please help! can't live with swaddle, can't live without

[begoniamama]

So DS is 6 months old and has been swaddled for night time sleep since very early on, but never for naps. His naps are great, about 1-2.5 hours depending. As for night time sleep, he was sleeping about 4-6 hour stretches until now. He has perfected rolling over, and often does in the middle of the night which wakes him up and makes me nervous since he's swaddled. All of the sudden he seems to really not like the swaddle so I would put him to bed similar to how i would for naps, yet he wakes up every two hours and can't put himself back to sleep, which he could do when swaddled.

So now he doesn't like the swaddle but sleeps way less without it, and seems to be generally more irritable. I am thinking of transitioning to a sleep sack, but when he has the freedom to roll over and move around he will wake up way more often. Is this just a normal phase i should accept and stop trying to 'fix'? I don't know how to live without the swaddle at night and even though he doesn't like it anymore it definitely helps him stay asleep and soothe himself back to sleep. Any ideas would be awesome! 

[~Adorkable~]

I used woombie brand sacks after I stopped with a traditional swaddle on my twins around 7 months, they had a lot of the benefits but allowed more movement and I saw that they could lift there head up if the happened to roll over. They really liked the gentle squeeze, they used them for another few months as they got used to having there arms free. Good luck, yeah moving away from long term swaddleing was hard, but it works and things will settle down in time

[begoniamama]

thanks! i have looked into the woombie but i think because my DS would be able to move his arms up towards his face more he would just frustrate himself to no end trying to get his arms out. if the swaddle is too tight, he gets uncomfortable. if it's too loose, he drives himself crazy trying to get out of it! we might just have to suffer through the transition...

[newmamalizzy]

Have you tried doing arms out of the swaddle?  We did that until DD was 10 months or so, well past crawling age, and it worked very well.
 

[begoniamama]

the two nights i did that, he was constantly waking himself up. His arms are all over his face, grabbing his blanket, and he's rolling everywhere. It was a rough two nights!

[RachellinaK]

I highly suggest the Woombie also, we used one from the time ds was 6 months until recently at 10 months. He too rubbed his face and woke himself up constantly. The woombie was the best solution I could find. we slowly transitioned him out of it by undoing it earlier and earlier after he fell asleep, until finally we no longer needed it. He now sleeps on his tummy or side most of the time.

[RachellinaK]

I highly suggest the Woombie also, we used one from the time ds was 6 months until recently at 10 months. He too rubbed his face and woke himself up constantly. The woombie was the best solution I could find. we slowly transitioned him out of it by undoing it earlier and earlier after he fell asleep, until finally we no longer needed it. He now sleeps on his tummy or side most of the time.

[begoniamama]

i ended up getting a heavy sleep sack that has worked out pretty well. he is able to move around but luckily puts himself back to sleep most of the time!