SuperWife and I have for some time been engaged in low intensity, guerilla warfare over the use of the so-called "miracle blanket."
Number One at times seems to hate the thing, which works like a baby straightjacket, but she can't seem to fall asleep without it.
I'm constantly taking her out of the thing, which infuriates SuperWife, who immediately re-wraps the kid.
"She can't fall asleep without it!" she says.
"I know she can't fall asleep without it," I say. "That's the problem."
Last weekend the swaddling debate blew up like Basra. Number One woke up 4 times Saturday night, and by Sunday afternoon it was like Sunni and Shia up in our house. SuperWife couldn't take it anymore:
"Swaddling is tearing this family apart!"
2 comments:
Why take her out of it? If she's sleeping, then it must be soothing her. Is it because you think it's too tight? She spent a long time in a womb - that's pretty tight quarters. Do you somehow think that it was cruel to keep her in that tight womb for so long? Do you think she'll be somehow "addicted" to it? It's not like she's going to go to college still needing to be swaddled. She'll spend this time learning good sleep habits and then not need it anymore because she'll have learned how to sleep while most babies were learning that if they scream enough then their parents come and pay more attention to them. I'm a doula who has helped hundreds of parents with their babies, and I would never wish a Miracle Blanket-free existence on any of them. At about four months she won't need it anymore. And at that point, even if she cries without it, it will only take about three days to get her used to sleeping without it. Your wife is definitely right on this one.
Sometimes guys just can't admit when they're wrong, eh? I am a guy and I have to eat humble pie sometimes too. Number one needs sleep as much as food. If it helps, use it. There are stacks of research proving that swaddling is beneficial ... poor kid.
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