One of the best gifts we received before the baby came was the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD and two fleece swaddling blankets. On the DVD, Dr. Harvey Karp teaches "secrets of the world's top baby calmers*": how to calm your baby with "the five S's": swaddling, side-lying, shushing, swinging, and sucking.

*Who are the world's top baby calmers? And how do they earn their ranking? At baby-calming tournaments? Baby-calm-offs?

Since the beginning we have used four of the five S's to calm the baby pretty successfully. We could bring him down from near-hysteria to near-catatonia, using just a small blanket. (And I need a TV tuned to static, since I can't shush loud enough.) The fifth S -- sucking -- doesn't really come into play, because the pacifier? Our baby could really take it or leave it.

Even when the baby is not upset we have always swaddled him for sleeping, because his Moro reflex (a.k.a. the startle reflex; see a video here) was so strong that the flailing of his own arms would wake him and make him cry.

Although he startles less frequently and violently now, I still swaddle him for sleeping, because he really seems to like it. Sometimes when I lay him on the couch or the bed to swaddle him, he calms down before I'm finished and will even smile up at me as if relieved.

When I received the swaddling blankets at my baby shower, there was an interesting generation gap in the guests' reactions. All the mothers in my generation got wide-eyed and nodded seriously and couldn't say enough good things about swaddling. But all the mothers in my mother's generation were disapproving, or at least unconvinced: "They look so uncomfortable! They can't move their arms!"

I will let the swaddle speak for itself. Is this a happy baby or what?