Partnering with HALO for SIDS Awareness Month {and a GIVEAWAY}

Hello all and welcome to October!
I'm here to help spread some awareness and hold a little giveaway!

Did you know that October is SIDS Awareness Month?

Maybe I should start out by making sure you know what SIDS even is!

SIDS stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. (Or SUIDS Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome).

This problem still claims more than 3,500 infants each year in North America. More than half of these are preventable when proper safe sleep practices are followed. To keep all babies sleeping safely and avoid these unnecessary tragedies, HALO is dedicated to putting the health, safety, and well-being of babies first. In fact, over 1,400 hospitals use HALO SleepSack wearable blankets through the HALO Safer Way to Sleep Hospital Initiative. 

Through this program HALO has helped Hospitals and Birth Centers throughout North America create their own safe sleep programs, which utilize the HALO SleepSack Swaddle to demonstrate to parents and caregivers how to keep their babies sleeping safely. To date, HALO has donated more than $4.3 million in its efforts to promote safe sleep education. 

Laying your little one down to rest doesn't need to be stressful though, there are quite a few tips to help keep your little on safe and keep your mind at ease.
For the month of October HALO will be running a campaign entitled "Decorate the nursery, not the crib."
HALO is asking parents to show their unique styles of nurseries to show the  different ways of keeping the baby's sleep environment a safe one.
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I wondered how I was going to share my tips and ideas on a safe nursery when my baby actually isn't even in his nursery yet, let alone his crib.
He actually sleeps in a bassinet right next to our bed. He has since day 1.
We've actually done it that way with all 3 of our boys.
I realized that's my way of keeping him sleeping safely.
Right next to me.
It puts my mind at ease knowing I am right there if anything goes wrong. I can hear them breathing and I like to think they can feel my presence there as well and be comforted knowing I will be there if they wake up or if something happens. It also helps that they are close enough for me to grab for that late-night feeding.
Along with sleeping next to me my little guy rocks his HALO SleepSack wearable blanket.
I really like the SleepSack because he can't kick it off while he's sleeping, and he can't pull it up over his face.
And that elephant print is pretty adorable too ;)

So what are the main components of a safe sleep environment you might ask?
If your baby is in a crib, you will want to make sure the mattress you are using fits nice and snug into the crib without any gaps.
No soft bedding surrounding the baby (pillows, stuffed animals, loose things they can grab, etc).
You'll also want to make sure there aren't any cords from the baby monitor or anything like that around.
When you lay them down to sleep make sure you place them on their back.

For even more ideas HALO has a list of Safe Sleep Tips you can find here 

To help get your little one's sleep environment Sleep-Safe ready, I have teamed up with HALO to give away a 'Safe Sleep Starter Kit' to one lucky winner

The kit will include:

To enter the giveaway just fill out the Rafflecopter below, good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
HALO is also holding a separate giveaway on their social media outlets for a HALO Bassinet, so make sure to head over and enter that as well!

Swaddle Sure swaddling pouch by HALO {Review}

*I received the following product for free in exchange for an honest review here on my blog.

All opinions are 100% honest and my own.

I do not receive any financial compensation if you click on any of the links provided or purchase the following product.

Today I have a review for you, and my littlest guy gets to make his big blog debut :)

We welcomed him into the world just under 2 weeks ago, so it was about time for him to get to work ;)

This is the Swaddle Sure swaddling pouch from halosleep.com
I actually received this a few weeks before my little guy was born and I couldn't wait to try it out!
I've always liked the idea of swaddling because I feel like it helps keep baby snug and cozy, like when they were still in the womb...also, it's nice to keep their little hands in so they can't scratch themselves on the face...
If I recall correctly, there wasn't really anything like this when I had my other two children, we just used receiving blankets to swaddle them, but they always seemed to get an arm out or wiggle the whole thing loose.
This swaddling pouch is designed to keep that from happening, and that's why I was so excited to try it!