swaddling questions

My baby hated my swaddle when we returned from the hospital. He seemed to like to have access to his hands.
He is now a little over two weeks old. He has been having so much trouble sleeping at night. I change him, feed him and rock him...he seems tired but then cries when I put him in his bed.
I want to try swadding again... I have a miracle blanket and halo sleep sack swaddle. Im thinking of starting with the halo tonight. What do you put on your child under the sleep sack... just a onesie undershirt? I dont want him to get too hot.
Also, do you swaddle for naps all day long or just at night?

Re: swaddling questions

It depends on the temperature in the baby's room. We usually just put on an undershirt or onesie under the swaddle since it was winter and the heat was on.

We didn't swaddle for naps, but that's b/c DS napped in his swing.

Re: swaddling questions

It depends on the room temp. I would put a light onesie on with the swaddle. When my daughter would nap I would also swaddle her. I really loved the Halo brand of swaddles. They worked well.

swaddling questions

Agree, depends on the temperature. We swaddled for naps as well as at night. We also thought DS didn't like being swaddled but the best thing we could have done was try again a few weeks after he was born!

swaddling questions

DD didn't like her arms in either. We dressed her in a onesie and socks and then used a light blanket to swaddle but usually left her arms out. DH was better at it so he would sometimes get her arms in and walk her until she fell asleep. I stunk at it so I left her arms out. We would also do a second layer with an A&A blanket so that she didn't break out so easily.

Re: swaddling questions

It depends on the whether.

Right now since it's freakin' humid out we still have our CAC on, set to 70 at night and the ceiling fan going. So we have DS in the 1 piece pj's and put him in a halo zip sack. Sometimes we'll only zip it up to his chest since he too likes to have his arms out.

Since it was cooler out we would only put him the sleeper and again only swaddle his lower half but with a blanket, not a sleepsack.

"They say", your baby should be wearing 1 more layer then you would wear. I think about the pj's i'm wearing and then realize i'm also under a down comforter and sheet. DS doesn't seem to sweat in the above.

We don't swaddle him for naps. We're also not on a napping schedule yet. He sleeps when he wants to sleep during the day.

He's 1 month this thursday.

Re: swaddling questions

I had stopped swaddling for a bit and when I started again, there was a huge sleep improvement. we then swaddled for many, many months. naps and bedtime. it was mostly wintertime, so she had a sleep & play usually on under the swaddle. it depends how warm/cool the day is, your house is, etc. also is it a cotton swaddle or the fleece ones? think of it like a blanket basically. if you were laying in his room, and were putting a blanket on you, how would you feel comfortably dressed? short sleeve onesie? short sleeve onesie with cotton pants? long sleeve onsie? etc.

Re: swaddling questions

I used to just use a onesie under the miracle blanket when the weather was warmer. Btw, for us the miracle blanket was AMAZING! I think it's the most amazing design, way better IMHO than the other things with noisy velcro.

Re: swaddling questions

Julian sleeps in just a shirt - like a onesie material but it is just a top, that snaps with two snaps in the front to close. It's like a little PJ shirt. That and his diaper. Sometimes I put socks on his feet, sometimes I don't. Then, we swaddle with a soft receiving blanket (we have a few sets from PB Kids). Then, we put him in his Halo sleep sack... we have three of those and one, same thing, from PB Kids that is very thick and soft. That's good for nights that are a little colder.

So, he's just armless in the sleep sack with his swaddle underneath and a night tee-shirt underneath that. It's great because if he has a dirty diaper during the night when he wakes to feed I can just quickly unzip, unswaddle the bottom and change his diaper because it is a shirt and not a onesie that snaps at the bottom. We have the snap at the bottom onesies for daytime. These shirts are just for night/sleep. Carter's makes them - they have them at Babies-R-Us right now actually. He had them at the hospital too - they said property of St. Catherine's on them lol but they were the same idea so we continued it once we came home.

Also, make sure that he is getting enough food (formula or breast milk) during the day - my mom warned me of this, she made this mistake with my sister. She didn't realize she really needed to graduate to more food and so she would wake up during the night more often and not go down as easily because she was hungry... then, SIL had the same problem with my nephew. I make sure that Julian is getting his fill of food during the day and I find he sleeps so much better at night and goes back to sleep much easier. Just thought I would mention that part too - hope it's helpful!

GL!!

ETA: We only swaddle at night when he sleeps, not during nap time, unless for some reason he is EXTREMELY fussy but so far I have not had that problem.

Message edited 10/7/2013 9:57:40 PM.