What has worked WONDERS for me and L...
The Baby Taco
Some call it swaddling...the burrito....taco is just more fun to say!
In my minds eye, I will forever see Bonnie, my birthing nurse, as a saintly wonder women (complete with a heavenly glow, but that might have been from crazy labor and 3 epidurals). Amazing what a shower can do for an hour old mom...and she caringly helped through my time of GREAT need. And THEN she handed me my bundle of joy in this perfect receiving blanketed package that was....perfect.
While I could never come close to swaddling with her skill, I kept trying our first few days at home and found my own way. I'm sure it's not for every baby, but Linnea would fall right to sleep. So, late night feedings, even when she was just a few weeks old, lasted around a half hour for diaper change, bottle, and taco. This really helped save time during the few months I pumped after each feeding.
A simple, inexpensive thermal blanket works the best. (Thanks, Em) It has a lot of give so you can get a snug wrap, but thin and cotton so baby doesn't need another bath in the morning after sweating all night long. Receiving blankets are only good for about a month before babe is too big.
The technique: Fold blanket into a triangle, pointing at feet. Place baby in middle so shoulders are just below top. Fold right point over baby and tuck as far under baby's left arm and back as possible. The trick here is to keep flailing baby arms at sides. Don't despair....that's the hardest part to conquer....just keep trying! Now repeat with left point. Forget about trying to do anything with the bottom point of blanket. Baby will only kick it off 5 minutes later.
L is almost 7 months old and can easily wiggle free off her taco, but when the moment is right, drifts quickly off...and I then I have time to check out my favorite blogs!
4 comments:
We swaddled our girlie until she was about six months old. At that point, she was strong enough to wiggle out immediately, so we stopped.
And I always thought she looked like an ear of corn. Wearing a yellow onesie, wrapped in a green blanket - all she needed was a little yellow hat with tassles. :-)
We swaddled Caleb for the first couple months. He has always been so active, though, that I cannot even imagine trying to swaddle him now. Even when he was newborn, he would not let us swaddle his arms. He would either wriggle it free immediately (no matter how tight we wrapped him) or he would get very agitated.
It was great while it lasted, though. One night he was particularly fussy, and we finally remembered, oh yeah, he hasn't been swaddled all day!
I still do that to myself even with blankets. Looks so comfy and sweet!
I love swaddling ... My husband seems to think he is King of Burrito Wrapping the kids lol.. I have a 6 month old baby girl, but she doesn't like being wrapped up anymore :( Your baby is a doll!!!
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