May 31, 2008
Houdini
As I mentioned before, Anna has to be swaddled to sleep. The problem is she can eventually wriggle her arms out, and then we have to go in there and re-wrap her for her to fall back asleep soundly. I’ve been pressing David for several weeks to get a swaddling blanket. I finally insisted enough, and he sweetly stopped by Babies ‘R’ Us after work yesterday and picked one up.
It basically goes something like this:
- Insert bottom half of baby into sack.
- Wrap flaps around top half of baby and secure in place with velcro.
The reviews were promising—story after story of people whose babies would wriggle out of even the tightest swaddle and wake themselves several times during the night, just like Anna, but after they started using this blanket, they started sleeping through the night! Aha! This is the answer!
Last night was David’s night to check on her. At 3:30 he had gotten up twice with her. She had come out of the blanket. I mean completely out—legs and all.
How the heck?!?
I just hope this skill comes in handy someday. Maybe she’ll make us a lot of money in the circus.
Comments(9)
my sister swears by the miracle blanket. i think they’re about $30, but it’s the only thing that allowed her baby boy to sleep more than an hour or so at a time.
You kids don’t know how lucky you have it these days! Seven years ago, when I was dealing with the no-sleep newborn days, all we had was receiving blankets. We would wrap them as tightly as possible. Then, we could lie in our bed, watching the top of the bassinet, and within minutes see a tiny fist shoot out over the top. Then a foot. Then the other fist, and so on. It was either funny, eerie, or frustrating, depending on your mood. haha!
isn’t swaddling such a funny thing? i have heard about the miracle blanket as well. we just recommend giving the newborns a little tylenol pm before bed. that usually does the trick nicely! JUST JOKING! i will say, shane and my sister are the master swaddlers. it is very rare that our kids escape from their swaddle. also, have you found that some blankets do the trick better than others, or does anna just have really strong arms that will bust through anything?!
hmmm…sounds like a very determined young lady! sorry about but glad for her newfound strength and abilities. I’m with Anna…I think different blankets may have better swaddling potential. you know, just for fun, she may be one of those that are climbing out of their cribs at 9 months!;)
We have ONE blanket that we’ve been using for swaddling. It’s a flannel receiving blanket, but it’s super-sized—about 42 inches square—and seems to do the trick better than others (but she can still break out of it eventually). Of course I have to wash it sometimes, which is hard to do and get it dry again in her “90 minute” window!
We haven’t given up on the swaddling blanket yet, though. We’re convinced we just need to learn how to use it properly.
Boy, that “miracle blanket” is serious stuff! It doesn’t look like there’s any way they could break out of that!
Don’t give up on the swaddling blanket! It was a lifesaver in our house. My recommendation is to swaddle super tight, with arms at her sides. I thought it looked awful, but our daughter loved it and had a hard time breaking out. Practice, practice, practice. It should be worth it!
Hey Lana, good to hear from you. I looked at your blog—little Carly is beautiful! We’re starting to get the hang of the swaddling blanket. Sometimes she can still get an arm out, but she hasn’t managed to throw the whole thing off like that first night!
Hi there – we too had a little escape artist and tried the crummy swaddle me – ours could get out of it in a hot minute! finally we tried the Halo sleepsack swaddle and SUCCESS! the Halo version has a zipper that goes from the toes to the nose and detachable wings for when you don’t need to swaddle anymore. The zipper keeps them in the sack and makes diaper changing a snap! they have a TON of cute prints and it is the ONLY thing that has worked for us! good luck and congrats! oh – we have found them at TJ maxx and Kohls but i have ordered off the website too halosleep.com
[…] was intrigued by the miracle blanket Megan told me about in her comment on my “Houdini” post. You really should go there and watch the short video clip of them wrapping up a […]