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Challenge: Bringing Home Baby: What Do You Wish You’d Known?

You WILL cry all the time....and for me it started with swaddling

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I have a vivid memory of watching a nurse swaddle my newborn son in the hospital and my mind was blown. WHY IS SHE MANHANDLING MY BABY LIKE THAT…WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO ACQUIRE THESE SKILLS…OH MY GOD IS SHE HURTING HIM….THANK YOU JESUS HE STOPPED CRYING…CAN SHE COME HOME WITH ME PERMANENTLY …TEACH ME.

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My thoughts were all over the place. Up until that point, I had never in my life given even a second’s thought to what it meant to swaddle a baby or how you do it. Yes, I always saw those ubiquitous blue, pink and white blankets wrapped snuggly around newborns…but I didn’t realize the origami magic that went into those bundles. But when I saw this nurse calm my fussy newborn almost instantly, I knew I needed to learn what she just did.

I mean…how hard could this be? Well, for me...swaddling was hard. (I know what you are thinking...SERIOUSLY???) You know how you have that MacGyver friend who can fix a popped button with a piece of gum and an earring back and not even think twice ( I have a friend who did that for me once while we were out and to this day she is at Messiah status in my book)...well that's the gene that I am missing...and I swear that gene either makes you a natural born swaddler...or not. I am firmly in the NOT camp. Swaddling my infant took a lot of practice for me. And my husband was a natural (of course he was...) Isn’t it terrible that not even two hours into being a mom, I had a slight feeling of inadequacy because apparently I wasn’t a natural-born swaddler. Thankfully it was only fleeting but I felt like someone was tapping me on the shoulder saying welcome to motherhood.

You will be glad to know, I did get better but it was definitely one of those things where every time I started a swaddle I was amazed at myself when it actually worked. I always felt like giving myself a selfie high-five. And if he stopped crying after I swaddled him? FORGET about it. Bust out the champagne. Yet, no matter how many time I did it, I just never felt like I was a pro at it. I even bought those blankets that were essentially prepackaged swaddles… I called them swaddles for dummies…but I still felt like I could get a better fit using a light weight muslin blanket. My son loved the swaddle and it really was a go-to pacifier for us in those early stages of infantdom but I was thrilled when we were finally able to graduate to a sleep sack.

And because I remember tearfully searching for a SHORT VIDEO on how to swaddle when I was in the throes of new mommyhood and repeatedly coming up short...I decided to make one. The video does require a bit of visual homework as my 18-month-old "baby" is well past the swaddle phase...so I am swaddling a stuffed dog. Happy swaddling moms!

HOW TO SWADDLE YOUR BABY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9sD4TBAsH4

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