Friday, September 14, 2007

Swaddling and Such

Before Jeremiah was born, I read the book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. It talks about the idea of a "fouth trimester." Basically, it says that in the first three months, your baby needs to feel as much like it is inside the womb as possible. Since it went from 24 hours of comfort, anything we can give them is already cutting back. To do this, it recommend using any or all of the "5 S's": Swaddling, Side/Stomach, Shhhh, Swing, and Suck.
Here's how we use these 5 with Jeremiah...
1)We swaddle Jeremiah every night. It helps him to sleep (many times babies wake themselves up by moving their arms around. Jeremiah sleeps so much longer when he's swaddled. Right now he normally only wakes up once in the night to eat.
2) Jeremiah's favorite postion to be held in is lying upright on his stomach against somebody's chest. I think it's because he was always head-up in the womb!
3) The womb isn't a very quiet place; there was a constant "shhhh" noise, and babies are used to noise. Jeremiah enjoys noise, whether it's music or the motor on the vibrating infant chair.
4) Obviously babies feel a lot of movement in the womb, since most mothers are moving often. Jeremiah gets this through the vibrating infant chair, being carried or worn, and his new swing. :)
5) Sucking- That's an obvious one! Even when he's not hungry he likes to suck on things. We try to give him his pacifier only if he's upset, however.

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