise.
The Lulla was originally invented for premmie and sicks babes, who didn’t have mum around and needed that level of comfort, but she’s recommended up to toddlers and beyond as well. In terms of using a Lulla doll for any baby not straight out of the womb, my thoughts were ‘are those sounds really comforting now that they’re not used to is (i.e already 6 weeks out), or is it more of a getting used to something repetitive as an aid?”. My second thought was “is it natural for him to sleep that long anyway, shouldn’t he be waking for feeds?”
In his 6 weeks, Hunter ranged from sleeping 3-4 hourly during the night between feeds to hourly waking. We’re 3 nights down with Lulla now, and the 3 nights using her at night (as well as for day naps), he had consistently slept 3-4 hourly between feeds. Using her for every nap I suppose is a way of ‘sleep training’ him, in that the sound is there for when he sleeps, and he comes to use it as a comfort and aid. I’m sure if we played a One Direction song for each sleep over and over, the same thing would apply. Or maybe that’s just for me..
I don’t necessarily want my man sleeping 8 hours at a night time (WHO JUST SAID THAT, WHO IS THIS WOMAN?!), because I do think its natural that he wakes up to feed – he’s only a baby after all! But the consistent sleep pattern is great, and using Lulla through the day is hopefully going to bring some more consistency and comfort to him there, because he is a super needy baby – read: needs to be held. All the time. A girl needs a toilet break ..
Do I think Lulla is worth the $99? Yeah, definitely. She’s much easier the listen to than a freaking ‘white noise’ app, and she’s also actually really cute and can be used and toted around as a toy/doll. Her batteries are replaceable so she’s not a one hit wonder and can be used over and over. She also has a velcro strap on the back (that you can tuck away if you want) to attach to the outside of the cot, until baby is old enough to have her in the cot (recommended from age 1), so she is considered SIDS safe too.
We got our Lulla Doll from All 4 Bubs, who are just about to get their new stock of her in – she is sold out again worldwide already, so email sales@all4bubs.com.au to pre order her if you’re interested! You can have a quick squiz at this video made by one of the Mums who created Lulla which tells you about her, and you can hear the sounds too.
