Hands in or out of swaddle?

CA2006 · October 2011

It seems DD fights her swaddle to get her hands out and it completely disrupts her getting back to sleep after a feeding. Anyone else have this problem? What do you do? Swaddle with arms out? Sleepsack? Does your LO wake themselves up with their hands if you leave their hands out??

covertxxamour · October 2011

Have you tried putting her to sleep without being swaddled? I know they swear by babies being swaddled, but my LO always used to fight her way out of it, so I just stopped doing it, and she slept a million times better. My LO has been STTN (atleast 7 hours or more) since week #1. Lately she's been sleeping 9 hours straight, and last night she slept 11 hours. I honestly thing swaddling is overrated with some babies.. so maybe try to put her to sleep without it! Good luck

mizrunzou · October 2011

We started swaddling DS with ONE arm out (haha, he looked so funny) b/c we thought he fought to get his arms out...however, he started moving his arms more and waking himself up - from naps, at night, etc. So we began swaddling again - but we always swaddle in a Halo Sleepsack...b/c DH and I do not swaddle in a blanket well

katiewhompus · October 2011

DD hated her arms in the swaddle until I used the Happiest Baby method of doing it. She would fuss for a minute after being swaddled and then pass out into a deep sleep. We tried hands out swaddling for a week or so but she kept wacking herself in the face and waking up. Once she started getting out of that swaddle we just let her sleep in a sleep sack.

firewiferut · October 2011

My little girl faught being swaddled with her arms in until one day I just did it and let her squirm for a minute! That night she slept 9 hours!

Up until then we were using the Halo sack with her arms out and we would get 3-5 hour stretches from her.

Now I use a swaddle blanket (from Swaddle Designs) and I have noticed the past couple of days, only in the morning, she fights to get an arm out. When I look over her eyes are still closed though so I don't wake her up.

Hope2Have · October 2011

For me, the whole reason to swaddle is to keep their arms in and away from their face. Have you ever seen the Woombie? Hadley wears it each night and it allows her to have her hands together and move about without getting them up around her face.

babyAutumn · October 2011

We always leave LO's hands out because he used them to self sooth. I fear that if we tucked them in that he too would fight the swaddling to get to his hands.