The day your baby was born, the midwives showed you how to swaddle your baby to help them feel comforted and sleep better. What they didn’t show you, was the “don’t get too comfortable, this won’t last for long” disclaimer. Before you have time to click your heels twice and say “how can nappies be so expensive”, your baby wants to move.. Maybe not for the big night sleeps but for day naps, your controlled method of wrap-and-drift-into-dreamland is done and dusted.
It’s a set of moves so wild and uncoordinated, one can only assume it’s the infant macarena. (Alternatively you could compare the macarena to what an infant looks like when they have just discovered they have these arm things attached to them, but aren’t sure how to use them.. A whole different post all together.)
You put them down for a sleep. They are sleepy eyed, covered, calm… you walk away. Five minutes later you creep in to check on them and it’s a whole different story. Covers are off and under the baby now (who knows how…), Legs are in the air, a foot and a finger are in the mouth (obviously couldn’t find the thumb this time and figured any of them would do). Dummy is on the floor, spat (or thrown) through the tiny spaces of the cot and now half way across the room. From shoulders to eyes and everywhere in between, baby now glistens with drool. And last but not least, baby has learn how to turn on her own soother.
The short version, sleep isn’t happening. So where do you go from here? With the number one culprit being those tiny little fingers that have just worked out how to remove the dummy but not put it back in, I recommend a pair of socks.. I’m talking about thin ones that will stay on. The trick is, you put them on their hands so those squirmy wormy fingers don’t get in the way. Watch as they try to get those fingers under the rim of the dummy, but can’t! I dare you not to laugh through an evil grin that says, I’ve got your number now kiddo!
Next for the arms themselves, you can start by doing kind of a reverse swaddle, put a thin wrap under baby then put their arms behind the wrap on each side, then fold the wrap around the arm and back under neath them using their body weight to keep it in place. This will end up looking as though your baby is wearing patterned gloves till their arm pits but hey, whatever works right?
Take this opportunity to start gathering ammunition for baby’s 21st birthday party. Photos.
This will keep the arms not still but unable to flee around with such ease that they can hit themselves in the head 5 times a minute. Gradually you can loosen the wrap bit by bit by bit and then remove it all together. When you think your baby is ready to graduate from hand socks, try something that she can hang on to instead. Choose something that she can breath through in case she presses it against her face, not too small to swallow and not to big to get wrapped around her. We have a small pink teddy that is just one sheet of material in the middle, works perfectly.
At some point your baby will discover that these arms and fingers can be controlled, fingers up the nose, in the ear, up your nose, in your ears.. the list never ends. Enjoy these things, because I am told that the time will come where I will be longing for the days when she was so easily amused. I am not too sure about that myself, I can’t say I am picturing a time when I will look back and wish i had those little sticky baby vomit fingers digging their nails into my unsuspecting nasal passage all over again. But, if you hang around long enough, I’ll let you know if I do.
If you do catch baby resembling anything below, please go and invest in a stretchy pair of hand socks immediately. Your swaddle time is running out!
Our newest addition to the Fisher Price Rainforest family was swept in with Kmart sale. He’s the Rainstick Giraffe and a bundle of fun.