Whiny Wednesday: The Easiest Swaddle
Soooo…I’m rolling along, mamas. On little sleep, of course, and half a brain, BUT…we have a post today! This week I met up with all the new mamas from our natural childbirth class for dinner at a fav restaurant and it was so much fun to get out and to show off baby L in her lil’ pink and green outfit, complete with animal-print UGGs (oh, too much!!). And since little C. had his very first soccer practice (of which I dashed to see the beginning and then off to the restaurant), D. couldn’t join me and I found myself on a mini vacay with the newborn. No, really. Sometimes hanging out with just me and baby L. can be rather relaxing minus the hustle and bustle of two. I mean, what was I thinking complaining about one measly baby the first time around. Pssssh.
So now to some friendly mama advice. Swaddle your baby! I’m a huge fan of Dr. Harvey Karp who uses the 5 S’s to teach us parents the art of calming a baby. He claims it’s so easy if you use his method, and gosh darn he’s pretty right. We now own his white noise CD and use it every, single day when baby L gets slightly frantic, which thankfully isn’t too much. But one of his tried and true calming methods is the swaddle, and it totally works. For both of my babies, anyway. I find that after baby L. has been awake for a little while, she always wants to go back to the swaddle. And, of course, she naps and sleeps at night in one.
HALO is an excellent brand and we own a couple, one of them being the cream organic cotton one sent to us for baby L. It’s very soft compared to non-organic versions, so I love that. It only comes in a newborn size, and I plan to use it daily for the next couple of months, if I can. The HALO Sleepsack Swaddle is used in 1,000 hospital nurseries and has been deemed “hip healthy” by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. For me, the HALO is amazing because I’m just not great at swaddling with an old-fashioned blanket. I mean, its doable, but it’s not easy. Let’s just say swaddling doesn’t come natural to me…I’m swaddle challenged, in fact (I think it’s a guy thing, honestly, because D. can just whip that blanket around her like nobody’s business!). The HALO is super easy because you just zip the baby in it, then pull the two sides around the baby’s body. And it fastens with Velcro. Baby L. still likes to wiggle her lil’ arms up towards the top if she can, and I’ve found that’s ok. She likes to sleep like that, so I let her. As long as her arms are contained inside the swaddle, we’re good. Bye bye startle reflex.
That’s the thing with babies. They’re all different, and somehow, some way, us mamas just figure it out. Nobody said it was easy, but having amazing products like this one at the ready makes being a new mama sooooo much easier, and I’m thankful for companies like this who are always innovating and making our lives easier. So that maybe, just maybe, we can get some shut eye. Hey, I said some. 😉
[Photo via HALO]