How to Swaddle a BabyAs a new dad one of the best skills you can learn is how to swaddle a baby. Why you ask? Simple – babies like to be swaddled. When you swaddle a baby you are simulating what they experienced in the womb, which makes them feel secure and in many cases helps them to sleep. Hopefully this is something you’ll learn in one of your child birth classes – that’s where I learned it – but if not, as always, I’m here to help. This is not as difficult as it looks or sounds as long as you follow some simple steps to do so. Like always we’ll begin with the supplies we need to swaddle a baby.
Just two basic items is all you need. So let’s get started. This is easiest to do in a place where you have lots of space, basically any floor space where you have enough room to spread out the blanket will work. Step 1: Spread out the blanket on the floor in a diamond shape so that you have a corner at the top and a corner at the bottom. Step 2: Fold the top corner down about 6 inches. Step 3: Lay the baby on the blanket so that his neck runs along the top of the corner you just folded down. Step 4: Take the right side of the blanket and wrap it around the baby and tuck underneath his back on the left side under the arm. Step 5: Take the bottom corner and pull it up and tuck the end underneath the side you just pulled over. Step 6: Take the left side and pull it over to the right and tuck the end underneath the bottom piece you just pulled up. Congratulations! You have just swaddled a baby. Now I’m sure that your baby laid completely still while you did this. Note the sarcasm. So you may need to practice this some in order to be fast enough that your baby doesn’t escape. If you have a doll that is about the same size as your baby you can practice with that. After doing this a few times though you’ll become a master swaddler and have little trouble. A few other notes before we move on. One of the things that we used on my daughter is called a swaddler. It is basically a blanket that does the thinking for you. You simply spread it out and lay the baby on it and Velcro the different sides together. We used this almost exclusively for the first 4 or 5 months while she slept. I liked this better for sleeping because it was a little more difficult for her to get out of it than a blanket and it was a lot easier to get her in it because it was much faster and easier. Hopefully you put some of these on your registry and got them as shower gifts, if not run out and pick up a couple – they should run around $10 each, and are well worth the money. Continue to How to Soothe a Baby Return Home from How to Swaddle a Baby |
