Tuesday 26 March 2013

On the lost art of swaddling...

My little glow worm!
It's been done for thousands of years, by thousands of different people groups across the world, and its becoming a lost art. I am the HUGEST fan of swaddling babies... both my girls have been swaddled - Ava was swaddled until she was about 4 months, and Heidi is being well and truly wrapped up these days.

Like every "parenting issue", swaddling is surrounded by a lot of debate (just look at the whole breast vs bottle, cot vs co-sleeping, on the back vs on the side vs on the front sleeping), but I'm loathe to believe that after thousands of years of effective swaddling, the "form of restraint" that its critics refer to is really enough to override the TONNE of advantages that swaddling has!

Both my girls are good sleepers (so far!) but BOTH of them had horrendous second nights... they were both born in the evening, so slept well their first night in the big, wide world, but the second night was killer. Endless feeding, constant crying and me feeling wrecked and tired and hopeless.

On both occasions, a wonderful midwife has come in and swaddled 'em up, laid them down and they've gone straight to sleep... feeling secure and warm and unable to wake themselves with that startle reflex that proves a nightmare in the first couple of months!

It's fiddly, til you get the hang of it, and my girls have both fought it at first (sometimes I still hear Heidi grunting away when I put her down to sleep, trying to get her little arms out) but BOY is it worth it... they feel safe and snug and secure, they sleep well, and its the next best thing to being snuggly held in Mama's arms.


I told you I was a fan!

All wrapped up!

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1 comment:

  1. We swaddled and never had a really bad nights sleep.

    ReplyDelete

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