Should I Stop Swaddling?

The Woombie seemed like a miracle invention. Until I tried it out.

Fuzz is just about four months old. He's technically out of the fourth trimester and therefore supposedly less needy of the swaddle, but I still think he responds well to having the Miracle Blanket wrapped around him at night. He still has a bit of that Moro reflex and if he's not swaddled, he flails his arms and bonks himself in the face, which wakes him up. The problem is, he is getting a tad large for the Miracle Blanket. He can't really stretch out his legs anymore, unless I swaddle just his arms, which is fine except then it's really just a straight jacket.

A while back, BFY's Katie posted about a product that I thought looked AWESOME…It's called the Woombie and it's like a baby sack of potatoes with a head. It has a zipper and a velcro top so the baby simply cannot get the arms out. It has a little bit of stretch to it too, which I thought would be good. I purchased the "Big Baby" version and tested it out.


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Fuzz fell asleep in it fine. Then, he woke up and tried to get his arms out. He could not. Instead of this being a good thing, it turned out to be a bad thing and he became very very angry. Everyone always complains that their baby is a Houdini who can get out of the swaddle, but it turns out, if they can't it doesn't mean they will miraculously fall back asleep. Also, the fact that it's stretchy makes it easier for him to get his arms to the top, only to be frustrated by the fact that he can't go any farther. I came into the room to see him red faced and mad-crying with his little fat arms stuffed up as high as they would go.

Head to Baby's First Year to find out if Naomi got Baby Fuzz to adjust to the Woombie and to join the conversation yourself: When did you stop swaddling?


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