How to Swaddle a Baby.

After reading countless books and talking to many experienced parents, the advice was clear. Learn how to swaddle a baby. So I did. Or I thought so. When you swaddle a baby, you are wrapping the baby snuggly in a blanket. At the hospital, the nurses will usually swaddle the baby with a receiving blanket. They do this when they hand you the baby for the first time, and usually they’ll swaddle the baby each time they check up on him or her. Once you’re at home, you’re on your own! You can use a swaddle blanket, or another similar blanket that will do the job.

Let me tell you, it seems simple and you can easily learn how to swaddle with a doll. But doing this to an actual baby is a totally different story. As you seen in the video below, it is fairly easy to do with a newborn. They’re usually mellow and don’t fight back too much. After a few weeks, swaddling a baby can become a chore. To make things easier on you, you must learn how to swaddle a baby, even if you plan on using swaddlers or other products that “do it for you.” You never know when you won’t have those things around.

The method of swaddling shown in the video does not include the head wrap. There’s another way to swaddle the baby in which you actually start wrapping the blanket from the head and use it as a body wrap as well as a hat. like the picture in the right.

Even though the swaddle helps the baby calm down by providing light pressure all around and simulating the womb, babies tend to squirm around a lot. So as you begin wrapping the baby from one side and you think you’re ready to move to the next side, she will squeeze one arm out and you’ll have to start over. Trust me, it takes practice.

Luckily for us, my buddy Steve gave us some swaddle blankets that are pre-made to fit the baby and help with swaddling. I’ll cover those in an upcoming blog post. So if you can get some of those, good, otherwise the blanket wrap will have to do. Shortly after Claire’s arrival, one of the nurses showed me how to do it. With some practice, you’ll become really good at it. I think I do a better job than the nurse now. Don’t get me wrong, her technique for swaddling the baby is good and in some ways, maybe even better than how I do it. I just think it ought to be a little more snug.