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Hawaii Babies
SanHawaii08
member
swaddling issues - wwyd? (long)
SanHawaii08
member
this is my BR challenge of the week - i'm getting so frustrated, I don't know what to do!
in
order to sleep (nap or night), E needs to be double swaddled, with the
seahorse on. he usually doesn't need the binky, but if he's crying, it
does help calm him down, so there's a wubbanub in the crib too.
problem
is, he busts out of the swaddle every.single.night. multiple times a night. if i'm lucky, he rolls to
his side and keeps sleeping. however, 99% of the time, he rolls onto his tummy and then gets mad b/c he can't sleep like that. but, he
doesn't know how to roll tummy to back. so i usually leave him to fuss
for a bit (he'll fuss, put his head down and rest, lift his head and
fuss, repeat), i keep hoping he'll learn to fall asleep on his tummy (then we'd be free of the swaddle too!), but after 15-20 min, i
give up, go in, and turn him over. if i don't reswaddle him, he either
1. flops right back onto his tummy, repeat or 2. reaches for the
seahorse or the wubbanub and plays with them. if i reswaddle him, he's
back asleep within 3 minutes.
I really would like to wean
him of the swaddle, b/c i'd like him to stop waking up when he doesn't
need to eat! plus, i'm tired of having to go in and reswaddle him all
the time, heh.
what should i do? some options:
1. keep swaddling to sleep, leave him on his tummy when he breaks out of it - he'll get tired and eventually go to sleep (and hopefully won't escalate to full-blown crying, b/c i'm not ready for that)
2. teach him(?) to roll tummy to back - have been trying to do this, with zero progress so far. he's rolled tummy to back by himself it 3 times, but not in almost a month, and clearly never "got" how to do it again. doesn't seem to be interested in doing so
3. start the swaddle weaning process - either one arm, or cold turkey, and accept it will be rough for a bit (lots of
playing/not sleeping, until he finally falls asleep). will still need to deal with rolling onto his tummy
4. put a sleep sack or something over the double swaddle, or find some other way so he can't break out of it 
5. something else?
help please!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: swaddling issues - wwyd? (long)
What kind of swaddle are you using? Miracle Blankets are great if your LO likes a firm swaddle, and most kids can't bust out of them - otherwise, we looooved Woombies, which are pretty much impossible to escape but also useful for gradually weaning from the swaddle since they offer more movement but are still contained (they also have a "convertible" version where you can have their arms either tucked inside or free outside, which can help if you want to unswaddle gradually).
Do you do much tummy time? That may encourage him to roll tummy to back. You can try to help him along by placing toys just outside his reach to encourage him to squirm/roll to grab them. (This is what I've been told and read, anyway - didn't work with my guys, who would just go "Oh well!" and find something interesting to watch in the room lol!)
FWIW, my dudes rolled back-to-front for aaaaages before they rolled the other way, and they'd often get frustrated at not being able to roll back as well. Funnily enough, their stomachs became their preferred sleeping position at around 8 months. Babies are funny...
we had the same issue with my E a couple of weeks ago. we use the Halo sleepsack/swaddle to swaddle her during naps and at night. In the middle of the night, she'll bust out of it. we've tried zipping her arms inside the sleepsack part and that helped a little bit. i thought to myself, she'll be 6 months old soon and i do not want to swaddle her forever. she sleeps really good while swaddled so i was scared of the transition. however, i know we had to do it
. so for a week, i swaddled her loosely. if she gets her arms out in the middle of the night, i am fine with it. she has been sleeping on her side for a while now so we were fine with that however, one night, she has started rolling to her tummy (while swaddled) and can't roll back. prior to that she has only rolled over front to back 2x while unswaddled so i know there's no way she can do that while swaddled. i also started to worry about her being stuck on her tummy while swaddled and not able to breath and us not waking up and hearing her in the middle of the night. so 2 weekends ago, i decided to take the plunge to unswaddle her during naps/at night. i took the swaddle part(velcro portion) off of her sleepsack and zippered her arms inside so she'll still feel like she's swaddled. if she busts her arms out of the sleeves, then fine. well, the first night we did that, she rolled over to her tummy and slept soundly for the rest of the night! lol. now, we're two weeks into it and have never looked back :-). she is now officially a tummy sleeper. she can't roll over from tummy to back but she's fine with sleeping on her tummy all night long. it's so cute to watch her (on video cam) turn her head from side to side or doing baby push ups in the middle of the night. by now, she has great head control and can turn her head from side to side so we're not worried about SIDS or her not being able to breath. in fact, sometimes we "help" her roll over to her tummy so she can sleep lol. when we have her swaddled, she'd occasionally fuss and look for her paci but now, she rarely wakes up in the middle of the night to look for her paci. had i known this will happen, i should've unswaddled her a long time ago! lol. we use both the Aden & Anais sleepsack and Halo sleepsack. I personally like the A&A ones better.
