Should I stop swaddling at night?

SaraAlexine

Our little one has always been swaddled when sleeping at night in his crib. We swaddle him in the Swaddle Me blankets and he is wrapped up super tight. Landon is almost 3 months old. He is an awesome sleeper, sleeping about 8-9 hours a night. Within the last week I have found on his side a couple of times and this morning my husband found him laying on his belly. 

Since he is now rolling on his belly I assume our swaddling days are over.

Advice? We put him down tonight swaddled, but with his arms free. We will see how tonight goes!

TIA

stepper1725

We've had her in an arms free swaddle since she was 1 week old. She was always trying to get her hands in her mouth so it seemed easier to just keep her arms out.  I'm not looking forward to the day we try to unswaddle her legs though. Good luck!

khill86

I don't know what you're "supposed" to do, but we weaned from the swaddle because DS was swaddled for every nap and overnight. We started weaning about 2.5 weeks ago after DS was consistently getting an arm out, sleeping on his side, and showing more control of his arms - it just seemed like the right time.

So the first week we did 1 arm out and alternated which arm, making sure it was different each night. The second week we did both arms out. Now the third week, this week, we're doing just a sleep sack. DS's sleep hasn't been disrupted by any transition. I think if we had 2-3 bad nights at any stage, we would have gone backwards. 

snicksnack

I stopped this week and have noticed that he is sleeping longer and I think the two might go hand in hand. He had been getting his arms out for several days and I think he was spending his nights escaping instead of sleeping.  The last two nights he has slept 8 hours vs. getting up every few hours, which he was moving towards from sleeping longer.  I say try it and see what happens you can always go back or do it in the middle of the night.  

egsulaiman

I'm starting the unswaddling process now too.... slowly though. I've just taken one hand out so far, and she's sleeping fine... in a little bit I'll only swaddle her with both arms out, and eventually I'll kick the swaddling all together.... but I'm taking it slow.. She naps fine during the day without it, I've never swaddled for naps... so she's used to it.. (although we do have some days where she has a very hard time napping... but i think its just her curiosity getting the best of her)

Babybear70

My son has been swaddled since day one. He has always had one arm in and one arm out. The arm that was tucked in was done in a fashion so that he could have access to his hand if he needed to get it into his mouth. But lately he has been breaking the swaddle about an hour after I put him down for nite nite time so he is naturally breaking his need of it on his own, which was what I wanted him to do. Our doctors and nurses had always said tho that you should always have at least one arm out so that in the case that they roll over at least they can make some effort to get their face off of the mattress to cry for you. I'm thinking of tonight just putting him down to sleep with both arms out to see what happens.

unaveragejane

I've always used the SwaddleMe sacks with arms out (b/c he would fight to get them out rather than sleep). Now we're at the stage where he's too big for the Small/Medium size and too small for the Large size, so I think we're going to have to find something else. He moves his legs and bends his knees a lot, so I am afraid to swaddle with a blanket for fear it will cover his face with all his calisthenics. I think we're going to switch to wearable blankets since it is going to be colder weather soon anyway.

strawberrytree

DS has been swaddled arms out since he was about 2 weeks old. He'd get so enraged when his arms are swaddled that he'd thrash around until he worked them loose, then pass out. We tried one of those wearable blanket things tonight since he's 14 weeks old now, but after 3.5 hours of trying unsuccessfully to get him to sleep we went back to the swaddle. He fell asleep almost instantly, so I guess he's not ready to be unswaddled yet. We use A+A muslin blankets or SwaddleMe sleep sacks. 

acbfreire

LO isn't rolling yet, but does night Pilates. We swaddle with both arms free from day one. She broke free from the blankets 2x now, so I am using a wearable blanket.

She slept just as well.

SaraAlexine

Thanks for all of your replies! Well, DS did not sleep well with his arms free. I think I'll give a sleep sack a try and see how it goes.