All about the swaddle

One of the best things that I think we have done with our babies is swaddle them. The concept of swaddling is to mimic the environment that babies have in the womb. It makes them feel tight, warm and cozy. Infants also have a startle reflex that often wakes them up in the night. Swaddling prevents the startle reflex so that your baby can snooze through the night. Our babies woke up just once from 5-10 weeks and have slept all through the night since 10 weeks and I think swaddling has contributed to their great sleep habits. Both of my babies sleep 10-12 hours a night and our pediatrician said it is just fine to have them swaddled up until 6 months, some pediatricians say longer. When your baby begins to roll over from back to belly it is time to transition them out of swaddling or if they show signs that they are ready like fighting the swaddle when you are trying to wrap them. Once they can move on their own, you don't want a swaddled baby to roll over because then they would be stuck in that position. Also, when a baby can move on their own in their crib, there is no need to swaddle because they will find what position is comfortable for them. 

We transitioned Hadley out of her swaddle at 5 months and Jack Henry was more difficult to wean, but we finally did just before his 6 month birthday (I will write a whole post on this later)

Here is a look back on our our swaddled up babes...

In the babies first few weeks we just used a blanket to tightly swaddle them. We used a "five point" swaddle fold that we have shown in a video Here. Here is what that looked like...

Then when the babies got a bit bigger, we put them into to the Summer Infant Swaddlemes. They are a velcro swaddle packs that look like this...

Then when we outgrew them we went to the Miracle blanket (video also here)...

And in the chilly winter months we swaddle them in a heavy blanket over their miracle blankets...

The miracle blanket it one of my TOP baby items! It does such a good job swaddling and they have not been able to break out of it yet :) They love it, and actually smile when we start to swaddle them in it! I will soon show you what we now have the babies sleeping in, now that they have outgrown being swaddled. So if you have a baby coming soon, consider swaddling for a hopefully LONG cozy night sleep :)