swaddling question

[shortcake]

I was just thinking today...DS is now 5 days old, and he's been spending most of his time all swaddled up. Is there a certain amount of time they should be out of the swaddle? It seems like he would never get to use his arms and legs like this! Or maybe when he's a little older he'll want to be out of the swaddle when he's awake (he doesn't spend a lot of time awake yet) so it will be easier to tell what to do? I can't find any guidelines on when to swaddle and when not to, and he seems so happy bundled up.

[kat]

I think our twins were swaddled 24/7 (well, except for diaper changes) for the first few weeks of their lives. I don't think there's any harm in keeping them swaddled (at least there wasn't for us). If your DS loves it, keep it up!

Oh, and eventually he will outgrow the skimpy receiving blankets. I *highly* recommend the Miracle Blanket -- my (huge!) twins are still using them at 3 months old. I know BabyCenter carries it, but I think you can also buy it direct from www.miracleblanket.com.

Congratulations!

[Kanga]

I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping him swaddled. He's obviously happy in it. We never swaddled after the hospital. For whatever reason we just couldn't figure it out once we got home (but did just fine in the hospital:confused: ) so we went without until about 3 weeks or so when she instantly would wake up after putting her down. We used the swaddle blanket made by kiddopatomous, you can get them at BRU. They were half the cost of the miracle blankets ($10 instead of $20). We now use a sleep sack and have since about 4 months.

[psusna]

We did the swaddling as part of Karp's theory and then one day, around 3 months, he started not wanting the swaddle all on his own. We would swaddle, he would immediately bust out and flip over on his tummy. He has been a tummy sleeper ever since. We didn't swaddle much during the day, but on days he was super cranky he was a burrito 24/7. After about the first month or so he wanted to be swaddled with one arm out and then at three months he decided enough was enough. We used the Kiddopatomous swaddlers as well.

[shortcake]

Thanks guys! That makes me feel better. And I definitely plan to use one of those fancy swaddle blankets when he is a little bigger. For now he can stay in the regular ones, for the most part.

[tray622]

I think it is safe to keep them wrapped up for the first month of life... they are used to it :) On the insert for the miracle blanket, it does say not to use over 10 hours. Even at 3 months we use it that and more.

[shortcake]

tray - yes I saw that on the miracle blanket insert, that's what got me thinking! But after hearing from all of you I feel pretty safe that I'm not harming him, especially this young!

[kat]

Funny - I just came back to this thread to post that after I posted before, I read the Miracle Blanket insert stuff re: not swaddling for more than 10 hours, but it looks like y'all beat me to it. :) FWIW (and that may not be much), I'm pretty sure that my DD is swaddled more than that on a daily basis and still haven't seen any ill effects.

[wildcat]

As a newborn, I think it's actually good for them, they feel safe and secure and it's a good transition for them to to the "outside" world!