April 2014 Moms

Start swaddling at 11 weeks?

The longest stretch DS gives at night is about 4 hrs. He's over 14 lb and eats 35 oz formula per day. I stopped swaddling him at 5 wks bc he screamed his head off and seemed to like his hands near his face. I guess by now I would have thought he'd sleep longer stretches. Should I try swaddling again? He goes to be about 7 but usually last nap of the day ends around 4. Needless to say he's usually a tired mess by bedtime. My 18.5 mo DD is still in daycare during my maternity leave so we have to go pick her up and he's not good about napping 'on the go' so I have no other option. Not sure if his late day over tiredness is contributing to his inability to give long night stretch. Thoughts on this or swaddling again? Thanks.

Re: Start swaddling at 11 weeks?

  • Some babies just aren't long sleepers. And 4hrs is very normal. DD1 is 25 months and has never slept through the night, I really don't think she's ever slept more than 6hrs at a time. Maybe your trying to put him down too early? It's not even dark here til like 9. DD2 is 13lbs at 10wks and goes to sleep between 9-10 in stretches of about 3-4hrs.
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  • Thanks for your response. He set his own bedtime. We used to keep him downstairs and he would 'nap' for 3-4 hours and be totally out cold so we started puttng him to bed then. I wish he'd go to bed later!!! And like I mentioned, late afternoon naps haven't been more than 10 mins in te car since picking up DD. So he's exhausted by 7.
  • DS1 hated the swaddle until he was 4 months. At that time I tried it out of desperation and he slept beautifully. That worked for several months. I say try it out, what have you got to lose. And if it doesn't help now, that doesn't mean it won't work in the future.
  • We're starting to swaddle again too at 9 1/2 weeks because we're moving her to the crib. But I'd take the consistent 4 hours...some of us are only getting 2-3 still...
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  • We recently started swaddling again at 11 weeks. I tried it early on, but she much prefered to have her hands by her face. However her arms move wayyyyy too much for her to settle down now, even when she is clearly tired. I tried gently holding her arms down the other night and she passed right out so I swaddled her starting the next night. We have had good luck with her falling asleep more quickly now and her first sleep session is five hours where before it was only 2-3. Not sure if that is due to her growing older/more able to sleep longer or the swaddle...
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  • It can't hurt to try it for a few nights and see what happens.

    Some babies don't sleep long stretches early on though. I know you have been looking to fix his sleep "problem", but it might not be. A problem, just his way of growing. Now if he was almost a year and only sleeping 4 hours I would be frustrated, but we have a long way to go
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  • We started swaddling at 8.5 weeks because I was losing my mind with only 2 hour stretches of sleep. It worked miracles for us and now we get a 5-6 hour stretch most nights. BUT I am already worried about having to wean him off the swaddle soon. If you're getting 4 hours already, may not be worth it for such a short period of time. Most research I've seen says to stop swaddling around 3-4 months, or when they start to roll over.
  • Thanks everyone. I'm actually thinking now of trying swaddling for naps instead of night sleep since he rarely naps more than 45 mins or so. I'll report back on how it goes!!
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