Swaddle Problems

Curlygirl2415

We are still swaddling our 5 month old DD, and had planned to do so until we sleep train her at 6 months because she always wakes herself up with her hands. However, she pretty much busts her left arm out EVERY time she takes a nap, and wakes herself up. She sleeps well at night, only waking once to nurse.

I just don't know if we can make it another month swaddling! She hates it, and she breaks out every nap. I'm worried because I think if we try to stop swaddling her at this point, she'll be waking herself up even more often. Or won't even sleep at all.

I realize that things will change quickly and I probably just have to wait it out, but I'm just interested to hear if anyone else has ever gone through this and what they have done:)

Bigboobsmcgee

Sounds pretty common. Can you swaddle one arm out? That's what I did with both of my kids, then continued to wrap the swaddle around their torso, leaving both arms out before we ditched the swaddle all together.

It sucks but at some point you just have to leave the arms out and get rid of the swaddle. She probably sleeps worse right now because she's fighting to get out! 

Yes she will wake up more. Yes you will be even more tired because she will wake herself up more but IMO it's unavoidable. It's a natural transition and you have to go through it eventually and besides, she is getting too old to be swaddled and needs to be able to move naturally in her sleep without being constricted by a swaddle.

Curlygirl2415

She did end up going to bed with one arm out last night, and slept 5.5 hours before waking up to eat. Then we just reswaddled her with both arms in like we usually do, and she slept another 3 hours.

With my son, we sleep trained him right at five months because we were at our wits end. He went no swaddle, first night in the crib (in rock n play before), and first night not nursing to sleep all at once. With my daughter I think it's going to have to be slightly different! I agree she really needs to be out of the swaddle. I think we'll start with one arm and transition.

Curlygirl2415

Naps today: 20 minutes, 6 minutes, and 17 minutes! DD is very exhausted and frustrated, and so am I

Bigboobsmcgee

Curlygirl2415 said:

Naps today: 20 minutes, 6 minutes, and 17 minutes! DD is very exhausted and frustrated, and so am I

Naps are tough. I feel ya.

You're sure you're putting her down at the right time for these naps? I'd leave her to cry for a bit honestly. I don't think 5.5 months is too young. She won't learn any other way.

Curlygirl2415

I don't really have a set schedule for her naps, I just try to watch her really closely for tired signs. I find her awake time is usually 1-1.5 hours. She's just 5 months today. My husband and I have been talking about it, and we may sleep train her in a couple weeks. We trained my son at five months, and he turned out fine:) You're right, she's gotta learn!

Bigboobsmcgee

Curlygirl2415 said:

I don't really have a set schedule for her naps, I just try to watch her really closely for tired signs. I find her awake time is usually 1-1.5 hours. She's just 5 months today. My husband and I have been talking about it, and we may sleep train her in a couple weeks. We trained my son at five months, and he turned out fine:) You're right, she's gotta learn!

Yes, she does have to learn! If she has been fed, has a clean diaper and is clearly tired then I would let her cry a bit. She's just fighting sleep because that's what babies do. Good luck!

delujm0

Bigboobsmcgee said:

Curlygirl2415 said:

I don't really have a set schedule for her naps, I just try to watch her really closely for tired signs. I find her awake time is usually 1-1.5 hours. She's just 5 months today. My husband and I have been talking about it, and we may sleep train her in a couple weeks. We trained my son at five months, and he turned out fine:) You're right, she's gotta learn!

Yes, she does have to learn! If she has been fed, has a clean diaper and is clearly tired then I would let her cry a bit. She's just fighting sleep because that's what babies do. Good luck!

This is my husband's method for naps (when I'm around I usually nurse her to sleep).  He feeds her, changes her, and then when she starts fussing because she's tired (generally after 1.5-2 hours of awake time) he puts her in the crib, turns on the mobile, and leaves the room.  She will cry for about 5 minutes, stick her thumb in her mouth, and then sleep for 30-45 minutes.  She wakes up cooing and smiling.  Daycare tells us that they do the same thing.  She tends to take short frequent naps rather than longer ones, though occasionally she'll sleep for 60-90 minutes at daycare.

