Breaking the swaddle habit: How's everyone doing?

Scout05 · July 2011

I know there were a bunch of us starting to wean LOs from the swaddle. How is everyone doing?

DD is regressing a little bit - we had no issues the first night, a little bit of a harder time going down the second night, and so on. It took two hours to get her to sleep for good tonight - she was so tired, but I would lay her down and she'd swing her legs up, wake up and start crying.

Ugh. I'm super thankful that she sleeps well once she's down, but I wish there was some way to make it easier during the bed time routine (the swaddle used to be the thing that put her right to sleep. But she rolled over the other day and is on her side now when I go into her room in the morning, so we are for sure done with it.)

mrambo3 · July 2011

Dylan made a pretty easy tranition. He started busting out of the Velcro swaddle blankets so I knew it was time. It takes him maybe 5 more minutes to fall asleep since his hands are free but once he's down, he's out until the morning.

*K · July 2011

Last night is the first night we tried and she did better than a regular night... I think because before she was constantly waking herself up by getting her arm halfway out, but still stuck. But like you, the swaddle is part of the routine, so today we still used it and when she wakes up mad about her arms I let them out and she falls back asleep. I'm not ready to get rid of it completely.

ams8099 · July 2011

I'm not

SandiaPinaMama · July 2011

Glad you posted this Scout, because I was thinking about your previous post about deswaddling. I have kind of a dumb follow-up question: how do I know that he can't be swaddled anymore? I've stopped super-swaddling. I swaddle using Aden+Anais, and his arms are out in the morning. Can someone clarify for me?

RunningGal900 · July 2011

I use the Woombie with arms out. He is safe if he rolls and nothing can go over his face, but still gives him a secure feeling around his belly. I'm not ready to give it up completely, so this provides a compromise.

handsonthewheel · July 2011

It's been up and down for us--DD is definitely cannot put herself to sleep unless she is swaddled and I think we are in for a long few weeks until she learns how to settle herself. We are doing a lot of walking with her at the moment and it can take a good 2 hours before she finally settles without waking herself right back up. She also used to STTN (from around 9pm to 7am) but since stopping the swaddle completely, she has woken the past few nights and was unable to settle herself back down. Last night was our best night de-swaddled so far: I started her bedtime routine around 6:30pm and amazingly, I was able to get her to sleep by 8pm and she stayed asleep until almost 2am, when she woke herself up after getting her legs stuck in the crib slats. After moving her back to the center, she settled on and off for another hour (I got up at 2:30am to help reposition her again) and then at 3am she woke herself up crying when an arm was stuck through the crib slats. At this point, I brought her into our bed and she went back to sleep immediately, though woke again at 5am to be fed. I'm pleased she at least went from 8 to 2 without waking herself up, but I'd *really* like her to be able to fall back asleep on her own when she wakes. It's all a huge change for her, so I really can't complain. I know it will be an on and off process until she finally adjusts. Like Scout said, we are definitely past the point of returning to swaddling.

HeatherPB1020 · July 2011

Jack did really good... He had been falling asleep on his play mat for a while... so I figured he was ready. Sure enough he was...

Hippixie4 · July 2011

We just did he crib successfully last night for the first time so we still used the swaddlepod. We only zip it up to her chest with her arms out. I think it helped us transition, but I can tell she wants out of it the way she's rolling.

katlizabeth · July 2011

ams8099:
I'm not

Ditto. And loving it!

Kmhsswim · July 2011

I am DREADING losing the swaddle. She's been going 9 to 10 hours at night and last night went just about 12 without waking and I think the swaddle is a huge part of that. I've been trying during naps and she wakes up quite a bit, fusses and does manage to go back to sleep occassionally, but not every time.

We are traveling to a wedding in a week and a half and my parents are coming with us to watch her. They will keep her in their room the night of the wedding, so I think we will wait until the week after that in hopes that she gives them a decent night of sleep.

Jackiemkn · July 2011

I tried it once a few nights ago and Isaac had a fit. There was no way he was going to go quietly. I usually lay him in his crib and he falls alseep without a peep. Not sure what I am going to do or when I am willing to try it again.

Scout05 · July 2011

katlizabeth:

ams8099:
I'm not

Ditto. And loving it!

I wish we didn't have to, it wasn't really by Mom's choice. She's rolling over like a mad woman and it just makes me super nervous. She was arms out as it was, but I came in because she was making really unhappy noises and she had rolled over and couldn't roll back.

She swings her legs to roll, and the swaddle made it too hard. I just didn't feel comfortable continuing.

KCKappa · July 2011

DD has had some major swaddle-hate for the last 3 or 4 weeks - she wakes herself up a ton just trying to get her arms out of it, but couldn't get to sleep (even being rocked and nursed) without it. Swaddling one arm out or both arms out made no difference, so a couple of weeks ago I tried to just get rid of it completely. She slept ok the first night, had to get the swaddle back out the next night, ok the third night, then had to get the swaddle back out the fourth night and decided she just wasn't ready - she was never able to get herself back to sleep without the swaddle because her arms would flail all over the place, so we went back to swaddling for the following week.

Yesterday I noticed she wasn't flailing as much during her naps (she's never been swaddled for those), so I tried bedtime without the swaddle last night and it worked pretty well. She actually went to sleep easily and slept for 3 hours - and I could see on the baby monitor that there were a couple of times she partially woke up, but was able to settle herself back to sleep! The rest of the night she was up every 1-2 hours, but she went back to sleep easily each time which was definitely NOT the case when we tried this a couple of weeks ago, so I'm taking that as progress and hoping tonight builds on that.

MrsLCH · July 2011

We're doing surprisingly well. Apparently he was ready a while ago. We just plopped him in his crib one night swaddle-free and he slept great. He didn't seem to move around and squirm as much as he did when he was swaddled.

smit3807 · July 2011

We're doing ok with Tannah, but it was a no-go with Harper. Harper has always had to be completely asleep to go into her crib/RNP, and when we tried it without swaddling her, she immediately started flailing around and would start to cry. Just don't think she's ready. Tannah has been harder to get to sleep, but she sleeps alright once we finally get her down for the night. We're also trying to transition Harper from her RNP to her crib, so that probably isn't helping matters.

kgail11 · July 2011

katlizabeth:
ams8099:
I'm not
Ditto. And loving it!

SAME. No weaning yet! We rely on that sucker.

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