9 weeks too late to start swaddling? Need to make the switch to crib.

Re: 9 weeks too late to start swaddling? Need to make the switch to crib.

• rjeller32 member

  January 2013

  I don't think it's too late to swaddle! We started our FB at about 4 months of going without, and it improved her sleeping significantly. When I switched her from our bed to her crib it took a lot of rocking, swaddling and waking up in the middle of the night, but eventually she got used to it. Good luck!
  

  
   
  

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• lovinluke member

  January 2013

  I definitely don't think it's too late to start swaddling. My LO is 9 weeks and I stopped swaddling her for a long time, but lately she is really hard to get to bed and swaddling is the only way to get her calm enough to finally fall asleep! Good luck!

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• juliane2004 member

  January 2013

  Not too late. Here's my opinion:

  Here's my recommendation, regarding "putting down awake".
  

  Disclaimer: Do what works for you, this is what we do.
  

  We keep an eye on the clock and keep DD2 up for only a certain amount of awake time. See below for guideline by age. We put her down awake, to fall asleep on her own. No crying necessary. By not letting her get overtired, she is able to fall asleep on her own. Also, by putting DD2 down in her space awake, she does not wake up in a different place than she fell asleep (i.e. she doesnt fall asleep in my arms, then wake in her crib and be scared).
  

  We also swaddle using the escape proof swaddle. I personally swaddle till about 5-6 months old. We thought DD1 hated swaddling, so we stopped at 2 weeks old. Then we found this method at 10 weeks and she fell asleep for 7 hrs that night. It works great for us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4VdZxwsu4

  We also have a fan for white noise and a fisher price aquarium for music/lights to distract her. And, if necessary, a pacifier. I highly recommend a crib attachment thing, like the aquarium, not a mobile. A mobile needs to be constantly wound up whereas the aquarium plays for 18 minutes and has a wireless remote that can turn it on from the doorway.
  

  Guideline for Awake time for babies
  0-4 weeks: 30-45 minutes
  4-6 weeks: 40-60 minutes
  6-8 weeks: 40-70 minutes
  8-12 weeks: 50-80 minutes
  3-4 months: 60-90 minutes
  4-5 months: 1 hr to 1.5 hrs
  5-6 months: 1.5 hours
  6-9 months: 2 hours, give or take 15 minutes

  We started this with DD1 when she was 3 months old, so it's not something that you have to do from the beginning. I think you can still be successful now.

   

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• Jimsgirl5821

  January 2013

  juliane2004:

  Not too late. Here's my opinion:

  Here's my recommendation, regarding "putting down awake".
  

  Disclaimer: Do what works for you, this is what we do.
  

  We keep an eye on the clock and keep DD2 up for only a certain amount of awake time. See below for guideline by age. We put her down awake, to fall asleep on her own. No crying necessary. By not letting her get overtired, she is able to fall asleep on her own. Also, by putting DD2 down in her space awake, she does not wake up in a different place than she fell asleep (i.e. she doesnt fall asleep in my arms, then wake in her crib and be scared).
  

  We also swaddle using the escape proof swaddle. I personally swaddle till about 5-6 months old. We thought DD1 hated swaddling, so we stopped at 2 weeks old. Then we found this method at 10 weeks and she fell asleep for 7 hrs that night. It works great for us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4VdZxwsu4

  We also have a fan for white noise and a fisher price aquarium for music/lights to distract her. And, if necessary, a pacifier. I highly recommend a crib attachment thing, like the aquarium, not a mobile. A mobile needs to be constantly wound up whereas the aquarium plays for 18 minutes and has a wireless remote that can turn it on from the doorway.
  

  Guideline for Awake time for babies
  0-4 weeks: 30-45 minutes
  4-6 weeks: 40-60 minutes
  6-8 weeks: 40-70 minutes
  8-12 weeks: 50-80 minutes
  3-4 months: 60-90 minutes
  4-5 months: 1 hr to 1.5 hrs
  5-6 months: 1.5 hours
  6-9 months: 2 hours, give or take 15 minutes

  We started this with DD1 when she was 3 months old, so it's not something that you have to do from the beginning. I think you can still be successful now.

   

  thanks. We can actually put him down awake in his RNP for bed. He looks around for a few, sucks his hands and is out. The crib, granted I only plopped him in it once so he could check it out, was a totally different story. Hopefully the swaddle will help I know he needs to go to his room, I am just so scared of screwing up a good thing since he sleeps pretty decent in the RNP in our room. I had the aquarium, but I gave it away since I never used it for DD. I do have a white noise machine which also can project fish or nursery rhyme characters on the ceiling, maybe I will try that, too.

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• KatieKate81 member

  January 2013

  juliane2004:

  Not too late. Here's my opinion:

  Here's my recommendation, regarding "putting down awake".
  

  Disclaimer: Do what works for you, this is what we do.
  

  We keep an eye on the clock and keep DD2 up for only a certain amount of awake time. See below for guideline by age. We put her down awake, to fall asleep on her own. No crying necessary. By not letting her get overtired, she is able to fall asleep on her own. Also, by putting DD2 down in her space awake, she does not wake up in a different place than she fell asleep (i.e. she doesnt fall asleep in my arms, then wake in her crib and be scared).
  

  We also swaddle using the escape proof swaddle. I personally swaddle till about 5-6 months old. We thought DD1 hated swaddling, so we stopped at 2 weeks old. Then we found this method at 10 weeks and she fell asleep for 7 hrs that night. It works great for us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4VdZxwsu4

  We also have a fan for white noise and a fisher price aquarium for music/lights to distract her. And, if necessary, a pacifier. I highly recommend a crib attachment thing, like the aquarium, not a mobile. A mobile needs to be constantly wound up whereas the aquarium plays for 18 minutes and has a wireless remote that can turn it on from the doorway.
  

  Guideline for Awake time for babies
  0-4 weeks: 30-45 minutes
  4-6 weeks: 40-60 minutes
  6-8 weeks: 40-70 minutes
  8-12 weeks: 50-80 minutes
  3-4 months: 60-90 minutes
  4-5 months: 1 hr to 1.5 hrs
  5-6 months: 1.5 hours
  6-9 months: 2 hours, give or take 15 minutes

  We started this with DD1 when she was 3 months old, so it's not something that you have to do from the beginning. I think you can still be successful now.

   

  I totally agree with not letting her get overtired. For the first 5 weeks, I didn't realize this was part of my LO's problem! I thought she should be up for several hours at a time, because after all, she wasn't going to sleep on her own!

  After 5 weeks I started swaddling her again, and watching heavily for her sleep cues, and now she's a much happier baby. My LO at 7 weeks most of the time can only handle being up for about an hour before going back down again.

  Also, we are transitioning to the crib right now, and last night was her first complete night in the crib, and there was a lot of waking up between feedings and settling her down, but I know it will come with time, but the swaddling helps. I plan to break the swaddle after I have her sleeping well at night in her crib...one step at a time. 

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• adopduction

  January 2013

  We're working on transitioning DS to his crib, and started swaddling for the same reason you are considering.  We started when he was 9 wo.  He still sleeps in the RnP at night (in his own room now), but will take pretty long naps during the day in his crib.  We found what worked for us was LOUD white noise, swaddle, inclined crib mattress, and a music box that attached to the crib rail like pp mentioned.  We're going to try transitioning him into the crib at night very soon.  

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