Reading Paul Conrad’s post over at ideashack makes me want to share my thoughts on swaddling. After all, I’ve got all of a week or so extra parenting under my belt. Way to go Paul, you’ve awakened my need to spew unsolicited parenting advice. Now stand back and watch me work.
Hayes hated to be swaddled… so we thought. He’d bust out of even the tightest wrap. Then we tried it with his hands at his sides… which I think is how the dude who wrote Happiest Baby on the Block says to do it. He struggles a bit then nods off. Hayes does, not the dude who wrote the book. Seems to work. But it leads me to wonder: when is someone going to cut to the chase and just make the baby straitjacket already? ‘Cause that’s what we’re doing right?
Actually, maybe I’ve got it all wrong and we should rename the straitjacket “swaddle.” I think that it would lead to making crazy much more socially acceptable.
Nurse: “I’m afraid we’re going to have to commit you.”
Patient: “But… balhalkjaslkdjsalkja!”
Nurse (into her walkie-talkie aka Nextel phone) “Someone get down here with the swaddle, stat!”
Patient: “I feel loved.”
It would work. I promise.
steve says:
February 18th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
The key to swaddling is to leave one of their arms out, so that they can throw their hand in the air and wave it ’round like they just don’t care.
Cameron says:
February 18th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Steve has got it right, my son would pull both hands out no matter what we did, so the trick was to get him calmed down to the point that he was umm. put downable, and then put him in the bed and loosen the swaddle so his hands were free.
paulconrad says:
February 18th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
We’re stepping it up to carpet tape.
Alan says:
February 23rd, 2005 at 6:30 pm
We gave up swaddling at about 4 weeks… our son would just rip the blanket apart every night… he seemed much more comfortable sleeping without being bound up at that point, so we went to a blanket tucked… worked great. At 2 months, we’ve got him in a ’sleep sac’ which he loves…