Saturday, December 17, 2011

Swaddled all day except for active period. Is that ok?

How long do you keep your baby swaddled for?
I'm not talking about age wise. We figure we'll play it by ear like with our daughter. There came a point where she'd unswaddle herself and still stay asleep.  We figure it may be the same with #2.
I'm talking about during the day.
My son sleeps, eats, pees/poops and repeats with a few active moments.
I'm going to digress for a moment. Doesn't the above sentence make it sound like I have all the time in the freaking world? Seasoned parents know your kid may sleep 18 hours of the day but that does not mean whatsoever you have time to do basics such as shower.
Going back to the point, since he sleeps so much, he's swaddled most of the time.
DH and I started talking about this because DH wants him to be unswaddled more often mostly because his muslin swaddle holds in the most vicious toots you have ever smelled. I mean geez, how does his body produce that odor? He's 9 lbs! His stomach is the size of an egg! Come on now! I could only imagine what it would smell like if he was on formula.
My argument is that he sleeps better all comfy cozy and swaddled which gives me a longer period of time of uninterrupted sleep and more time for him to grow and develop during his slumber. Unswaddled equals shorter sleep bursts meaning I spend more time soothing back to slumber.
He even stays semi-swaddled when I wear him sometimes.
We keep him unswaddled during the active periods to explore and stretch.  I even keep him naked to allow him some nakey time because, heck, who doesn't like nakey time.
Just curious if folks keep their newborn swaddled most of the time.