In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I was just not so great at swaddling!
Swaddling is an art.
And like any art, you just have to keep at it to get the feel for it down. Eventually your hands know more than your mind does. And that's where you want to be in the land of good-swaddling.
So,
Something I've learned is:
Don't stop swaddling just because your baby escapes every time you do it.
They aren't actually Houdini.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
(Might be the best idea to practice a lot during the day when they are tiny. That way you aren't trying to sleep during the test runs. And they won't be as strong as they will be later. Get as much practice in as early as possible!)
Also:
DOUBLE SWADDLE!!
The mental video clip played in my mind a couple months ago: A memory long since over looked.
I saw my hands unwrapping Baby Jasmine from her little swaddle-baby-burrito-blob... the one she was handed to me for the first time in. I never really took note (I was pretty out of it) that I had to take two blankets off of her. The nurses had DOUBLE SWADDLED her!!
Yeah, those ladies with massive swaddle skills, they use two! That's part of the magic!
(Why didn't they point that out to me?! And why did no one teach me how to swaddle while I was stuck in bed. :( Sad Hospital fail!)
Since I remembered this, and began double swaddling Ruby, she's been hard pressed to escape.
She can still. But it takes her waking up and really trying in order to.
I've been thinking it through, and I bet Jasmine would have been a better sleeper for us if I had actually swaddled her!
I had given up and just started using a sleep sack to keep her warm really early on.
We keep saying how much better Ruby is at sleeping, but I'm starting to wonder if Jasmine could have been just as good, if she had been cozier, all wrapped up tight.
So girls, just keep on trying, and use two blankets!
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