Swaddling
I tried unswaddling LO last weekend. We put her in the sleep sack. I tried it for 2 nights and both nights she woke up several times. She usually STTN. So we're back to swaddling but I'm not how long she will fit in the Miracle Blanket. We started with the Swaddle Me but she grew out of that about a month ago so we switched to the Miracle Blanket, which is aptly named as LO now sleeps about 7-8 hours a night. But it's such a pain to get on. I've given up trying to get her in the blanket while she's awake.
It looks like all of the swaddle blankets are made for little babies. I guess the assumption is that you only swaddle for a few months?
What do you use to swaddle your LO? DH and I both tried swaddling with a receiving blanket using the method we learned at our childcare class but neither one of us can get it tight enough to stay on her for longer than a few minutes.
Re: Swaddling
Our fave. were gerber brand recieving blankets. We would wrap him in two and they held really well. It took practice to get it tight enough. We also used Swaddle Me's but they weren't as good as the Gerber blankets.
We swaddled DS about six mos. He let us know when he was ready to be unswaddled. Yours is still pretty young. Swaddling is still very normal at his age.
We LOVED the Miracle Blanket -- DD slept in that every single night of her life until she started breaking out of it (and giving me a heart attack when I'd find her in the cosleeper with 6 feet of loose fabric) around 3.5 or 4 months.
I tried desperately to find a bigger swaddler for her -- one that that she couldn't break out of. The one I wanted to try was the Woombie -- it comes in much larger sizes than most of them. The Kiddapotomus ones come larger also, but they're super easy to break out of.
It could be that your baby is ready to not be swaddled, but it couldn't hurt to try a bigger swaddle if you're just not ready to give up on it!
I recommend the happiest baby on the block dvd for swaddling demonstration. the swaddling actually works, but you have to use a larger than standard sized receiving blanket. 40x40 or 45x45. Fold one side up and over the shoulder, tuck under the arm. then fold the other side up and over the shoulder, and wrap around.
i started swaddling at 2 months after i watched this and i was able to contain my super active girl.
GL!
oh I bought thelarger blankets from walmart when dd was a baby, but i haven't seen them again. I do know a good etsy seller though if you're interested.
We use the Woombie in Big Baby size. DS wasn't too crazy about it at first--it fits very snugly--but we kept trying and the third time was the charm. He had to be pretty sleepy to tolerate it, but it definitely keeps him swaddled all night.
We also have used the "escape proof swaddle" as demonstrated on YouTube. Even in that, wrapped very tightly, he managed to wiggle downward and get the wrapped blanket up over his mouth during the night. Loose blanket swaddles make me nervous.
We started double swaddling DS about a month ago because he was breaking out of the swaddleme but not ready to sleep without it. We are working on napping with one arm out now. He STTN and falls asleep with no tears while swaddled. I'd hate to make him CIO just because I don't want him swaddled any more. He's just not ready. We use the large swaddleme instead of a sleep sack like they show in the video.
Clicky video
The recommendation is to stop swaddling at 3-4 months, but maybe your little one needs just a little longer. Have you tried the Halo Sleepsack Swaddles? I really like those. They make the swaddle in size small (up to 6 months, or 10-18lbs) in fleece, and soon they'll be making that size in cotton as well. And when your LO is ready to not be swaddled, try first just having one arm out. With our first LO, we found switching to a regular Halo sleepsack was a great transition.
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