What we learned about Swaddling

Samuel has always enjoyed being swaddled, but neither of us knew anything about swaddling or the different types of swaddling blankets that are available. While he was in the hospital, the nurses taught us how to swaddle him with a blanket. When we first brought him home, he would cry if he was not swaddled at times. However, it only took him a week or two before he was able to bust his arms loose from the swaddling blanket.  James had read about Miracle Blankets, and I went shopping looking for them one day. The store was out.  When I got home, there was a package on our doorstep from a friend. Inside were two different kinds of swaddling blankets! The first kind we tried were Summer SwaddleMe blankets.

I really liked the weight of these, but Samuel could get his hands free if we were not careful to get it wrapped tightly.

James' parents gave us a couple of these Garanimal's fleece swaddling blankets. My mother-in-law found them at Wal-Mart and they were a nice weight for the colder days that we had in the late winter/early spring.  These had a fabric strap that wrapped around his arms and waist. It kept his arms down at his sides.  He was able to break free from this type as well.

When Samuel outgrew those swaddlers, we moved up to this:

It is called a Woombie. It zipped all the way from the baby's feet to his neck, and there was no strap or flap to wrap around him. This one gave him the freedom to move his arms around, but still kept them close to his body. I really liked these, but we had to stop using them when he began to roll over onto his tummy at night.  He needed to have his hands free so he could roll back over, if he wanted/needed to. They do make a convertible style of these that has arm holes that can be napped shut or left open, and wish that I had bought those instead because we would have gotten more use out of them.

Next, we started using HALO SleepSacks. These can be put on the baby where their arms are free, or they can be wrapped up in the swaddling flap. These have a fabric flap that covers up the zipper on the inside, so it doesn't irritate the baby's skin.  It has been so hot here, that even with the AC running, it still gets a little warm in the house when the sun comes up.  Samuel can sleep in this with just a diaper, if need be.

He has actually outgrown the one in the photo. He is using a larger HALO SleepSack that does not have the swaddling flaps.  You can see the flaps wrapped around his midsection in the photo.

James took off work in March, and stayed home with Samuel and he broke him from being swaddled during naptime early on.  I'm glad he was home to do it, because I had a tough time getting the little man to nap without swaddling him.