One of the true must-have items for new parents

A receiving blanket might work as a swaddler for, oh, maybe the first two weeks, but after that a baby will be strong enough to loosen the swaddling and startle themselves awake. That's where this comes in. With the same basic design concept as a swaddling blanket but thoughtfully placed Velcro and a leg pouch, this is a much more secure way to swaddle your baby. The designers were thoughtful in making sure that any Velcro that faces your baby is the soft loop side. There are two slight flaws, which in no way make this anything less than a lifesaver: the leg pouch that "pops down for easy diaper changes" is a nice concept but is secured by Velcro that is loud and will wake your baby up if you open it. It's also rather difficult to get the leg pouch re-secured as you're having to tuck it back under the arm wings and then line up the Velcro again. Secondly, the Velcro does wear out but for us it was right about when the baby outgrew it so not such a big deal -- just won't be hanging onto it for any future infantren. At $10 each, these are not a huge expenditure and it's definitely worth having several on hand.

[Tuesday, September 16, 2008]

A Good Swaddler, But Not The Best

My wife and I have used the Swaddle Me blanket as well as its main competitor, the Miracle Blanket.

The pros of the Swaddle Me are: it's cheaper than the Miracle Blanket, and it's less fiddly to get the baby in. This is much appreciated when you're sleep deprived, and it also makes it less likely that you'll wake up an already-sleeping baby when you put her in.

But there are tradeoffs that come with this extra convenience. The Swaddle Me is much less snug; it leaves the baby's arms free to wriggle around, and as our baby got older, we found her arms were slipping out more and more, resulting in a less effective swaddle.

Most disconcertingly, when her arms got strong enough, she was able to slip one wing of the blanket up over her shoulder, where it ended up pulled around her neck by the velcro fastening! As you can imagine, this gave us a moment of sheer parental terror. Fortunately, there was no harm done; the pressure was on her shoulder rather than her windpipe. But the incident was enough to make us stop using the Swaddle Me immediately, and switch to the Miracle Blanket.

I'm still giving the Swaddle Me 3 stars, because it did a great job in the first two months or so. And since I couldn't find any reports of a Swaddle Me actually harming a baby (and it didn't actually harm mine), I have to assume that it's perfectly safe, no matter how scary it looked when it slipped up around the shoulder and neck area.

Still, on the balance, I think it's paying a little extra for the Miracle Blanket, and taking a little extra time to get the hang of it. You'll get a more effective swaddle longer--and you won't have to worry about it slipping.

[Wednesday, August 27, 2008]

these ROCK!

There is no way I could've survived the first few months without the Swaddle Me! We had a preemie, colicky, reflux baby who would NOT sleep unless she was either being held or tightly swaddled. She kept quickly unwrapping herself if swaddled in a recieving blanket, so we bought one of these Swaddle Me blankets. We quickly went back to teh store and got another so we'd always have a clean one handy!

Once she got a little older and didn't wnat to be wraped up so tight, we graduated to the sleep sacks, as she'd pull anything loose over her face. These really are great!

[Saturday, August 23, 2008]

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