Despite our best efforts — the research, the methods, the pleading — some babies and toddlers are just not great sleepers. Portland mom of three, Nora Murray, knows this all too well. What worked best for Murray’s kids, Lila, age 8, Oliver, 6, and Jules, 2, were floor beds, supported by a pillow barrier along the edge of the bed.
“In talking to other parents with non-crib using kiddos, I learned that I wasn’t alone in creating the pillow barrier,” says Murray. “A common frustration I had with this strategy was that the pillows were constantly falling out and had to be rearranged.”
So, Murray, who is a clinical psychologist, pulled out her sewing machine and created a bolster looped into fabric that could then be wrapped around the toddler floor mattress.
Fast forward to 2021, when Murray leveled up her bedtime hack with Oolie, a bustling business that sells organic cotton bedding for children. The company, a certified B Corp, sells crib sheets; Nest, the floor bed bolsters system; and the Shoosh, a wool-felt door insert that acts as both a door silencer and safety bumper for little fingers.
Soon after, Murray partnered with the Chetna Project — an India-based organization that connects small-scale organic cotton farmers to manufacturers, and pays its workers a living wage — to ethically source and sew the bedding. And fellow B Corp and woman-owned company, the Portland Garment Factory makes Oolie’s Shooshes.
And Murray’s kids, now great sleepers, enjoy helping with the family business. “The kids love being early testers, and then seeing their contributions informing the final forms of our products.” Murray says check the website, oolie.com, at the end of the year for newborn products, including gender-neutral linens and sleep sacks.
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