Wrapping a baby to help with sleep

Some who have followed my blog may be wondering where is the wrapping - as in wrapping the baby's arms and legs in a nice soft cuddly blanket.

To tell you the truth the judgment is still out on this one.
My first feeling with Ara on the second day of her life when a friend showed me how to wrap my baby up was to unwrap her and hold her close to me…I didn't like it. But people kept on doing it assuring me that all babies liked to be bound up. So I kept on doing it.

I understand the idea behind the wrapping but I think that "we" (royal we) are taking it a bit too far. As I've said the jury is still out on this and it not until we get round to the "next bubba" (as Ara is now saying) that we will really be able to say for sure.

As Dave was saying the other day "Every child is different".

I look back at myself when I was wrapping Ara to start with it was done with love and caring and yes she did seem to like it…BUT she did seem to like the sling more when Dave was able to take her (I was not very confident with the sling…yes me the Queen of my town in wraps/holds and slings).

I often think of how Keith Sawyer (page 16 for photo) likened wrapping to the strapping down of patients be it hospital or institute.
This leads me to ...are we abusing this too long…sure for the first few months but then is it not just keeping your child in one place? Like at a first birthday party a small boy being bound up very tightly and put in his car seat and rocked (vigorously) while he cried out…very tired yes…and you get used to what you get used to.

I wrapped Ara until I had finished my stint with Tizzy Hall’s book. It was a tool that I used to try and get Ara to sleep. But to tell you the truth I think it was preventing her as she just spent all her time trying to bust out she was so angry and scared. Nothing like not being able to move and being alone.

To me the binding of babies is to free up a parent’s arms. This for me co-insides with the use of sleeping alone…bind the baby so it "feels" like it is safe while it sleeps alone.

The other thing for me is and this is also about car seats. How long can you stay in one place…just sitting for arguments sake and not lifting your weight off one side of your butt? Hey our car seats are pretty soft…not a child's one. (Ara and I had a long drive home one day after a funeral I just wanted to get home and she started to cry…I just wanted to get home but in the end I had to stop and after 15mins of hugging she told me that her bottom hurt from sitting - I felt really bad - she's 2 and can sort of talk).
So if you wrap a baby to help it sleep and it’s in the same position for a long time and probably not really a very comfortable one (something may be sticking it to it a fold of the blanket or whatever) it really might start to hurt. These little bubs' are used to moving - yes in a tight space - but still moving.

So my question to myself is…Why bound tight? Why bind for so long? Am I doing this out of love or is it frustration? Is it really helping my child to sleep? Would it be better in a sling or in a hammock? Is binding a child for long amounts of time really all that good for the development of the brain and the body…how are the bones and body structure developing?
Question it and really listen to yourself…not someone else in the back of your mind telling you that "Babies like it".