Throughout the last 2.5 months, our family has had a love/hate relationship with the concept.
When Raegan was a newborn, she slept like a champ in the swaddle. She literally would be out for hours; I would even have to wake her to eat! There was one night when I just let her sleep to see how long she would go and she went over 5 hours.
When Raegan was a newborn, she slept like a champ in the swaddle. She literally would be out for hours; I would even have to wake her to eat! There was one night when I just let her sleep to see how long she would go and she went over 5 hours.
All of that said, the only blanket that worked for us was the Miracle Blanket. My mom liked to call it a straight jacket. I told her that she was crazy. Straight jackets don't come in pastels!
De De (aka my mom) and Nan Nan (Chuck's mom) would watch me in horror as a I tightly wrapped our sweet baby girl in this blanket. I told them that babies like confinement! I don't think they were ever really convinced...even after I doggie eared the chapter dedicated to swaddling in the Happiest Baby on the Block book and happened to leave it on the coffee table when they were visiting.
Fortunately for them, that blanket and technique lasted, oh about a week. I don't know what happened; She abruptly began hating being swaddled.
For about a month after that, I aggressively tried to keep the swaddle thing going. I'm talking, we tried different blankets, different techniques (one arm out, two arms out, arms bent, arms straight, etc), etc. Raegan inevitably resisted. Not only did she hate the act of swaddling (as most babies naturally do), she despised being in it. She would grunt and groan all night while attempting to, in De De's terms, "escape" the swaddle.
As a result, Raegan digressed with her sleeping...as did mommy and daddy.
After about 4 weeks of this, we said "goodbye" to the swaddle blankets-all of them. And, believe me, we had every kind under the sun.
The following weeks, Raegan slept very little at night. Her erratic arm and leg movements would wake her and she would scream bloody murder. Unless she was on her belly (recommended by her pediatrician), she wouldn't sleep at all.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was talking with another mom about how I just couldn't allow her to sleep on her tummy anymore due to the risk of SIDS. She suggested that I try to re-introduce the swaddle. I listened but was full of pessimism. The whole point of swaddling, I thought, was to mimic what the baby was accustomed to-aka, the womb. Raegan had been out of the womb for 2 months. Wouldn't wrapping her up just confuse her and make her mad?
Never above taking someones advice (especially a mom who has "been there and done that"...Thanks, Lindsay!), I tried it. That night, I broke out a blanket and wrapped her up. And, because I'm such a loving mother, I left her arms out.
De De (aka my mom) and Nan Nan (Chuck's mom) would watch me in horror as a I tightly wrapped our sweet baby girl in this blanket. I told them that babies like confinement! I don't think they were ever really convinced...even after I doggie eared the chapter dedicated to swaddling in the Happiest Baby on the Block book and happened to leave it on the coffee table when they were visiting.
Fortunately for them, that blanket and technique lasted, oh about a week. I don't know what happened; She abruptly began hating being swaddled.
For about a month after that, I aggressively tried to keep the swaddle thing going. I'm talking, we tried different blankets, different techniques (one arm out, two arms out, arms bent, arms straight, etc), etc. Raegan inevitably resisted. Not only did she hate the act of swaddling (as most babies naturally do), she despised being in it. She would grunt and groan all night while attempting to, in De De's terms, "escape" the swaddle.
As a result, Raegan digressed with her sleeping...as did mommy and daddy.
After about 4 weeks of this, we said "goodbye" to the swaddle blankets-all of them. And, believe me, we had every kind under the sun.
The following weeks, Raegan slept very little at night. Her erratic arm and leg movements would wake her and she would scream bloody murder. Unless she was on her belly (recommended by her pediatrician), she wouldn't sleep at all.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was talking with another mom about how I just couldn't allow her to sleep on her tummy anymore due to the risk of SIDS. She suggested that I try to re-introduce the swaddle. I listened but was full of pessimism. The whole point of swaddling, I thought, was to mimic what the baby was accustomed to-aka, the womb. Raegan had been out of the womb for 2 months. Wouldn't wrapping her up just confuse her and make her mad?
Never above taking someones advice (especially a mom who has "been there and done that"...Thanks, Lindsay!), I tried it. That night, I broke out a blanket and wrapped her up. And, because I'm such a loving mother, I left her arms out.
Low and behold-IT WORKED!
I'm happy to announce that Raegan has been sleeping, on average, 7 hours at night (without waking) and then going down for 2-3 more hours after she wakes around the 7 hour mark. And, she's even sleeping in regular swaddling blankets! Thanks to Holly M for the one in the above pic!
To all of the moms out there who I lean on for advice, thank you so much!
To all of the moms out there who I lean on for advice, thank you so much!
Welcome back, Swaddle! We are so happy to have you back in our lives!
3 comments:
Whatever it takes to get them to sleep! My kids both hated the swaddle, so I break the rules with a loose blanket...so far, so good!
Hope things are going well. I'm still on a hunt for a double jogger...we'll get together soon!
I think I'm going to join the morning MIP group in the fall, what about you?
Love the blanket, love the post. We too had a love/hate relationship with the swaddle with both the girls. My mom's reaction was the same as your mom's and MIL. Too funny! We must have never been swaddled. Glad you are all back to getting some sleep.
Girl...I realized VERY fast Kennedy hated having her arms in. We watched at the hospital as she would completely wiggle her way out of the swaddle. Thomas thinks I wrap her up to tight...but as soon as he sees her sleeping as well as she does and it stops the crying - he is convinced. It's something about the arms! I can relate to the post! Wrap that little burrito!
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