Don’t let it’s good looks fool you, this is something that babies actually like to sleep in. The Dock A Tot is wonderful for co-sleeping & allows for a parent’s peace of mind. It also works as a great naptime sleeper for babies during the day too! This oval-shaped pod gives back the womb-like environment until babies are around 8 months of age, or have otherwise grown out of their Dock (there is a larger size that is available as well, this is for babies up to 36 months of age.) There are many great reasons to incorporate a Dock A Tot into your baby’s primary sleeping arrangement; First, it keeps babies safe in a regular sized bed, you don’t have to worry about babies rolling off of the bed or bumping the headboard. Dock A Tot is also Oeko-tex certified & passes the standards for healthy textiles, this means it is free of harmful substances. It’s also non-heat harboring so baby can stay at an appropriate temperature while sleeping without perspiration which would then drop their temperature.

I use my docks in various situations but for night time sleeping, I like to place the docks at the top of the mattress near our headboard. This is so that I can still use my blankets without worry that they’ll go over the docks. There aren’t many soft co-sleeping products out there but this one qualifies because the material is completely breathable. I remember what sold me on this product initially was a video of a mother diving into the Dock A Tot, face first and talking into it to show how breathable the material is.

Most of you know that our twins spent 38 days in the NICU because they unexpectedly arrived early. One of the things I noticed while there was early on, the nurses would make these u-shaped blanket rolls for the babies, they said they did this because it created barriers, like what babies are used to in the womb. Babies love to kick on the inside of the belly as well as the outside, but when there isn’t a barrier, it isn’t as satisfying for them. When looking at the nurse-created barriers, I realized.. they looked exactly like the Docks that we had at home! Of course, rolling blankets up around babies is totally unsafe in a home environment, but in the NICU it was okay because they were watched constantly and on monitors. At home, the safe alternative would be the Dock A Tot which is why I think this co-sleeper is great for preemies as well as full-term babies.

Since the moment our boys were born, I was thinking about the moment we would introduce them to their siblings. I never put much thought into how we would actually pull this off in a safe way. When I got home, I saw our Dock A Tots hanging and I just knew that they would create a safe place for the little ones to come and meet these fragile little babies. Here is how I used them in this scenario;