Swaddling new babies seems to be quite popular lately. I was given a few swaddlers as hand-me-downs, for showers, and even got a couple from the hospital. My twins were both swaddled the whole time in the hospital, but I didn't really plan on swaddling them for very long. Caroline really liked it though, and she seemed to sleep much better when she was swaddled up tight. Charlie did not like it, so he slept without one. Then when he was about six weeks old and he was crying uncontrollably and could not be soothed, I went through the list. Clean diaper, check. Fed, check. Grip water, check. Still crying and not wanting to sleep. So I decided to try swaddling. He was sawing logs within 30 seconds of being swaddled and placed in his crib. So from that time on, he was swaddled to. They both spent nearly every nap and night-time in their swaddlers. And they slept fantastically. It even got to the point where I would swaddle them when they were going in their car seats because they would sleep so much better (there were holes in the swaddler so I could still buckle them in fully - they were not going anywhere). We swaddled them both until they were about 4 months old. We stopped because Charlie started rolling over in his sleep, still swaddled. And being swaddled when you're on your tummy does not seem safe. Or comfortable.
We stopped cold-turkey. It was miserable. I thought Charlie would have the hardest time because he seemed to be the most dependent on it. But he did great. The day we stopped he went right down for naps and had no problems. Caroline, on the other hand.. She did not adjust well. I think that first day she probably cried for about 6 hours. Not even kidding. I finally put her in the car to take her to the store with me because she ALWAYS falls asleep in the car. Always. But this time she didn't. She sat there in her car seat the entire time with eyes red and teary as could be. So over-tired that she just couldn't relax enough to fall asleep. Poor girl! The next day was still rough, but significantly better, and by day 3 we were rid of swaddling all together. It was such a huge relief. I'd been trying to stop swaddling for quite a while but hadn't figured out quite how to do it. It was hard, but cold-turkey worked well for us. (Where does that term even come from? Cold turkey?? Weird.)
Even though swaddling did help the twins sleep better when they were little, there were some bad things about it too. It became quite stressful having them break out of their swaddlers and wake themselves up, not be able to nap anywhere unless they had a swaddle with them, unswaddling/reswaddling to change diapers in the middle of the night, constantly worrying about them rolling over.. and you never get to see their darling little jammies! Also I've heard recently that improper swaddling can lead to hip problems. You can read about that here. So my opinion - there are good things that came from swaddling. It worked miracles on Charlie's sleeping when he was so small. But I don't think I will swaddle my next child.
My personal opinion is that each child is so different. My first loved to be swaddled. My second did not. We usually put a rolled up receiving blanket on each side to keep them in place. And it has been almost 6 years since my first, who did like swaddling, so I don't even remember the transition out of swaddling. I honestly have no idea what we plan on doing with the twins.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for you. Did you have them in the same crib to start with? I talked to a twin mama who is the receptionist at my midwife clinic. She said she had hers in the same crib for the first 7-8 months. She felt it helped them to sleep better because they were together. I would love to hear your thoughts!
I occasionally put them together in the same bassinet or crib when they were really little. But I was a little nervous to put them together too much since I had heard some scary stories of accidents happening when they were in the same bed. And mine wiggled a ton from the time they were tiny, so they didn't do real well together. (Though when they were tiny and I put them together, they would wiggle from opposite sides of the bed and meet right in the middle where they would sleep right next to eachother. So cute!)
DeleteSo after they were about six weeks old I stopped putting them together. That's just what worked for us!
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