To Swaddle or Not To Swaddle -- That Is The Question! Today was another glorious day on the California ‘Central Coast’. Back to the task of grandmothering after a day off. Decided to just let the day unfold without my usual list of what I’d like to do with Carson and accomplish for Meghan. Carson and I shopped for Halloween decorations after I put a roast with vegetables in the slow cooker for dinner. I just love the smell of dinner cooking all day long! We got spiders and spider webs and pumpkin lights and a pumpkin milk cup and had a grand time in Target. Then back home to allow Meghan to nap and get some fresh air and alone time. It’s so important to feed yourself emotionally after childbirth if you possibly can and oftentimes that ‘feeding’ comes in the form of quiet time just for you. I’m so happy to be able to provide her with little snippits of time for herself. Well -- today Cooper is 4 weeks old and he seems to be ‘waking up’. Less sleeping, more awake time, more smiling (meaning not only when he’s sleeping), some tracking (with his eyes, not his feet!), more fussiness and perhaps a hint of colic. Did you know that nowadays they swaddle babies? Swaddle …. Sounds a lot like cuddle, doesn’t it? Well think again. Unless you think that cuddling includes restraining all movement except that of your head. I think we would have been arrested or perhaps just tarred and feathered (we were more reactive and less tolerant) 35 years ago, when my children were infants because swaddling is just a sweet sounding word for a straightjacket. If you haven’t seen one before I’ll describe the ‘easy’ swaddle for you the best I can. You begin with a triangular blanket of sorts with a pocket or pouch on the bottom. It looks somewhat like a triangle. You lay the crying (usually screaming) baby on the swaddle and place their legs (yes, both of them) in the pouch. Then you tuck their arms into the pouch and wrap one side across the babies chest (there is a lot of Velco in a swaddle) … fairly tightly. Pull, wrap and Velcro. You don’t want the little bugger to be able to free their arms. Then you do the same on the other side, while keeping that opposing arm down and immobile as well. Once again, pull, wrap, Velcro. I couldn’t warp my head around it but when Meghan and Craig did it to Cooper while I was cringing internally, he instantaneously quieted and relaxed. It was almost as though he was doing deep breathing and meditation! Even before the swaddling was complete! It was as though he knew it was good for him. He felt safe and secure with that type of containment and restraint. I knew they had similar contraptions for dogs to relieve their anxiety (tight chest wraps) but I couldn’t imagine them truly being used on infants. Day by day I’m being brought up to the 21st century. Some of the things I like and some I don’t. I’ve said before that I was born a century too late and I still feel it to be the case. But I’m here, now, and I plan to continue to enjoy to the utmost each and every moment of each and every day. Even if I’m not up to speed on many of the 21st ‘centurisms.’ I haven’t been living under a rock, not at all, there are just apparently many things that I’ve chosen to ignore More is not necessarily progress and not necessarily better. And on that note I bid you a Bon Nuit … Guten nacht …Lilah Tov …Dobranoc …Buenas Noches … and Bonan Nokton. And remember … swaddle only when necessary! “You cant stop the future You cant rewind the past The only way to learn the secret ...is to press play.” ~ Jay Asher .... AND .... “Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” ~ J.D. Salinger
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 05:51:03 +0000
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