I have decided to start something new. Hopefully, most Monday’s I will post something that most if not all Moms should have. It won’t always be baby and/or toddler related, it all just depends on what I have run across recently or decide to share. For example: This post came about because I ran across these photos of Noah recently back when he was itty bitty and I’m starting to organize Bryce’s nursery and this is definitely something that will be washed and ready to use when he arrives.
Swaddle Blankets
I was first introduced to the wonderfulness that is the baby burrito by my sister-in-law. I hadn’t even registered for any swaddle blankets, but she bought the miracle blanket for me and expressed what a life saver it had been for her and my brother. As she was currently pregnant with her third child I knew to listen to her, this lady had been through it all. If she said I needed, then I needed it. And man was she right!
It took a month or two before I remembered it, but Noah was practically comatose until then. After our third straight day of a wide awake, fussy baby I remembered her advice. I quickly grabbed my brand new miracle blanket and while watching a YouTube video swaddled Noah. It took a few times to get it right, and *warning* he screamed the whole time, but I had been told that he might do this and proceeded anyways. Once he was all snuggled in the blanket I was met with the most wonderful sound, silence. It truly was golden. And man could he sleep in that thing. I used it for every nap time and at night. It was awesome!
There were two things that I did not expect. First, I didn’t expect for people to be anti-swaddling. That really threw me for a loop. Both sets of grandparents (sorry Mom, but it’s true, you did!) thought it was so strange and made little comments here and there. Neither came out and said we shouldn’t do it, but still there were comments. I thought this was weird considering swaddling babies has been around pretty much since the beginning of time. But believe me, the extra sleep I was getting made it really easy to ignore the nay-sayers.
Second thing that surprised me was a little more earth shattering. When I took Noah for one of his check-ups I told the pediatrician that he had started rolling over. She immediately asked me if we were swaddling him and I of course answered yes. It was her recommendation that once a baby can roll over to stop swaddling immediately. Turns out that wiggly little babies can manage to flip themselves over while swaddled, and while it’s rare, this poses a very serious suffocation risk. Turns out the practice had lost a patient (infant) because of this within the last year. You can bet that scared the ever-living-bejeezus out of me. While I was almost as scared to quit swaddling cold-turkey, I was much more afraid of the risk it now posed. So that was it, we never swaddled Noah again. I had known that the day would come when I would have to quit swaddling him, so I had already begun to omit the blanket at nap times, but it was still an adjustment. No one got much sleep for the next week.
Why I Recommend Swaddling
Please don’t hate me for what I’m about to admit, but Noah has always been an amazing sleeper. I know, how dare I utter such words, but he has. We followed the eat, play, sleep method from about 2-3 months old and he would take great naps during the day and slept through the night really early. Obviously, I believe that I owe a lot of this in the beginning to swaddling as well. Not only did it keep him from wiggling too much and waking himself up, but it was great at soothing him by creating a womb like feeling.
We used the Miracle Blanket at night and while it was in the wash we had a couple of Swaddle Me blankets. The following is my opinion of these two blankets.
Miracle Blanket
The miracle blanket was specifically recommended and purchased for me by my sister-in-law. It is a more complex swaddle, but helped keep Noah much more contained. It has a series of flaps that tuck over arms and under the baby and then wraps around multiple times. When used properly, ie wrapped tightly, I think this is a very safe blanket. I had a few run ins with sitters not wrapping him tight enough and all the loose pieces of the blanket made me nervous. For this reason, I always instructed others not familiar with the blanket to use the other swaddle blankets we had (below).
Overall I was extremely happy with the miracle blanket. It was by far the blanket we used most often and I will definitely be using it with Bryce.
Swaddle Me
The swaddle me blanket was also given to us at a baby shower. These blankets were also very good. They were much easier to use since they only wrapped around once and had velcro fasteners. These were what sitters and grandparents etc were instructed to use. Once Noah got bigger we found that they didn’t hold him in as well, he definitely outgrew this one much faster than the miracle blanket and the velcro fasteners lost their stickiness over time.
We did use these somewhat frequently and will also continue to use them with Bryce. I haven’t examined my used blankets, I’m guessing I might have to replace some if not all of them. But, they are definitely worth replacing.
***The links above are affiliate links, if you click these links and purchase a blanket from Amazon I will receive about 50 cents, give or take a few pennies. If you purchase 50 of these I can replace one of my blankets. 🙂 I have no connection with the makers of these blankets other than that I owe them my sanity.