Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Yes shes sleeping well - but only because i swaddled her!!

72 replies

Saladeeta · 27/10/2015 21:44

This is what I want to text back in response to my lovely friend whose baby is five days old and says he doesn't like his arms being restricted!!! My first just didn't sleep my second I swaddled from the get go after advice on here and the difference was sanity saving.
Am I being ott to be so evangelical about the swaddle? Spesh the velcro one I go on and on about. I just want to save others my misery- but then I think, well maybe the second was just a good sleeper anyway?

OP posts:

BertPuttocks · 27/10/2015 22:46

None of my 4 dc liked to be restricted in their cots/beds.

Two of them still kick off their duvets during the night because they prefer not to be too covered up.

I really wouldn't send that text to your friend.

dietcokeandwine · 27/10/2015 22:52

YANBU to love swaddling if that's what worked for your DC.

YABU to assume that because it worked for your one baby it would work for every other baby in the world

None of mine liked swaddling. They were all 'arms up above the head' babies. Tbh they never really needed the swaddle to sleep well, the older two slept through 7-7 with a dream feed at 8 weeks, the youngest was my 'bad' sleeper in comparison but still did 7-7 by 7m which by mumsnet standards is probably considered good.

There are other things I did with my three that I am sure helped them to sleep well but this doesn't mean they will automatically offer a magic sleep cure for anyone else.

ilovechristmas123 · 27/10/2015 22:58

2 of my 3 loved being swaddled

i must be old when my twins were swaddled we just used a large cellular blanket none of the velcro pods or specially made swaddling blankets

steppemum · 27/10/2015 23:02

YABVVVVU

dc1 - hated hated hated being restricted in any way. Would have fought and screamed against swaddling. He slept flat on his back legs stretched out, arms above his head.
He self settled from day one, sleep like a log and slept through at 6 weeks.

dc2 - loved being swaddled, tucked up tight, naturally slept in curled up tucked up position. She woke to feed every hour through the night til she was 7 months.
At that point I did cc and in 2 nights she slept through for 12 hours.

dc 3 - wasn't bothered either way, good sleeper.

Just because swaddling worked for you, don't assume it will work for every baby. It is just one thing in an armory of things to try

Jeffreythegiraffe · 27/10/2015 23:03

I don't think perseverance is the key, I think your dc either like it or they don't. DS escaped out of a swaddle even as a newborn, and as a children's nurse I can do a good swaddle. He's currently sleeping on top of his quilt.

Worra, my dc slept like that too.

Rinceoir · 27/10/2015 23:04

My DD hated being swaddled. Always slept with arms over her head.

MrsTerryPratchett · 27/10/2015 23:05

Please in the name of all that is holy, don't give your friends 'magical' cures for their non-sleeping babies. DD didn't sleep through until she was 2 and I heard every FUCKING theory that every bloody plonker wanted to foist on me. Including swaddling. Nothing worked.

Waves of sleep deprived rage memories are washing over me.

AwfulBeryl · 27/10/2015 23:06

Ahhhhhh, my dts still sleep with their arms in the air.
Mind you so do I, I wrap mine round my head.

Witchend · 27/10/2015 23:06

Dd1 slept 12 hours every night from 8 weeks.
Dd2 didn't sleep until she was given medised at 18 months old.
Ds slept when he didn't have an ear infection which was less Tha half the time.

Guess what? They were all treated the same at bedtime.
No special secrets to getting them to sleep, simply it was them not what I did.

AwfulBeryl · 27/10/2015 23:07

Not in the air - that would be odd. Just up, up is what I meant.

AlmaMartyr · 27/10/2015 23:08

To add to what others have said; both my DCs hated swaddling. DC2 slept very well and I partly put it down to cosleeping. But I tried cosleeping with DC1 who hated it. I was always just grateful that DC2 slept tbh!

MrsJayy · 27/10/2015 23:25

Swaddiling didnt just get invented you know babies have been wrapped forever you can tell your friend you like to do it but please be gentle with her her baby is just here. Mils friend almost cocooned dd1 as a new born i freaked out dd zonked out friend was a godsend swaddiling is great for some babies not all dd2 hated it.

PastaLaFeasta · 27/10/2015 23:42

YABU - baby #1 we tried everything, it was awful, she screamed every evening for hours. Swaddling made no difference and neither did the bloody Gina Ford book which one 'friend' claimed was the magical cure and sent similar annoying messages. Because the 'magical cures' didn't work we felt like failures so don't give 'advice' just sympathy.

Baby #2 was chilled and happy, slept much better but didn't care for swaddling or slings so much. No magic cure or amazing parenting techniques, just a different baby (and a thumb sucker). Plus we relaxed and ignored stupid, if we'll meaning, advice.

WorraLiberty · 27/10/2015 23:44

Not in the air - that would be odd. Just up, up is what I meant.

My Jack Russell Terrier sleeps with all 4 paws stuck in up in the air

PastaLaFeasta · 27/10/2015 23:46

And it's perfectly normal for a five day old baby to not sleep and be unsettled. Both of mine woke nightly until over 12 months which is also perfectly normal. It's bloody hard work but going with the flow instead of fighting it is less insanity inducing.

Murloc · 27/10/2015 23:50

I wish mine had liked swaddling. I was ready, I was prepared, I'd even read a baby origami book and was prepared for all sorts of fancy blanket tricks.

Some babies just think that swaddling = attempted murder, no matter how much you persist.

Hoping that I might get a sleeper this time, although know it's not bloody likely.

UnderTheF1oorboards · 28/10/2015 00:14

YABU. DS1 slept through from the off; no training and no swaddling. DS2 hated being swaddled, hated gro-bags and now hates duvets. He wakes once per night for five minutes at 1:15am precisely, and always has done. Nothing we've done made a blind bit of difference to either of them. I suspect that's more true than many parents would care to admit.

Senpai · 28/10/2015 03:45

Mine is still swaddled and cuddled to sleep at 19 months. Then she kicks all the blankets off and flops like a little fishy in her cot until she gets comfortable. It's a bit of an odd ritual, but she sleeps through the night so I don't mess with it.

My friend's baby hated it and preferred no blankets at all and to sleep on his stomach or his mother. Every child is different.

Doublebubblebubble · 28/10/2015 04:02

I love swaddling!! My ds is 12 days old today just up for a feed and he was 12 days overdue - so I think he likes being somewhat restricted. We don't have a fancy swaddle blanket - just use a large muslin but he loves it. With my DD (6) I knew next to nothing about swaddling so didn't bother (I think I was worried about breaking her arms etc pfb syndrome lol) but she was a good sleeper anyway - she slept through at 18 days old (I dream fed her) dont know what I've done to deserve such good sleepers x

WorldsBiggestGrotbag · 28/10/2015 04:12

YABU. Both mine screamed like they were being tortured when swaddled. I tried all sorts of different ways to swaddle. They hated it. One sleeps, the other doesn't.
You do know babies have been swaddled for years and years right? It's not a new thing you've discovered. And that all babies a different?

JoandMax · 28/10/2015 04:23

DS1 wasn't swaddled, sleeps like an angel

DS2 was swaddled, still wakes up every night and musical beds in the night and he's 5.7 years.........

NerrSnerr · 28/10/2015 04:43

Surely a 5 day old wouldn't be sleeping much anyway? Swaddle or no swaddle.

Flip

1 2 3