Bigboobsmcgee

delujm0 said:

Bigboobsmcgee said:

Curlygirl2415 said:

I don't really have a set schedule for her naps, I just try to watch her really closely for tired signs. I find her awake time is usually 1-1.5 hours. She's just 5 months today. My husband and I have been talking about it, and we may sleep train her in a couple weeks. We trained my son at five months, and he turned out fine:) You're right, she's gotta learn!

Yes, she does have to learn! If she has been fed, has a clean diaper and is clearly tired then I would let her cry a bit. She's just fighting sleep because that's what babies do. Good luck!

This is my husband's method for naps (when I'm around I usually nurse her to sleep).  He feeds her, changes her, and then when she starts fussing because she's tired (generally after 1.5-2 hours of awake time) he puts her in the crib, turns on the mobile, and leaves the room.  She will cry for about 5 minutes, stick her thumb in her mouth, and then sleep for 30-45 minutes.  She wakes up cooing and smiling.  Daycare tells us that they do the same thing.  She tends to take short frequent naps rather than longer ones, though occasionally she'll sleep for 60-90 minutes at daycare.

At 5-6 months old, both of my kids generally took 45 minute naps. They were always short.

Curlygirl2415

Did you guys have any suggestions for transitioning from the rock n play to the crib? And when did naps start to get longer for your kids?

Bigboobsmcgee

Curlygirl2415 said:

Did you guys have any suggestions for transitioning from the rock n play to the crib? And when did naps start to get longer for your kids?

P

My DD was 4 months old when I did the transition to the crib and I started by leaving one arm out of the swaddle and rolled up receiving blankets and put them under the crib sheet on each side of her so she felt more cuddled. Then swaddled both arms out and then I took the blankets out all together.

Naps got better around 6 months old

kde4

For the Rock n Play to crib transition, we found that it helped to have them start by taking naps during the day in their cribs. It took about a week of short daytime naps, but they eventually got used to it and now sleep really well in their cribs. We also have a musical mobile that we turn on anytime we want them to sleep. As soon as they hear the music they tend to fall asleep within 1-2 minutes. In case it helps, these are all of my tricks for how we transitioned our twins. Good luck, mama! https://www.theydontfeedthemselves.com/transitioning-twins-to-cribs/

delujm0

Curlygirl2415 said:

Did you guys have any suggestions for transitioning from the rock n play to the crib? And when did naps start to get longer for your kids?

We started by getting her used to the crib...sticking her in there and turning on the mobile for her for 5-10 minutes at a time a few times a day. We did the swaddle transition first (she was never truly swaddled, her arms were always out) and after a week in the bassinet in footed pj's we moved to the crib.

We rolled up blankets for under the crib sheet to mimic the shape of the bassinet and slowly moved them so they were all the way to the outer edges of the mattress and then removed them one at a time. By the time she could roll over she was in the crib on a flat mattress. She loves it in there actually. She likes having the room to thrash around at night. She's 19 weeks and sleeps on her tummy now most of the night...I nurse her to sleep and put her in the crib on her back but she flips pretty quickly. She will sleep anywhere from 10-12 hours in her crib without crying for food now. It's amazing.

Good luck!

kde4

We went through this exact same thing with our twin boys. One of them would bust of of his swaddle and we worried about safety. I wanted a transition swaddle that they could safely roll around in. We tried a bunch of different products and found that Zip a Dee Zips worked well. In case it helps, these are some of the different things we did to ease the transition out of their beloved SwaddleMe's. Good luck! https://www.theydontfeedthemselves.com/transitioning-twins-out-of-swaddles/

Jashley05

Love to Dream Swaddle 50/50 has been a life saver for us. Allows their arms to be up but not free and then you can zip the wings off to transition to arms out. Once arms are out, you can use it as a traditional sleep sack for warmth.