Lora, my friend from college is also expecting. She's 3 months ahead of me and expected to deliver on the last week of November. She's been practicing how to swaddle a teddy bear...I mean, a baby. :-)
So, I asked myself, do I have to learn how to do that, too? So, I searched baby swaddling videos on YouTube. I found out that there are several ways of wrapping a baby and that swaddling is really effective in calming a fussy infant. This is because it mimics the warm, tight and secure feeling they used to have in the womb.
Here's a funny baby swaddling video. I think it's funny because the baby's wrapped twice. One comment even said that the infant looked like he's ready to be sent to the courier..haha! But, the amazing thing is, the baby calmed down after. I think, this style of swaddling is best used if you're living in a country with extremely cold climate.
Here is another video of a father swaddling his adorable baby girl. Here, he used a much simpler technique and made use of just one swaddling blanket.
Swaddling, however, should be done properly and with care to prevent baby from developing hip dysplasia. This is a condition wherein the joints are loosened and the hip sockets' soft cartilage are damaged by wrapping the baby's legs too tightly in a straight down position. To avoid this from happening, one should make sure that the legs are able to move and bend up and down by leaving enough space at the bottom of the blanket.
Here is a final video on how to correctly swaddle a baby in a hip-healthy way.
Now, that I have an idea on how to correctly swaddle a baby and how effective it is in calming and helping him sleep through the night, it's time to practice! But first, gotta shop for cute swaddling blankets. :-)
