When my daughter was born last year, I packed a few gorgeous Eden + Anais muslin swaddles in my hospital bag. I had no clue how to swaddle, and honestly I didn’t think much about it (or know how important it is). The nurses were experts at swaddling with simple blankets—and kindly showed both me and my hubs multiple times how to swaddle our new baby. But the first night in the hospital, we changed her in the middle of the night and then had no clue how to get the blanket tight around her. This left me extremely paranoid that blanket would end up over her face during the night, so again we called a nurse in for help. Over the next few days, we never really got the hang of it like the nurses could.

At home, I had a couple more swaddles that seemed more idiot-proof. One was the Miracle Blanket Swaddle Wrap from Amazon. It had amazing reviews, and I was excited to try it out on our little newborn. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t manage to get it wrapped and secured around the baby. It felt loose in some places, and baby CJ didn’t enjoy me fumbling through getting the hang of it. So it ended up in the bottom of her dresser.

Before I was due, I took the Newborn course from Taking Cara Babies (if you haven’t taken this, I highly recommend it). In it, they used the Ollie Swaddle, which seemed very simple and user-friendly. Luckily I already had bought it during that new mom “I have to buy everything” phase. I pulled it out of the dresser, and in two moves CJ was snug and tight in her swaddle. It was by far the easiest swaddle I’d tried, and the baby loved it. From that moment on, she only slept in the Ollie Swaddle, and I even bought an extra so that I could always have one on hand in case of a spit-up or blowout.

I was such a fan of this swaddle, I sent one to every pregnant friend I had. And undoubtedly, they had the same experience with it. When you are a sleep-deprived, anxiety-ridden new parent, the Ollie Swaddle becomes your most valuable asset for getting your newborn sleeping soundly. And your newborn sleeping soundly equals TIME TO YOURSELF. And in those moments, all I could muster was crawling into my own bed to catch some Zzz’s.