Swaddling questions

JerseyBride11 · October 2012

(also posted on the aug 2012 forum)

LO turns 2 months TODAY She has been sleeping very well at night since she was 6.5 weeks as long as she in her swaddle me (arms in). At our 2 month pedi appointment yesterday, the doc suggested that I begin to swaddle her at night with her arms out.

Well, we tried last night be she is still startling easily and kept waking herself up. After over 2 hours of trying, I decided she wasn't ready for this transition (or maybe Im not) and put her arms in. She slept for 8 hours after that.

Are you still swaddling arms in? if so, how old is LO? If you've already transitioned, at what age did you do so and how did you make it a success? I read a suggestion online to start with one arm out at a time to ease the transition. I may try this tonight and see if she startles less with only 1 arm out.

kpearse99 · October 2012

I don't think you have to worry about not swaddling just yet. From what I've read you really dont' have to stop until they are starting to roll, and even at that point you can start with the one arm out. A good indicator that they are ready is when they start to break free from the swaddle. My LO is 3.5 months and we still swaddle him. He breaks free of it all the time, but he still sleeps pretty great. I've tried all the different swaddle things out there and he gets out of all of them!! I'm starting to consider just switching to the halo sleep sacks and giving up on the swaddle blanket, since he comes out of it anyway.... Indifferent

bitsybubbles7 · October 2012

We didn't stop swaddling until lo started rolling over (3 1/2 - 4 months); but he was breaking out of his swaddle at this point so we knew he was ready. We stopped cold turkey and the first night was hard. Then lo started rolling on his stomach to sleep and we never looked back.

That being said, my cousin has a baby who is 20 days older than lo and she still swaddles him. So it depends on you and your lo's preference and what works. Good luck!

CBNJ2012 · October 2012

I swaddled DD1 until she was almost 5 months. You'll know when the right time is but it doesn't sound like now!

APendola · October 2012

Your doc suggested leaving the arms out and you gave it a try. If it t didn't work well, I would go back to what works. If you want, you can try arms again out in a couple weeks. Maybe try just with naps for a while.

IncognitoSuperhero · October 2012

Our little guy never liked being swaddled so we stopped at 2 weeks when we moved him to his crib. He started rolling over from belly to back at 8 weeks. He likes the freedom of wiggling his arms and legs. For about a month or so we were waking up every 90 minutes. Not sure if it was due to him getting startled. He now sleeps a ton at night.

ladyjenna13 · October 2012

We just introduced our LO to his crib this past weekend. We stopped swaddling as well a week ago ( he is 6 weeks now). While he does still do his little twitching from time to time, we have found the sleep sack to work just fine. He is such a good sleeper that his twitches rarely keep him awake when he startles from them.

Each kid is different at this point that what may work for me will not work for you. Do what you feel most comfortable with and what the LO is most comfortable with.

jiffy-pop · October 2012

2nd time mom lurker: I swaddled DD#1 until she was 5 months old - always arms in. We never transitioned to "arms out," we just quit swaddling cold turkey when we moved her from her bassinet to her crib and she did really well. I think the key is to keep swaddling arms in until that arm jerking reflex goes away. If your baby's arm jerk reflex hasn't gone away, keep swaddling arms in. It's not like it is doing any harm to swaddle arms in so I don't know why a doc would recommend it.