do you swaddle arms tight?

bootcampbride

My LO always has her hands up near her face -even minutes after being born - in the operating room she was sucking her fist.  It seems like that is how she was positioned in utero. We swaddle her at night but tend to leave her hands free because it seems mean to pin them down.  Do you think that she would be more rested if we swaddled her tighter (as in the happiest baby on the block would suggest?)

bedebum13

One night we didn't swaddle LO's arms and she barely slept.  She sleeps much better when we do swaddle her arms. 

vajen

We swaddle with arms down.  But I will say, this works great for her first stretch of sleep.  She wakes up to eat and generallly goes right back down.  However, after her second feeding (when she's generally more awake), having her arms swaddled really seems to irritate her more than anything.  In fact, she was grunting and squirming so much after her second feeding this morning that I unswaddled her arms and THEN she fell asleep.  So who knows?  I guess it works well when she's really tired but not so much when she's less tired?  It's still a work in progress!

Tina562

This sounds exactly like my LO! When we don't swaddle her she scares herself in her sleep and wakes herself up! We swaddle her, at first she struggles then just goes to sleep fine :-)

m_wilder

Since DD was about a week old we started to swaddle with arms out.  DD sleeps with her arms up (like she's a criminal and you told her to freeze and put her hands up) or out like she's a T.  Very rarely are her arms down.  When we try to put her arms in, she wiggles and fights it, so we don't. 

l_elizabeth

Our LO loves his arms/hands up by his face and that's how he was at birth too. We swaddle his arms down because if we don't he will wake himself up all night long. My husband always laughs and says "someone should tell Baron's hands that his body is trying to sleep."

It kind of makes me feel bad to swaddle them down, but it works. 

lindsaynjason

It seems that our LOs might be related   On our 3D/4D ultrasound, the tech couldn't get her to move her hands away from her face.  She sleeps with her arms over her head when she's totally out.  I swaddled for a couple of weeks, but she kept breaking the swaddle and began to fight it.  After that, I just swaddled her lower half before moving on to a Halo sleep sack.  She sleeps just fine.  Halo makes a sleepsack with a swaddle attachment that you could try...

jmlushbough

Jack always had his hands by his face in utero, too. If we don't swaddle him he will always wake himself up either by clawing his face or by having a "startle" reflex. The problem is that he's such a big boy that we don't really have any blankets big enough to keep him swaddled -- he always escaped.

Recently I've tried the "escape proof" swaddle (search for it on YouTube). The first time we did it he fussed for about three minutes and then fell asleep. Since then, he's gone right to sleep as soon as the outer blanket is tight. It's a miracle! He sleeps longer and is happier overall.

Don't feel bad about swaddling your LO. Think about how nice it feels to get a big tight hug. That's what you're doing for her!

erin1205

m_wilder:

Since DD was about a week old we started to swaddle with arms out.  DD sleeps with her arms up (like she's a criminal and you told her to freeze and put her hands up) or out like she's a T.  Very rarely are her arms down.  When we try to put her arms in, she wiggles and fights it, so we don't. 

Same for us.  I tried once to swaddle with arms down and he was up forever fighting it.  Arms out and he crashes! 

yourmomwreckedmybike

We do th Australian Swaddle. Charlie won't sleep if his arms are tight by his sides. With the Aussie swaddle his arms are up by his face and he can move them a bit

emmielou83

yourmomwreckedmybike:

We do th Australian Swaddle. Charlie won't sleep if his arms are tight by his sides. With the Aussie swaddle his arms are up by his face and he can move them a bit

 OOh, neat.  Is there a tutorial for this?

yourmomwreckedmybike

They explain how to do the Aussie swaddle on this website and there's pictures too .... https://www.bugnbelle.com/how_to_swaddle.html

smittendorff

It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.  My LO sleeps in a Halo sleepsack swaddle every night, and without the swaddle, probably would prefer to have his hands up on each side of his head just like his big brother, but the Halo swaddles keep him wrapped nice and tight, and he sleeps well that way.  It you buy one, try the Halo ones.  They are designed as 2-in-1, with the swaddle part being removable with velcro, so you'd have the flexibility of using just the sleepsack part if she still didn't want to be swaddled.