Swaddling newborns

[jgenie]

If you swaddled your newborns, did you swaddle all day or just for sleeping at night? I've been swaddling DS2 at night only, but I'm wondering if I should swaddle during the day as well. TIA

[TwinFoxes]

We swaddled them during the day. The NICU staff did it, so we just kept doing it. Not ALL day of course. But our girls had a really strong startle reflex. They were happy swaddled.

[scrooks]

We actually just swaddled at night. During the day my kids tended to nap in their bouncy seat or swing when they were really small.

[lchang25000]

I swaddled DS both day and night for about 1.5 months until we got the swing.

[Naranjadia]

We did it day and night, with breaks during the day that got longer and longer. We swaddled until 4 months.

[Raidra]

Mainly we just swaddled for naps and bedtime. But Fiona in particular sometimes needed to be swaddled when she was awake.. if she was fussy and not hungry/wet/etc, swaddling usually calmed her right down and she would have a nice calm alert period.

[nov04]

We did it day and night, with breaks during the day that got longer and longer. We swaddled until 4 months.

That's pretty much us for both. But with dd2, she was hospitalized with a uti at 6m and we had to start the process again at night and finally she stopped needing it at 1y.

[elektra]

We did it during the day too.

[citymama]

Swaddled day and night as a newborn, just as they did in the hospital. As she got older, we swaddled just for nap time and bed time at night. We swaddled until 5 months, when the summer heat didn't permit it any more!

[maestramommy]

We swaddled for all sleep times, including during the day. At least for the first two. :p

[crl]

Can I interrupt with a follow-up question? How do you dress a swaddled newborn? Cotton sleeper then swaddle? Is that warm enough? Assuming an indoor setting--oh, say 68 to 70 degrees. Or do you do a fleece sleeper? Or another layer somehow? I can't quite figure out how I'm going to get the temperature right. . . .

Catherine

[codex57]

All day, but that's cuz they sleep all day.

We really only swaddled DS. SHoulda swaddled DD. THey seem to sleep longer if swaddled. :)

[AnnieW625]

We swaddled at night and during nap time till around the time DD was 2/1/2 mos. old. We switched to a sleep sack then and used that for a couple of months. I think I stopped both because of the weather in the late summer too. We'd keep DD in a onesie and maybe some light sweat pants for the most part during the day, but during nap/nighttime it was just the onesie and the swaddling blanket. We cheated with swaddling we used the Kiddopotamus fleece blankets as I liked them better than the flannel ones, I could get it a little tighter and DD wouldn't kick out of it.

[sunshine873]

We swaddled day & night until about 6 months with a regular sleeper underneath. But she's a preemie, so she didn't get a chance to develop her core muscles in the womb...the swaddling helps a lot with that. At about 7 months she started busting out of the nap/nighttime swaddle. Shortly after that we moved to a sleep sack. What she wears underneath depends on how cold her room is. This time of year, it's cold...so I usually put a fleece footed-pj underneath.

[Raidra]

Can I interrupt with a follow-up question? How do you dress a swaddled newborn? Cotton sleeper then swaddle? Is that warm enough? Assuming an indoor setting--oh, say 68 to 70 degrees. Or do you do a fleece sleeper? Or another layer somehow? I can't quite figure out how I'm going to get the temperature right. . . .

Catherine

It depends on the time of year for us, since we don't have central air. In the summer, I'd swaddle with a light blanket over a onesie, or sometimes just leave the baby in a diaper. In the winter, when we had the heat set in the 60's, we'd use either a light blanket and warmer jammies, or a fleece blanket with light cotton jammies.

[arivecchi]

Both of my kids were winter babies so we swaddled them day and night for the first month or so. After that, they spent more and more time unswaddled in the swing, baby carrier, etc. We swaddled DS1 till 4 months and DS2 only for like 3 weeks as he did not like to be swaddled much.