Daddy's little wrestlers really ARE tag teaming me!

How the heck did you guys get them in the habit of napping at the SAME TIME?????? This whole tag team thing is driving me BONKERS! They nap very little during the day as it is, for 3 monthers, and they WILL NOT nap at the same time. I try not to complain, cause (touch wood) they are sleeping really well at night, but seriously. This is nuts! Any clever suggestions?

In the same vein, sorta, I have a swaddling question. I never swaddled Owen, he detested it. DH had never even heard of swaddling til we had the girls. So, you guys are gonna have to settle a disagreement.

My DH can't swaddle with a regular blanket to save his life. So, I finally went out and bought two Miracle blankets, which he absolutley loves. (I think they're a bit of a faff on to use, but whatever works for him!) Now, I had always swaddled the girls for a scheduled morning and afternoon nap, which are about an hour apiece if I'm lucky. We also swaddle them at night every night, and since they pretty much sleep through if we dreamfeed them, they're in swaddle for about 8 or nine hours at night while sleeping. DH had never questioned this until now. I brought home these Miracle blankets, and in the instructions there are all these guidlines for how often and for what duration you should have a baby swaddled. Now he insists that I have them swaddled too long per day. I think it's fine, since it's just naps and nighttime, and they will NOT sleep at all without being swaddled. (They still have really strong Moro reflex, and are big face mashers if their hands are free, so they wake themselves up.)

It adds up to 10 or 11 hours in a 24 hours period that they are in swaddle, but the majority of that is at night. Opinions? Is this too long/too much?

 

QUOTE(Neumsy @ Mar 20 2009, 01:58 PM) [snapback]1236706[/snapback]
How the heck did you guys get them in the habit of napping at the SAME TIME??????


Hard work and routine, routine, routine. Mine napped all over the place at 3 months. I would say about the end of 4 months they were starting a predictable morning nap about 1.5 hours after they woke in the morning and then I could start getting them down at the same time.

 

Ditto Rachel on the timing of the naps. Reading HSHHC and learning their ques also helped.

I loved the Miracle blankets and often joke that they saved my sanity. Mine were swaddled for naps and night time until 6 months old. At that time it was probably close to 16 hours a day. They are fine. They actually reached a few physical milestones early. Do what works!

 

I"ve also heard that swaddling for long periods will not harm baby. Tell hubby they were like that for their first nine mo's in your belly. Also, I think the guy in "Happiest baby on the block" says something about how it doesn't interfere with developement.

 

Our babies were swaddled for at least half the day for their first 4 months of life and they are as normal as can be (as normal as children of mine would turn out...ha ha) but as for getting them to nap at the same time, it took a lot of hard work and routine like Rachel said. For us, a nap routine did not solidify until 6 months! Hang in there!

 

Our naps were still all over the place at 3 months, and really they were still that way until about 5-6 month until they started sleeping better at night. I would put them both down at the same time, but they wouldn't both necessarily sleep. I used the swings A LOT!

 

i would say swaddle to your heart's content! i expect those guidelines are put in with the MBs to protect the company's back side should anyone decide to sue them for their child's slow development one day, KWIM? or if you're really concerned, i would check with your pedi & see what they say about it.

as for scheduling, the thing that helped us the most was when we started with a consistent wake up time in the morning - it seemed to help the girls' daily pattern be more consistent & it also seemed to help them synch to each other. that being said, we didn't really have a consistent routine/schedule till closer to 5 months. GL!

 

I think if they have plenty of time to be getting tummy time and moving around during their waking time, then all their time swaddled while sleeping isn't going to hurt them a bit. One of my girls slept swaddled in her miracle blanket until sometime after 9 mo! She just didn't sleep otherwise.

 

In my opinion, you can't possibly swaddle too much if you are only doing it during sleep time. Honestly, at this age they are still SO, SO little that it's mostly about their comfort and your sanity at this point. You're not going to stunt their development. My ped told us a lot of babies need to be swaddled until 8 months of age or so. Jackson was a swaddle addict until about 8 or 9 months of age and he was the first of my boys to crawl and to walk. Jacob dropped swaddling around 6 months, and still was a bit behind developmentally compared to Jack. Good luck with the whole napping thing. I read every book out there and still, to this day, struggle with Jacob on that. *sigh*

 

we swaddled until after 6 months, so don't feel bad! We did quit the feet part... and just wrapped their arms... if we didn't swaddle their arms they would wake up. I made my blankets and when I couldn't get the swaddle to wrap all the way around I added fabric to the side so that I could wrap it around them more... I'm glad the Miracle blankets are working for you!

As for naps, it seemed for the longest time they would just be awake for only 1 hour then nap for an hour then I'd breastfeed again... I remember at 3 months reading that by 4 months they would be on a 4 hour schedule... I couldn't understand how, since we were still on a typical 2 hour schedule! ah it all worked out.

Good luck getting your schedule/routine worked out, and swaddle to your hearts content!

 

I'd say as long as you swaddle them only when they're sleeping, the swaddling is just fine, don't worry about the amount of time. Honestly, if your babes are sleeping for that long, that's WONDERFUL. Babies who get enough sleep are happier babies, and reach their milestones without a problem.