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Wrapping to Sleep

At five weeks old, Annabelle’s sleep routine is not yet predictable.  We have better nights and less better ones.   The biggest problem I’ve encountered is that after waking up to nurse, she sometimes doesn’t fall asleep again!

At times like these, I discovered that the one sure way to lull her to sleep, is to wrap her on my front and bounce on the birth ball pretty actively.  If I keep it up for a good ten minutes she’ll be sound enough asleep to stay sleeping when I put her down in our bed.

While I’m VERY grateful to have this tool that works such a charm, getting up to wrap and bounce is a bit more of a disruption to my sleep routine than I care for!  It would be great as a technique to put her to sleep at the beginning of the night, but that has not been necessary (she usually nurses to sleep while we watch a movie before bed).

Well, someone introduced me to the concept of swaddling and I instantly saw that a good wrap job is similar to a swaddle in that it surrounds the baby’s body with fabric, holds the baby tightly, keeps the baby’s limbs from thrashing around, and emulates the womb-environment.  So it makes sense that they would have a similar calming and lulling effect.

Last night I swaddled Annabelle in a Miracle Blanket (loaned to me by my wonderful friend Evelyn) and she slept VERY well.  When she woke up I was able to pull her legs out of the pocket in the swaddling blanket so that she could pee in the potty.  Then I pulled the pocket back around her and nursed.  When I lay her down, she went right back to sleep–awesome!

Annabelle swaddled, 5 weeks old

And wrapping to sleep . . . is still great for daytime!  It’s wonderful to have other ways to parent Annabelle to sleep.  Wrapping is a great way for fathers to provide comfort too.

Tags: newborn wrapping