Swaddling?

starshineamator

I have a newborn (haven't had time to change the ticker)- she's 11 days old today. She really seems to like being loose and not wrapped up tightly. The pediatrician said that we need to be swaddling her, especially to sleep, so that the moro reflex doesn't wake her up and disturb her REM sleep. I've noticed that it does happen a lot at night and I'm worried about her sleep. But she really does seem to hate being swaddled and can already gets her arms/hands free. I swaddled her last night, as I was trying to get her to sleep, and she was really fussy and wouldn't settle down. I kept nursing her and she wouldn't stop nursing or let herself relax and fall asleep. Eventually, I unswaddled her to change her diaper, and as soon as she was lying down without the swaddle and was calm and quiet. My mom really thinks she just doesn't like it and we don't need to be swaddling her; but I am worried about her not getting sleep/good enough sleep and don't want that either. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks. 

oandmplus1

Some babies like to be swaddled arms out. You don't have to swaddle, if LO is sleeping fine without being swaddled, I wouldn't worry about it.

oandmplus1

Just re read your post and saw she does get woken up frequently. Maybe wait until she is really out and then swaddle?

MrsWindyCity

DS2 really doesn't like being swaddled, but I just kept swaddling him because he slept better. The first couple weeks he fussed a lot, tried to get out (succeeded on many occasions) but then he stopped. Not sure if he got used to it and liked it or just got tired of fighting me, lol.