The Swaddle

We've swaddled our baby from day one, the nurses in the hospital showed us how.

It was winter when he was born, so it made a lot of sense. He loved it, and it kept him warm, perfect. Now he's almost 4 months old, and he likes (NEEDS) to be swaddled for naps still (he hasn't needed it at night for a long time, but naps are something he's always fought). There are several reasons i felt we needed to break the swaddle habit, before it really was a habit:

-It's getting warm. In fact sometimes in the house it's hot.

-I've read that sometimes a baby can roll themselves over in their cribs, and get stuck face down because of the swaddle.

-Babies do a lot of moving around in their sleep, which is actually a part of their development.

-If he naps in his chair, i can't strap him in while he's swaddled, and he just about slid out of it yesterday.

-It's pretty hard to keep a baby swaddled when they get older, and if they CAN'T sleep without it, that could be a problem.

I was prepared for a few rough days. It took one day for him to learn to nap without it. The first day we had a really hard time getting him to nap, and the second day he fell asleep no problem (we do rock him to sleep for his naps) Now on the third day he's having a great swaddle free nap. Now we just have to work on getting him to stay asleep. Un-swaddled he can really flail his body about, and boy does that wake him up. First the arms flail, then he arches his back and moves around. This is one step in the right direction at least. The next struggle will be the sookie (soother), but i think he'll outgrow that on his own in time, as he only uses it for naps now, or if he's really cranky.

Here's a great tutorial on swaddling. There are a few great blankets made to swaddle a baby, they have velcro on them to help them stay closed. One is called the Miracle Blanket, another is the Kiddopotamus Swaddle Me.