Swaddling in carseat for long drive

Dani0701

We live in Long Island, NY and are visiting my Dad & step mom in Maryland tomorrow.  It usually takes about 4 1/2 - 5 hours.  We are leaving when B falls asleep so that's 7:30pm.  I wanted to swaddle him and put him in the carseat so that when we get to MD, we can't put him straight in his PNP w/o waking him.  But, (as I posted before) he does get super sweaty in his carseat.  I'm also wondering about his arms.  When he's swaddled, we put his arms straight down.  Even if we left them with his hands sticking up, 1: Will that hurt his arms with the carseat straps digging in, & 2: Is that even safe?  We use the Swaddle Me and it's made to also be used in the carseat, it has the slit in the back to slip the buckle through.  He anyone else swaddled in the carseat for long drives?  What did you do with their arms?  How'd they do?

LollyBug18

I was given a swaddle me as a hand me down and never looked up any sort of instructions for it...I thought the slit was to have "give" in the butt so it didn't rip when LO squirms in it. And I have a hard time picturing how the slit is in the right spot for the buckle to go through. Are you supposed to put the blanket in the seat, buckle LO in and then wrap them up? 

Dani0701

LollyBug18:

I was given a swaddle me as a hand me down and never looked up any sort of instructions for it...I thought the slit was to have "give" in the butt so it didn't rip when LO squirms in it. And I have a hard time picturing how the slit is in the right spot for the buckle to go through. Are you supposed to put the blanket in the seat, buckle LO in and then wrap them up? 

You swaddle them first but leave that half circle velcro flap part in the front pulled down and you put the buckle that goes in between their legs through that slit.  You buckle them up over the blanket and it gets clipped together inside the blanket through the flap.  I hope that makes sense, I'm rambling!

LollyBug18

Hmm...well my guess is that if the blanket doesn't interfere w/ how you normally buckle him in then it wouldn't hurt him or be unsafe. If it was anything thicker than what I'm familiar with, I'd be hesitant.

MommaG123

I've been wondering about this too. We are going to visit ILs in a couple of days and it is a 12 hour drive so we were thinking about doing it. FWIW we are in the process of moving 5 hours away and have made the trip several times and C has slept pretty much the whole time unswaddled each trip. In fact on the last one she slept the entire way and I actually had to wake her up when we got home to feed her.

M&M227

I would probably swaddle with arms out because I wouldn't want to mess with the straps not being in the correct spot.  I would be nervous if her arms weren't in the right spot.  I think you can look up the swaddle me instructions online.

prncsstp

Dani0701:

You swaddle them first but leave that half circle velcro flap part in the front pulled down and you put the buckle that goes in between their legs through that slit.  You buckle them up over the blanket and it gets clipped together inside the blanket through the flap.  I hope that makes sense, I'm rambling!

This is incorrect. You are supposed to lay the empty swaddle me in the carseat FIRST, then thread the buckle through the hole... THEN put LO into the carseat, strap him in, (His arms still have to go in the carseat straps). THEN wrap the swaddleme arms around him.

The way you mentioned is how you would strap LO in a swing or something that doesnt have a harness for the arms...

All that being said - my LO cannot sleep at night without his swaddlemes, but Ive been on two long road trips with him (4 hours to CT, and 7 hours to MD), and both times, he has fallen asleep on his own in the carseat without the swaddle me, and slept for the whole journey (me waking him to eat at halfpoints)

Good luck!