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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
parenthood4
member
Swaddling
parenthood4
member
My LO has been sleeping (naps and night) swaddled since he was born. He's usually a pretty good sleeper, and we had even gotten to the point where we could put him down awake and he would fall asleep.
However, we decided we needed to break the swaddle habit. He was constantly breaking out of it and often pulling the blanket over his head. Also, I'm going back to work in November and I don't want my mom to have to deal with the swaddle (she's not really willing to do it tightly enough so it soothes him - she "tries" but it never works). We've tried a Swaddle Me blanket and the Halo Sleep Sack and he manages to get his arms underneath and push them up around his face. I don't really want to spend money on another swaddle blanket.
So the last two days we've been swaddle free and it's been horrible! He's only napping for 45 min - 1 hour instead of his usual 1.5 hours. I can't get him to sleep longer, no matter what I try. He wakes up during naps and he woke up a ton last night. He's so fussy and cranky because he's so tired.
My question is this - is breaking the swaddle going to be this hard no matter what? Or is it this hard because he's just not ready for it yet? Should I just stick with it until he gets used to it, or try again in a few weeks?
Has anyone gone through this? Any advice?
Thank you!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Swaddling
I've heard about it too...I just don't really want to spend the $40 when I'm not convinced it will work! Maybe I should though...
Also, we live in FL and it seems pretty hot?
It looks way too hot for me. Unless you keep your a/c cranked all the time.
Well, I'm in Canada and the nights are starting to get chilly. DS slept in a sleep sack for ages, but I always had to put him in a sweater because they don't cover the arms.
It does look very hot (I thought the same exact thing), but we used it over the summer with my LOs. It would get to around 80 in their room, and they were still comfy with just a onesie on underneath. My boys were also veerrrrrryyyy dependent on the swaddle and they slept great in the suits after about two or three days. I love them so much our 6-9 month size is in the mail right now.
Having said that...Clearly I don't have much advice going swaddle to no swaddle cold turkey, but I think you may want to try for another few days before going back. A 45 minute nap may not be what you are used to, but I'd say thats great if he is even able to fall asleep sans-swaddle. We got the suits because our boys refused to fall asleep without the swaddle, let alone do even a 10 minute nap
Try this method instead:
Escape proof swaddle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4VdZxwsu4
Why not just use a big blanket, swaddle him tightly as you can and then pin it closed with a cloth diaper pin or safety pin? Then you wouldn't have to spend money on another swaddle blanket. My grandmother used to wrap my mother this way (:
This also worked for LO when he was still swaddled on a nightly basis. He didn't have a hard time transitioning to sleeping without being swaddled though. He just outgrew his Swaddle Me blanket and we stopped there. Now he just sleeps in footie jammas and we turn on the heater on cold nights.
I know I have to have a game plan, like the pp one night one arm out, then the next night the other arm. I have to assume that it will be a rough week.
Now when do I start, that's the question. So, yeah, I totally didn't even come close to answering your question. But let us know what worked for you guys.
We'll try pinning his blanket, using the technique on the video, and one arm out. Not all at the same time of course!
Thank you!
At that age we were still swaddling DD. She wasn't rolling yet so I wasn't concerned at all. Before my boys started to roll they were consistently (and happily) breaking the swaddles so we let them be and got ride of it. DD was starting to attempt rolling but still loved her swaddle. We were only swaddling arms, not a full swaddle, and only at night.
She was generally okay the few times she broke the swaddle at night but couldn't really fall asleep without it. We tried the one arm thing for a couple of nights, but I wasn't thrilled. What I did is that I started swaddling from below the elbows. She felt more comfortable getting to sleep and usually ended up with one or more arms out by morning but still wrapped up on her belly. After a few nights I made progressively made it looser so she'd have more wiggle room and would end up arms out pretty early in the evening. Then we just switched to a sleepsack.