No matter how many receiving blankets come your way at baby showers, you can be guaranteed that you will never have quite enough. In case you’re not sure, receiving blankets are very lightweight, soft blankets that are great for swaddling your newborn. Oddly enough, after being scrunched up in the womb for so long, babies seem to find it comforting to be swaddled, or wrapped fairly tightly in a receiving blanket. Another reason to wrap your little one is that newborns aren’t as good as older kids at maintaining their body temperature. Unless it’s blazing hot in the middle of summer, a receiving blanket helps baby to keep his or her body temperature stable.
You can certainly buy yourself some extras, but they’re so easy to make you can whip up a pile of them during a couple of naptimes with hardly any effort. You’ll want to pick up some lightweight fabric. Baby flannel would be a good choice, but whatever you buy, be sure to look for the tags that say the fabric has been certified as safe for children’s sleepwear. Never, never use flammable material for children’s clothing or blankets. If you are unsure, ask a sales attendant where to find fabric for children’s sleepwear. This is definitely not the place to cut corners.
For each blanket you should buy a yard of fabric. That will give you plenty for a generous size blanket with some leftovers to turn into burp cloths or changing pads. All you… Read the rest
