Did you swaddle? Did it work for you?

[crazychemist]

Basically as the title says. I'm looking for some advice if you swaddled about what you did, how well it worked etc.

I have one DD already (who I tried to swaddle, but who HATED it, never liked to be confined in any way and always slept like a star fish), and am expecting twins later this year. It's going to be a bit of a juggling act! They'll also be pretty tiny through winter (original due date in December, but they're going to come out earlier), so I'm hoping that swaddling at night would help to keep them warm.

If you did it and it worked well, how did you do it? A friend of mine suggested swaddling for all day naps and during the night, but I'm not sure how this works in practice. Presumably you take them out to do nappies at night, then reswaddle for feed? As newborns are so sleepy, do they basically stay in the swaddle most of the day??? (My DD seemed to be either sleeping or feeding 80% of the time, and until she was 6 weeks or so old there was no pattern to when she would stay awake for a bit after a feed)

When do you stop using the swaddle? And is it difficult to make this change if it's a strong sleep association?

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MNHQ

I’m going to take the lack of response as “no, don’t try this”!

Bumping for you!

I swaddled sporadically with my boys but mostly used it for night time.

I'm about to have number 3 and I've bought a swaddle bag to try through the days. I think it's by tommy tippee; it's like a sleeping bag but with no arm holes.

It didn't last very long as my babies are big and I moved on to using baby sleeping bags relatively quickly.

I do think swaddling in those early days helps as the startle reflex can be strong and it stops them from waking up unnecessarily.

There's lots of guidance on this online though to make sure baby is safe. Have a look at the lullaby trust website. I used an oversized muslin when I swaddled so baby didn't over heat.

My little girl (7 weeks old today) HATED being swaddled too as she is also a starfisher! However, we've been using the love to dream swaddles for the past few weeks. These are stretchy material that keep their hands up by their head and allow them to move more than standard swaddles while still preventing the startle reflex. They unzip from the top and the bottom so when doing nappy changes, you leave their top half zipped up and just unzip the bottom half to get to the nappy. They've been a game changer for us!

I have 3 kids.

DC1 was 2 weeks late a huge. he was very long in the body and when he was born, he basically stretched himself out, flung his arms to either side and rejoiced in not being squashed. That is how he slept until he could roll over, flat on his back, 4 limbs spread out. he hated being wrapped/swaddled. But he was also really calm, laid back and good sleeper (he also got a flat head)

DC2, was early and had that newborn curled up look. She loved being snuggled and swaddled. It worked a treat for her.

DC3 was neither one nor the other. Happy to be tucked up sometimes and wriggled out at others.

Just so dependent on the baby!

I swaddled both mine in nice blankets. Ds loved it and from the time he could move, would sleep anywhere if he had one of the blankets (still the case age 11...)

Dd liked it until about 3 months when she turned into wriggly starfish monster who would escape and give me a black eye in the night. And is still pretty similar years later.

I swaddled my oldest two if they were unsettled without. Used stretchy waffle weave receiving blankets. That way they could still wiggle about a bit, just not startle themselves or smack themselves in the head.

I swaddled my eldest sporadically but she was a good sleeper and it didn't really make much difference. My youngest loved it. I mostly used it for night sleep and only stopped around 6 months because I was worried she'd start rolling. She's now 11 months, still hasn't rolled and also hasn't slept the night through since I stopped swaddling 🙈

My DD was born at 35 weeks and was swaddled by the nursing staff as soon as she came out of SCBU and onto the ward with me. They swaddled her in a blanket, which is what I continued to do, and she loved it. I'm convinced it helped her have a more restful sleep as she wasn't able to wake herself up through wiggling. Like the previous poster, we stopped at around 6 months before she started to roll, and when she moved from moses basket to cot bed. She's in sleeping bags now and still sleeps really well.

Good luck with your babies.

We swaddled DD starting pretty early on for naps and bed. We had swaddles we jokingly called “the straitjacket because they had Velcro. Little Houdini did eventually manage to get out and got too big to fit in those (think they were Ergobaby) so we swapped to a kind with a zipper. We swaddled until about 5 1/2 months. DD started sleeping through around 10 weeks. I was terrified not swaddling her would stop her sleeping and got a special one where she could stick one arm out to “transition”... worked up the courage for weeks... and it literally made zero difference to her sleep. Still sleeps through!!

I swaddled all mine, it definitely helped them sleep. I can imagine some babies hate it though. I used muslins, flanellette wraps, waffle blankets etc, depending on the season.

In Australia swaddling seems to be very much the norm. All babies are swaddled in hospital by midwives and they teach the mums how to do it. All my mothers group seemed to swaddle their babies for sleep.

It certainly helped DS2 to sleep soundly. I preferred the love to dream swaddles with the zips just for ease of use. We didn't have any issues transitioning out of swaddling once he could roll himself.

I tried swaddling my newborn son with a posh expensive swaddle we were told was a great to buy when I was pregnant, he screamed blue murder so that was a great waste of money.

Never tried again

Another swaddler here 🙋🏽‍♀️ Worked a treat! We only ever did the arms not the legs as well. It worked brilliantly on first born who had a very strong startle reflex and would constantly wake himself up. When he started rolling we stopped it. x

Swaddled all of ours under hospital instructions. Last two are twins and have recently transitioned into love to dream swaddle bags where you remove the arms when ready, genius! They are four months.