How to Swaddle Older Babies (A Step by Step Guide)

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I'm the luckiest mommy in the world. My wonderful child sleeps all the time, and if I have to wake her up early she doesn't seem to be too phased by it. 🙂 Since the beginning we have been using Aden + Anais brand swaddling blankets. They're very generously sized, so they have held my baby for 14 months and she still has room to grow. They're also SO SOFT. Whenever I go to a baby shower, I always bring some to the new parents because I think they're the greatest thing ever to come into my life. I love to share them with others.

We still swaddle Tushie, even though she's 14 months old. She very much enjoys the comfort and I enjoy how it makes it easier to put her down even though she is larger. Around three months old she went through a very common time in our swaddling relationship where she pulled her hands out, and usually messed with her face while she was nursing. It was so frustrating and I admittedly lost my cool about it several times. I'm so lucky I have a great husband who was home during the rough nights in the beginning of Tushie's life.

In the midst of this frustration, and trying to deal with it I discovered the . . . “Super Swaddle”. Have you heard of this? Oh MY goodness. It's the bee's knees. Very basically, you have your swaddling blanket as well as an extra receiving blanket folded in half twice to make it long. Placed correctly, it will fold your child's arms in, and then you swaddle as normal. See below for some pictures. Tushie can still get out when she's ready at night, but when she is nursing to sleep she loves this super swaddle, which of course means mommy loves it!

First, you have to gather your “ingredients”. We have a nice Aden + Anais Classic Swaddling blanket and above that (next to the puppy) is our folded up receiving blanket.

After laying out the blanket you want to fold down the top corner of the blanket to provide a nice collar for where you are going to place the baby.

Then you will place the receiving blanket (which you have folded twice longways) across the top of the collar you just made. You can see a better picture of how you will place it here:

Then you take your baby and put them in the middle of the collar on top of your receiving blanket.

Next you take the receiving blanket and fold it over the arm, as shown. It's really so simple.

Then you tuck it underneath their body, so their weight will hold it in place. This also means when they want to get out of it, they just need to arch their back (which they learn how to do as soon as they wake up, I've learned).

Repeat on the other side and you will have a baby who looks like this. This baby is VERY interested in the fan above her head, which is why she's not looking in any of these pictures.