Playing with hands, not sleeping

CAA0508

My 5 month old DD still needs to be swaddled in order to sleep. She fights to get her arms out, but if she does, she just plays with and chews on her hands and will not go back to sleep. We have even reinforced the swaddlers with extra Velcro to try and keep her from breaking out. This worked for a little while, but now she can even break out of that. We've tried putting her down without the swaddle and she just lays there playing with her hands. Any suggestions on how I can get her to sleep without swaddling her arms? I feel like we need to ditch the swaddle, but don't know how to teach her to sleep without it. It seems like she equates swaddle with sleep and doesn't know to sleep if she isn't swaddled. Help!

mrsdeanna

Following. We are breaking LO who is almost 5 months of swaddle this weekend. He spends more time chewing on hands and and won't sleep. And wakes himself up when he does break out. No idea how we are going to start. I have heard one arm out, one arm in.

HZ2012

We did this a few weeks ago and it only took 1 night for LO to adjust. Start with 1 arm out for a few nights, then 2, and just swaddle the waist. I did that for about a week I think. Now he's in a sleep sack. He's obsessed with his hands but he soothes himself by sucking on them and then eventually falls asleep (if its bed time and he's tired).

PinkandLove77

We had the EXACT same problem with the HALO sleep sack. But I wanted to unswaddle him for several reasons, including that he was breaking out. I bought Merlin's magic sleep suit. It took two days of naps and nights to get him sleeping normally without his hands at his face but now he looks like a normal baby when sleeping. His arms are "free" but restricted. I LOVE the suit. 

LisaLisa1980

Get a woombie

CAA0508

Thanks for all the advice. We tried starting with one arm out tonight to transition out of the swaddle and she keeps rolling to her tummy, which she's never done before. So we are going cold turkey with no swaddle. She is currently in her crib playing with her hands and talking. I know she's tired, so we'll see how long it takes her to fall asleep. I really don't want to buy another swaddle product, but will if this doesn't get any better after a few nights.

bibby32714

PinkandLove77 said:

We had the EXACT same problem with the HALO sleep sack. But I wanted to unswaddle him for several reasons, including that he was breaking out. I bought Merlin's magic sleep suit. It took two days of naps and nights to get him sleeping normally without his hands at his face but now he looks like a normal baby when sleeping. His arms are "free" but restricted. I LOVE the suit. 

We also love the suit! When I first put her down she still plays with hands.  Sometimes I just hold her arms down lightly for a minute and she gives in to sleep without playing. 

Edit: to the comment about too hot...I was worried it might be when we bought it but it isn't really.  Sometimes she would be sweaty in the swaddle but when I took her out the suit the first morning she was only comfortably warm.  Her feet werent too cold either which I was also concerned about.

=Lee=B

Just a normal developmental thing you gotta put up with for a bit.  My daughter was only swaddled the first 2 weeks but she found her hands a couple weeks back and did the same.  Then she discovered her feet and did the same.  Now she's discovered she can take her soother out and turn it around and bunch of times, she tries to get it back in but eventually drops it and I go pop it in.

When she is very tired and has been at it too long I gently hold her arms down so she can't entertain herself...she usually passes out right away.  I try to have her play with her soother during the day to get the excitement out of it...but of course she could care less about it during play time.

 

A few weeks back I woke up to banging and giggling...found her stretching her legs up high in the air and crashing them down on the mattress...then giggling at herself.  Over and over.  It took her 15min to realize she had woken cause she was hungry not to play with her new feet.  Incredibly cute (yet not at 3am).

PipSqueak0313

Our family considers quiet play in the crib or bed to be a form of self soothing so it was never discouraged. My mom did have restrctions on the types of toys we were allowed to play with when we got a bit older.

jss1482

rariese said:

PinkandLove77 said:

We had the EXACT same problem with the HALO sleep sack. But I wanted to unswaddle him for several reasons, including that he was breaking out. I bought Merlin's magic sleep suit. It took two days of naps and nights to get him sleeping normally without his hands at his face but now he looks like a normal baby when sleeping. His arms are "free" but restricted. I LOVE the suit. 

We also love the suit! When I first put her down she still plays with hands.  Sometimes I just hold her arms down lightly for a minute and she gives in to sleep without playing. 

Edit: to the comment about too hot...I was worried it might be when we bought it but it isn't really.  Sometimes she would be sweaty in the swaddle but when I took her out the suit the first morning she was only comfortably warm.  Her feet werent too cold either which I was also concerned about.

yep! get the suit, is wonderful! and its not too hot... even down her in hot and humid texas! it transitioned us from the RNP & swaddle in one flawless swoop!

bennyandthejets13

jss1482 said:

rariese said:

PinkandLove77 said:

We had the EXACT same problem with the HALO sleep sack. But I wanted to unswaddle him for several reasons, including that he was breaking out. I bought Merlin's magic sleep suit. It took two days of naps and nights to get him sleeping normally without his hands at his face but now he looks like a normal baby when sleeping. His arms are "free" but restricted. I LOVE the suit. 

We also love the suit! When I first put her down she still plays with hands.  Sometimes I just hold her arms down lightly for a minute and she gives in to sleep without playing. 

Edit: to the comment about too hot...I was worried it might be when we bought it but it isn't really.  Sometimes she would be sweaty in the swaddle but when I took her out the suit the first morning she was only comfortably warm.  Her feet werent too cold either which I was also concerned about.

yep! get the suit, is wonderful! and its not too hot... even down her in hot and humid texas! it transitioned us from the RNP & swaddle in one flawless swoop!


I agree with this! I broke down and bought the Merlin sleep suit after several nights of trying not to swaddle cold turkey, swaddle with arms out in the halo sleep sack, swaddle with one arm out. Nothing worked! DS would only sleep 3 hours and be up every hour after that. I'm going back to work next week so I broke down and bought the sleep suit 2 weeks ago and he's been STTN ever since! He sleeps 8-10 hours without a single wake up and takes 2 2-3 hour naps now!