I am a HUGE fan of swaddling. HUGE. The reason I am such a huge fan, is because I have seen it work miracles with my own. But there a few ways to make sure it always works, because I know a lot of people give up and say it didn't work really well. One of the biggest things, is you have to be consistent. We all know that babies love consistency. If they are swaddled every time when they go to sleep, they are going to associate swaddling with sleeping. Seems about right. Another big thing besides consistency, is making sure you have the right swaddle- and that you swaddle them the right way. If you half swaddle them everytime, or have a blanket that doesn't really swaddle that well- it's hard for them to stay swaddled, and then you have a super tight burrito baby with one arm flailing around not knowing why it is free. Of course my favorite swaddles are the pricey Aden + Anais ones. I have the regular ones, and the bamboo ones. Both work great. The bamboo ones are softer, and little bit larger. They have more of a stretchier feel to them when you swaddle. The downside is, they get those lint ball looking things faster and look worn a lot easier than the regular muslin ones. But they are more buttery feeling and slick. Both get the job done great. On Amazon, there are so many delicious patterns to choose from of Aden + Anais that it makes the job of choosing even harder. They are adorable. Above Cole is using the Bamboo Aden blanket from the "Diwali" 3-pack. In the regular cotton muslin blankets I thought the "Liam the Brave" pack was the cutest, but it is definitely a toss up with so many choices. Check it out here. They come in packs of two, three, or four. The four packs is definitely a better value, but obviously pricier up front- depending on the style you want. At first swaddling to us seemed super weird. We couldn't ever get it tight enough, and it always felt like he was drowning in blanket (which freaked us out even more). We swaddled him in smaller receiving blankets for a while at the beginning, until we realized that these swaddles can go around their newborn bodies twice with how teeny they are, and it makes it that much more secure. They are far better than the other blankets we were swaddling him with. The material on these swaddles is breathable, and not hot. It's huge and great for swaddling. It's perfect for a baby. The main thing that came with us not feeling so slow or clumsy with swaddling was practice. We watched the "Happiest Baby on the Block" video where Harvey Karp shows you how to swaddle a baby, and we watched this video from babycenter:
It is definitely a must-have thing for newborn baby time especially.
Cole was swaddled until he could start rolling over. After he started rolling over, we switched to the Halo sleep sacks, so that he still had a blanket on that wouldn't get twisted around him, but had the freedom to move his arms and roll around. Super geeky looking, but great if the nights are a little chilly.
Cole now sleeps without either sleep sacks or swaddles and he is 8 months old. Without those swaddles though for those first 6 months, we would have been lost. They were awesome at helping him sleep quickly and stay asleep a long time.
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