Anyone have tucker sling???

Hi Becky,

I have a four month old that sleeps on an elevated mattress. I didn’t have money for a sling either so I figured out something that is working for us.

After propping up his mattress, I roll up a flat mattress pad or blanket and bend it into a U shape to make a nest. I tried using a baby blanket but wasn’t thick enough when rolled up.

I place this on the upper half of the raised mattress. Then I fold a single sheet length wise three times. I put this over the “nest” and tuck it under the mattress tightly to hold the nest in place. I’m using it’s length to tuck around the width of the mattress so it holds well. I have used a long beach towel before too and it works OK.

Then I put on the crib sheet. I tried just using this at first but he could still sometimes squirm over the “nest”. .

So then I took a yard and a quarter long piece of fleece from walmart and folded it in half lengthwise. It’s width is then just a little shorter than my baby’s height. I put this over the nest with the fold right at the bottom of the nest. I tuck it very tightly around the mattress.

When I put him down, I tuck him in on top of one layer of the blanket with the other layer on top of him. I put down a soft cotton cloth diaper to catch spit up so the part of the blanket he’s on doesn’t get soiled every time he spits up and I can just put down a clean cloth each time he goes down. I fold the top layer of the blanket down just a bit to get it to hit the baby at neck level. I guess maybe it’s a little like short sheeting a bed.

This keeps him from wiggling down past the bottom of the “nest” and the sides of the nest keep him from sliding sideways at all. So I don’t have any trouble with him getting into unsafe positions or going down the mattress.

He sleeps very comfortably this way. I think he loves feeling kind of snuggled. I know it sounds complicated but it’s really pretty easy. I just rigged things up like this thinking it would be temporary until I could find a used tucker sling for a good price. It turns out that he likes it so much and it’s free so I haven’t ended up having to order anything yet. We’ve been using this for about six weeks.

I have seen used Tucker slings on e-bay at times so that might be worth a look too.

Good Luck!

Kara