Swaddle question and self-soothing question

melissamiller03

Hi ladies!  If you are still swaddling how long are you going to?  I have so many mixed feelings about it.  My doctor said to try and get him away from being swaddled.  We've tried that the past 2 nights and it's been a disaster to say the least.  He's woken up 4-5 times a night just freaking out.  So then I tried swaddling him but leaving 1 arm out.  I thought maybe it would be better to ease out of it instead of getting rid of the swaddle all together. 

 

Also, have any of you started to self soothe??  Up until 4 months i've rocked LO to sleep.  Now I'm trying to lay him down drowsy.  It's so hard to hear him cry    I just wondered if any one had some good advice since this is my first baby!  Thanks

TradeMama

When I was in high school/college I worked in the infant room in a daycare and we had lots of babies that had trouble napping. We'd lay them down drowsy and pat their booties until they fell asleep. We never left them crying.

With LO it helps if I leave his mobile on... usually he'll fall asleep after 10 minutes or so. I will let him fuss/grunt but if he's full on crying I'll rock him until he's ready to sleep. Sorry I have no advice on the swaddle, my guy never cared for it.

delino

I'm still swaddling. She sleeps 11hrs and I'm terrified to mess with it. I have a magic sleepsuit which i plan to use to transition. Not sure when.

I put her down drowsy and once she has her paci, she's usually asleep shortly. Occasionally I have to rock her a bit. She really did this on her own. It might just be waiting for your LO's cues that he's ready for bed.

AllieAGame

delino said:

I'm still swaddling. She sleeps 11hrs and I'm terrified to mess with it. I have a magic sleepsuit which i plan to use to transition. Not sure when.

I put her down drowsy and once she has her paci, she's usually asleep shortly. Occasionally I have to rock her a bit. She really did this on her own. It might just be waiting for your LO's cues that he's ready for bed.

Us too, except she only sleeps about 8 hours at night (used to be more like ten). She almost always gets her arms out during the night but still sleeps just fine.

Oohgurl

It really helps if you put them down before they are overtired. It took me 3 1/2 months to figure this out for naps and it has been a life changer. Now, I just put him down before he is cranky and he goes right to sleep. 

I still swaddle for naps but use the sleep suit for overnight. He transitioned amazingly. I originally started the sleepsuit for naps but I think that was a mistake because he started teething right after and wanted to chew his hands all the time.  

Here is my original post about it with a picture of the suit. https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12004107/nap-wars-update-sleepsuit#latest 

mandy_marie

I stopped swaddling right around 3 months.  LO kept busting out of it by about two months anyway.  Over the course of a few weeks, I went from a full swaddle to one arm out, then both arms out.  I kept the swaddle going for about a week like that (both arms out) just as a signal to her that it was bed time since we only swaddled at night.

I've tried to put LO down drowsy from the beginning.  She has done really well with learning to self-soothe.. I usually put her down without her paci, and if she starts to fuss, I'll offer it.  I'll walk back into the room and talk to her, but I try not to pick her up immediately when she's fussing. 

Now that she's 4 months, she's had a little more trouble with it, but I think that that comes from a greater awareness of her surroundings, the 4 month sleep regression craziness, and the fact that my MIL (who watches her several times a week) rocks her to sleep and holds her for the duration of her naps despite me asking her not to do that. (sigh)