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D.C. Area Babies
Swaddle/Sleep help
DD# 2 is almost 6 months old and still needs to be swaddled to sleep. I use the Miracle Blanket, but haven't been able to put her legs in the pocket for 4 months. She normally sleeps like a champ, 11-12 hours at night, and 2-3 naps during the day. She's probably close to 18 lbs now, though she hasn't been weighed since early Feb. I have two issues going on:
1. The last three nights out of four she has broken out of the swaddle at 5/5:30 am. I typically put her in a sleep sack and the swaddle just her arms. She NEEDS to be swaddled. If she isn't she just rubs her eyes over and over and ultimately wakes herself up. Her legs haven't been swaddled for 3-4 months. After she wakes up at 5/5:30 I nurse her and she goes back to sleep because she really isn't ready to get up. The sucky thing is that she wants to sleep till 8 or 9 am, but DH leaves the house at 7:45 to take them to DC and I end up having to wake her up (which I hate doing). Any thoughts on how to keep her contained or intermediate steps for weaning from the swaddle? I have no issues keeping her swaddled because I really think she needs it, but I think she has basically outgrown the Mircale Blanket and I need to figure out something else. We stopped the swaddle cold turkey with DD #1 at 3 months and never looked back. I should mention that she has yet to roll over (in any direction!), so I'm not ready for her to sleep on her tummy (which I lett DD #1 do once she was proficient in rolling), but she is almost ready to sit unassisted and has made a lot of progress with this in the last week or so
2. I think she is trying to drop from 3 naps to 2, but hasn't quite figured out how to do it. This used to be her schedule - wake between 6-7 am, nurse, bf bottle at 9/9:30, nap soon after (usually 2+ hours), bf bottle at 12/12:30, nap sometime after that (usually around 1 hr), bf bottle at 3:/3:30, short nap. I pick them up around 4:30 and I usually nurse again around 5/5:30, then around 7 pm and she's down for the night. I think she is trying to drop the short nap after the 3 pm bottle and wants to take it after I nurse her at 5 pm. I usually put her in the crib unswaddled because I know she can only sleep for an hour or so before she wakes herself up (I don't want her down for the night at 5 pm - DD #1 did this and it was a PITA). Plus, I want to wean her from the swaddle, but so far, it's not working. So, when did your LO drop to two naps per day? DD #1 was HORRIBLE napper (of the 30 minute variety).
TIA!
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Re: Swaddle/Sleep help
2. M is in the process of going down to 2 naps a day, but sometimes he still takes a third short (20-30 minute) nap around 5 pm. He's 7.5 months old.
I dread the day we have to put H to sleep without the swaddle. try googling "escape proof swaddle". ETA: here's the link. basically the idea is to use a smaller receiving blanket folded lengthwise to bind their arms with their body weight (the blanket goes over the arms but behind the body) and then do the regular swaddle on top. i haven't tried it yet but people on my birth month board swear by it.
H can get one arm free from the swaddle me's though because of the design so we've stopped using it and swaddle her exclusively in her swaddle sleep sack.
The one that worked best for me was the Halo Sleep Sack Swaddle. It has a big stretch of velcro - the other ones just have tabs that don't hold as well.
I'm jealous of your sleep schedule! Even waking at 5:30, 11-12 hours a night and 2-3 good naps a day is awesome . . .
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
I used the Kiddopotomus Swaddle Me. I'm not sure if the Summer brand is the same or different. M was like Houdini with being able to get out of his swaddles (even the miracle blanket), but amazingly, he couldn't get out of the Swaddle Me. We also transitioned to one arm out when we put him in the Swaddle Me, so maybe he had less desire to get his other arm free. I also looked at the Woombie, but we didn't try it ourselves.
Does your DD like to hold/grab things? M would also flail his arms around or rub his eyes and wake himself up. When we went 100% swaddle free, we put a small stuffed toy in his crib for him to hold onto at night. It helped. I don't know if soft toys are still a no-no at this age, but M can roll over and move around very well, so I'm not too worried.
Zerf - can't check out youtube at work, but it kind of sounds like the Miracle Blanket (you tuck smaller flaps under their back and then larger flaps go around the tummy). I may try it tonight anyway and if that doesn't work try swaddling just one arm to see if that stops her trying to escape. I'll also look in to the Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack. We have the regular Halo sleep sacks. The Woombie looks like it might work, but I don't want to spend a lot of money (we need two) if I can just figure out a way for her to go swaddle-free.
I am a fully aware of how lucky we are with her sleep schedule and I thank the universe every day. She has been like this since the beginning. I had to convince the pedi at 1 week to let her sleep 6 hours and finally at one month they told me I could stop waking her at night to nurse (she was gaining 0.5 lbs+ per week). She loves her sleep and it's totally good karma for the very difficult first year of DD #1's life (reflux, MSPI, chronic ear infections, had to be worn for the first three months, etc.). DD #2 is proof positive that babies can truly be all angel and no devil
. She was allowed to bake for as long as she needed and I think it made all the difference - plus she was 9 lbs 6 oz when she was born.