Well, it really is no secret. Many mom's today swaddle their babies, there are books about it and nurses show you how to do it in the hospital. However, we were slow learners. (For those who don't know, swaddling is just a way to wrap babies in a blanket so they are snug - making them feel safe and secure)
When we first brought Brody home, we swaddled him properly with his arms wrapped up. He began to fight us on this and really liked to have his arms free. He looked adorable sleeping with his arms above his head, so we swaddled him leaving his arms out instead. He was sleeping great in his newborn napper since it was small and kept him snug. Then, he outgrew the napper. So we moved him to the bigger part of his pack n play. We went back to waking up every 3 hours.
Then I decided to begin swaddling his arms down again. His sleep stretches increased. All of a sudden, one night I woke up after 8 hours, shocked. He was still sleeping! He was still wrapped up tightly sleeping away. (Picture quality isn't great, it was my dark & on my camera phone)
The next night, he woke up after only 4 hours. I checked in on him and found him like this:
My little houdini escaped his swaddle. After about a week of long sleep stretches when he was swaddled, and shorter sleep stretches when his hands escaped, we looked for another solution. We went shopping and bought a swaddle blanket that velcros closed so our little escape artist would stay snug all night long.
So far...it appears to be helping. He even slept for 9 hours two nights in a row!
Now, I will add that all babies are different and we're lucky to have a good sleeper. We're just finding the combination that works well for him. Aside from the swaddle, the temperature and humidity also seem to affect his sleeping.
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