Rocking your baby to sleep in your arms might seem like the most normal thing in the world… until you have more than one baby and still only one set of arms.

Our girls had chronic reflux which made sleeping a pretty un-fun event for all of us, and I longed to be able to cradle them in my arms and soothe their cries.

I dreamt one night, during a rare patch of sleep,  that I would evolve into a higher being and grow a second set of arms so that I could pick up, cuddle and comfort both my babies whenever we needed to. That didn’t happen… but I did manage to find a way to rock them both to sleep and to help with the reflux.

We got  baby hammocks.

We bought one, and then made another using the first as a pattern. The hammocks hang from a stand with a bouncy spring and can be rocked in any direction as well as bounced. We chose not to put a firm base in the hammocks, preferring the gentle curved posture to help with the girls’ reflux.

I would pop both girls in their hammocks and sit on the floor between them, a hand on each of their tummies as I rocked, bounced and sang them to sleep.  It wasn’t quite the same as rocking them to sleep in my arms, but sometimes I think it was better!  Most importantly,  it  met both their needs and mine and we’ve gone on to loan the hammocks to various friends and use it with our singleton…. who happens to be having his day sleep in it as I type this.