I learned the magic of a good, tight swaddle when my first was days old, already spending most of his hours screaming. He was not an easy baby, and I was desperate for any kind of magical solution that would help him calm down. This was way back in 2008, and I kept reading all these amazing reviews for the Miracle Blanket. I learned how to swaddle with a basic swaddling blanket in our Bradley Method class, but I NEEDED a “miracle”.
Contributor Suzanne is back with LOADS of ovary-bursting pics of baby Linc. You’ve. Been. Warned. And also! A sweet giveaway from a fantastic company that makes a really exciting product. Read on for more details….
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Ever since he was born, it was pretty clear Linc was an arms-up baby.
Thanks to Love To Dream USA for sponsoring this post!
It’s adorable. I obviously love it, since these are all photos I found on my phone. My instagram is full of them. There’s just something about the way some babies fling their arms up. And it’s such a baby thing – my 3 year old still sleeps like that sometimes but my 5 year old never does. It is definitely not a habit I want to discourage.
One of the disadvantages of an arms-up baby is their tendency to break out of swaddles. Linc was escaping the hospital blanket baby burrito at a week old (bottom row of the collage!) and started working his way out of the velcro kind after two weeks. It wasn’t the hitting himself in the face that woke him up, it was the struggle. Little man hates a struggle.
Enter the SwaddleUp. Truthfully, I had one that someone gave me, pulled it out to give it a shot and after just a couple nights I was a convert. So when Love To Dream offered to send me more and asked me to share my experience I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Let me count the ways I love the SwaddleUp. It has a zipper, so it’s crazy easy to get it on the baby. It has a bottom zipper, so you can zip it up from the legs and change a diaper without ever releasing their arms. I’ve changed diapers without ever even waking the baby up, like a stealthy diaper changing ninja. It’s so soft and stretchy, I’d sort of like it to come in my size. And it keeps my baby from hitting himself in the face or startling himself awake, so he – AND I – get lots of sleep.
Plus he looks super adorable with his widdle baby wings. Wook at the wings! (I’m sorry, his face makes me talk like that. I can’t even stop.)
I just started putting him in the SwaddleUp 50/50 instead of the full SwaddleUp every night. It’s the same shape, but with zip-off arm wings, so you can let one arm (or both arms) free. I love it just as much as a sleep sack as I did as a swaddle, and being able to ease the transition one arm at a time is such a smart idea. Linc really loves these swaddles and anything that makes baby happy makes mama happy. Because, sleep.
Right now Love To Dream is having a fun Instagram giveway. Just share your photo of your own arms up baby and you could win a Love To Dream Prize Package valued at over $90. To enter: Follow @lovetodreamusa on Instagram. Post a photo of your baby with their arms up, tag @lovetodreamusa and use #armsupbaby
Winners are drawn weekly through October. Contest details here – http://bit.ly/1rC41Z3
And you can see more pictures of my own arms up baby by following me on instagram: @bebehblog
Huge thanks to Love To Dream USA for sponsoring this post. We’re also giving away one Love To Dream Swaddle UP package, valued at $68! Just follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.
It’s here! The sequel to my Elephant from Swaddling Blankets tutorial. I know, the anticipation was killing you all.
Round 2 of fun with swaddling blankets will turn 4 of these…
into these…
It’s a momma bunny and 2 baby bunnies, complete with fluffy tails. (I swear, these things are much cuter in person. I took a million pictures of them in different poses, but nothing conveys the cuteness like actually seeing them in real life. Sorry.)
What you will need- 4 swaddling blankets (I use Aden & Anais muslin blankets. They come in a 4 pack and you can even get them at most Super Targets.)
A spool of tulle, or tulle cut into about 9 2 inch by 18 inch strips
Felt
Siccors
Let’s start by making the momma.
Take 2 of your 4 blankets and lay one on top of the other. If they have tags on them, align it so the tags on both blankets match up. This just makes it easier to hide them so they’re not hanging out of the bunny ears. Starting with the corner closest to the tag, roll the blanket into a long tube.
Then take that tube and fold it in half.
About 4-5 inches from the fold, wrap a piece of tulle around and tie it in a knot on the other side (this will be the underside).
Flip it back over, then cross the ends over and back like this.
Place a stip of tulle (about 18ish inches long, I guess) over the top of the bunny’s head, over where the body is secured with tulle. Wrap it around and tie it in a knot under the body (this will be on top of the tulle that’s holding the body together). Don’t clip the excess, though. You’re not done tying it.
Flip the bunny back over, then tie the ends behind the ears. To make the ears stand up a bit more, you could wrap the ends around the base of the ears first, and then tie it behind the ears.
Now you can trim off the ends of the tulle. (Click through to see the rest, including a super easy tulle pom pom tutorial inside a tutorial!)