Perhaps, try unswaddling him one night (ideally, on a weekend so if he wakes up several times, you don't have to go to work the next day) and use the sleepsack instead (with arms zipped inside). if he fusses while he is on his tummy, try giving the paci and see if he'll fall back to sleep? he may just surprise you on what he is capable of doing :-).
HTH!
I am not too much help b/c A was never a huge fan of the swaddle. Even at 2 weeks she could wriggle out of it. And when she was swaddled she would fight and fight to get out of it that it completely worked against us (she would be sleepy & we would swaddle her to put her down and she would lose her mind!) We started giving her one arm & then eventually two arms until it was really pointless. I never put her on her tummy, but once she could get on her tummy that was the only way she would sleep. Literally 5 seconds don't go by that she is on her back...she flips immediately after being put down.
If you do want to keep swaddling, I have heard that the Miracle Blanket (Lisa mentioned it as well) is great and they can't get out of it. I have also heard good things about the magic sleepsuit https://www.magicsleepsuit.com/ i have never used either, but heard lots of good things.
Do you do much tummy time? That may encourage him to roll tummy to back. You can try to help him along by placing toys just outside his reach to encourage him to squirm/roll to grab them. (This is what I've been told and read, anyway - didn't work with my guys, who would just go "Oh well!" and find something interesting to watch in the room lol!)
hah. this is exactly what happens to us too. it works for back to tummy, but he just seems to have no interest rolling tummy to back, like he doesn't know it's even possible, though I "help" him do it all the time, hoping he'll catch on!
Perhaps, try unswaddling him one night (ideally, on a weekend so if he wakes up several times, you don't have to go to work the next day) and use the sleepsack instead (with arms zipped inside). if he fusses while he is on his tummy, try giving the paci and see if he'll fall back to sleep? he may just surprise you on what he is capable of doing :-).
he's never successfully rolled over while still swaddled - he always manages to get his arms out first. there was one time he rolled to his side and kept sleeping, but never again, now he always rolls all the way over. after one of his swaddle-breaks last night, he slept on his tummy for 7 whole minutes! before starting to cry again, sigh. after his first nap this morning (which was a whopping 45 min, but that's a different story), he busted out of the swaddle and rolled to his tummy, and was pretty content to hang out there for 30 min, so i was feeling a bit more hopeful - just maybe, he'd be comfortable enough to start sleeping that way! so i tried putting him down on his tummy, completely unswaddled, for his second nap. 15 min later he was full on wailing, i turned him over, swaddled him, and he was out w/in 3 minutes. sigh. i didn't try giving him the paci - i'll have to try that before he gets so worked up next time. and maybe i should start putting a sleep sack over the double swaddle, and get him used to that, so we can use that when we transition over to that...
but this gives me hope...some day...argh.
I would think so, especially since he's drowsy when he goes down. At least he's not crying. I wish I had a quiet, playful baby in the crib!
haha, true. ...until he rolls onto his tummy - then the fussing and crying begin! i really hope he gets comfortable sleeping on his tummy soon...i really think he'll sleep better that way!
It's worth a shot! And FWIW, my kids couldn't get to sleep (unswaddled) with anything in their cribs for aaaaages. They were like E - if it was in there, they'd play with it lol! We did leave pacis, but that was it - no toys, no seahorse type light, etc. Eventually we gave them some teddy bears (about 10 months, I think?), but for a long time their cribs had to be as boring as possible - they're just too easily stimulated!
if he doesn't roll onto his tummy does he still cry? if not i would leave him there until he falls asleep, even if it takes a while. he will eventually learn that when he is put down it's nap time.
i didn't get a chance to read all the responses.... but does he have a routine to help cue him to sleep?
if he can't roll onto his tummy on his own when swaddled then you could continue to swaddle him. try the miracle blanket you have but if he breaks free of it i'd try the woombie.
once she was able to roll onto her tummy, Miss A loved to sleep on her tummy and even when i put her on her back she'd roll back to her tummy so we stopped the swaddle at that point cold turkey and she was fine.
sorry you're having so many issues but hopefully you'll figure it out. like pp suggested, whatever you try, i suggest trying it during naps instead of at night time so you are most rested and able to "cope" =P
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
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