What the swaddle actually looks like at 3am

At 3am the swaddle is not a blanket. It is a negotiation. You are tired. The baby is tired. The blanket, somehow, is winning.

I have tried the burrito. I have tried the arms-up. I have tried the one-arm-out compromise that every website swears by. Each time I think I've mastered it, he performs a tiny Houdini escape and I start again.

My current technique involves a deep breath, a firm tuck, and a quiet apology for waking him up in the first place. It works about sixty percent of the time, which, in parenting, feels like a landslide victory.