Tell me about swaddling............

[bobby's bear]

I am expecting number two in a few weeks so have started to think about what we did last time and what we might do differently this time!!

Swaddling was something I never really did but have heard it can be very useful.

I was wondering if anyone who is a fan could answer a few basic queries........

1) When do you swaddle - only at night / all the time?

2) How and with what and is it worth buying a proper swaddling blanket?

3) For how long? Last time my LO was into grobags the minute she was big enough but to what age roughly is it good to swaddle

4) Arms up or down?

Thanks in advance.

[Ruth_Baldock]

Swaddled my second, saved my sanity!

1) Both. Started off at night, with great success, and then when daytime naps were becoming impossible, swaddled then too!

2) I got a miracle blanket from Mothercare- made out of light material, perfect as my baby was born in July.

3) Embaressingly, until she was SEVEN MONTHS. I tried to wean her from the swaddle several times before that, but it involved all night crying, shushing, breastfeeding and patting. When she was ready to be unswaddled all night, it was easy as pie. She now sleeps in a gro-bag, You're not 'meant' to swaddle past 3mo/12 weeks, but I know loads of people that did it till 5/6mo.

4) Arms down.

[Strawbs]

When new we swaddled at every nap, also got the miracle blanket and it was great.. Baby didn't love it but I do think for the first 2 months it made a difference x

[pommie]

my daughter who is now 16 weeks old hated being swaddled, she always wanted her hands out of the blanket so we gave up!

[Pickle]

First two babies weren't keen at all, they liked their arms out, and slept fine without being swaddled. Baby Pickle was swaddled, using one of the blankets with "wings" and Velcro which made it easy, but with one hand up by her mouth (she didn't suck her thumb at that point but always seemed to like having the hand up... at 5 months she is now a thumb sucker).

We swaddled her for around 3 months until she was big enough for a Grobag.

I only swaddled her at nighttime, not for daytime naps.

[hellosailor]

The miracle blanket swaddle with the wings is very good indeed, we swaddled for naps only but next time I'd do it for night time too, and I'd start from day one! People normally seem to say swaddling is for the first 3 months or so, but we actually only started at 3 months and swaddled until about 5 months I think, and it really helped her sleep, when she started to want to suck her fingers, we just left an arm out.

[Yak]

I used the miracle blanket from day 2 (bought off the forum, where else!) for all naps and night sleeps til about 5 months. I used a normal swaddling cloth on occasion but never got the hang of it. Apparently it is a bit like rolling a fajita but I am rubbish at them too!

I think one or both arms were left out from about 3 months when the yaklet found his thumb. But definitely fully trussed before then.

[midivydale]

I swaddled on advice frm midwife pretty much straight frm the birth, both for naps and nights in the early days. We had a long stint at kings following birth and i became abit of a swaddling expert (thanks to my community midwife) after a while even helping other mums to swaddle:) Very early on though ds (Now 16 weeks) started to hate it with a passion:)

I tried so many different blankets (have them mostly unused if interested) but finally had to accept that he just doesnt like it. He hates slings as well bless him.

[Bellenden Belle]

We swaddled our little one. During our ante-natal classes we'd been taught how to swaddle but it looked like origami to me. So we invested in this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Woombie-Original-Swaddle-Raspberry-Months/dp/B004G6JQPE/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1340778287&sr=8-8

Depending on how you viewed him he looked like a fat slug or that he was in a baby body bag. But he never escaped. It was a really good cue for him that it was nap/ sleep time and I think it's one of the reasons he's always gone down quite quickly.

We used that until about 9 weeks; then we swaddled him quite loosely using a gro-swaddle (from the gro bag company) and then when he hit 12 weeks we popped him in a sleeping bag. I think the gradual transition helped too.

The Woombie was hugely expensive (?25 - ouch!) but worth every penny in my opinion.

[bobby's bear]

Thanks everyone for all your advice, really helpful. No 1 was a terrible sleeper until she was one so sounds like swaddling might reslly improve life for us second time round!

[cashewnut]

We swaddled from the beginning until about 12 weeks. Swaddled for all naps and overnight. We got a couple of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-Infant-SwaddleMe-Small-Flutter/dp/B0035ER1F0/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1340789486&sr=1-1

Looks like a straight-jacket but it's pretty effective. She always escaped from normal blankets and only escaped from this a couple of times. At 12 weeks we started unswaddling one arm at a time, one nap at a time then once she was fully out switched to a sleeping bag. We had a lot of trouble with naps early on and I really think this helped.

When we got it at about 3 weeks I remember little cashew slept from about 11 til about 5am and I thought it was an amazing miracle but of course that was a one off!

[Knomester]

Swaddled our only one (now 22 months) and really think it helped with sleep in the first few months.

1) When do you swaddle - only at night / all the time? We swaddled from from day 1 at night and also for day time naps once there was some semblance of a routine (i.e. not just falling asleep at any given opportunity!).

2) How and with what and is it worth buying a proper swaddling blanket? We used old pieces of sheet at first and then invested in a grobag swaddle blanket which was nice and soft and stretchy. I didn't know about the miracle blanket until Baby Knomester was too big for it, so sold the one we had bought to try on the forum. If we had another I'd definitely buy one of the cocoon style zip up swaddles which must be loads easier for middle of the night re-swaddling! We also tucked him in quite tightly with a sheet over the bottom half of his body.

3) For how long? We sawddled in the day until 9 weeks when he made it clear he didn't want to be swaddled for naps anymore. At night we only stopped swaddling when he went into his big cot at around 4 months because he would 'get lost' in his cot (he was in a crib at night until then). We switched to sleeping bags with a sheet tucked in under his arm pits and rolled up towels to fill the gaps on each side so he still felt snug.

4) Arms up or down? Always down at first but once he learnt to wriggle an arm free (and took to sucking his fingers for comfort) we left that arm free. Eventually he would free his arms completely.