ending swaddling. - Page 2

[SeekingJoy]

8 mo and counting. If you LO is breaking out and unhappy about it (as opposed to waking up to fight it) you can try a 2-blanket swaddle. It was posted on a similar MDC thread. Off to see if I can dig that up.

[Mosaic]

I stopped swaddling DD her first day. She clearly didn't like it... we just nursed to sleep.

[Frisbee]

We stopped swaddling DD at about 3 months. She loved it, but we didn't want her to be dependent on it. We started with swaddling with one arm out. It didn't take her long to be able to fall asleep without it. She still uses the pacifier though. :

[dianna11]

I voted "college" but DD was actually about 9 months (there wasn't a longer option than 6 months). I certainly thought she would swaddle forever.

DS is 7 weeks old and he also loves it, it helps him to settle down and sleep without accidentally clocking himself in the head with his flailing baby fists.

AND we have had 3 FULL nights sleep!! 10pm to 7am NOT A PEEP!! He wakes up hungry, but smiling. I don't care if I have to swaddle him until college, we're all sleeping!!!

[jamiew]

Our DD kept pulling a Houdini and would get her arms out of the blanket pretty quickly, but she had the startle reflex so bad, she's wake up crying if we didn't have her arms pinned down. I wanted to create a torso swaddle to keep her arms confined, it was the only thing I could think of to keep her asleep without her getting to hot.

We swaddled as long as we could into the summer, but it just got to be too hot during late August, so we stopped around 5 months, I think.

[mpvelaz]

I didn't vote because my DS never like being swaddled really so we only did it for maybe a week and then he slept better without it. He is 8 months now and I tried swaddling him last night to see if it would help him sleep and that only last two seconds, he hated it.

[leanbh]

dd hated swaddling after two weeks, and then at 6.5 months, she just needed to be swaddled again. so we've been swaddling for the last 6 weeks, just top half swaddling though. she likes having her legs free. whatever works!

i told my mom, 'i will swaddle her until she's 21 if it means she'll sleep.'

[lyttlewon]

We never swaddled DS.

[Llyra]

DD1 stopped at around 6 weeks old. She didn't seem to like it all that much ever, and she outgrew her blankets so I stopped.

DD2 I swaddled until around 9 months. She needed it to sleep longer, so that I didn't go insane.

DS is 14 months. He has managed to learn how to sleep at night without swaddling, but I'm STILL swaddling him for his nap. It's hilarious to see this big 25 pound by all wrapped up like a burrito, but it's what he needs so what the heck.

[PPK]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

8 mo and counting. If you LO is breaking out and unhappy about it (as opposed to waking up to fight it) you can try a 2-blanket swaddle. It was posted on a similar MDC thread. Off to see if I can dig that up.

8.5 months here, and I think that the two blanket swaddle might have been a post of mine...don't know if it'll still work, but will try to post it later.

[MeepyCat]

We used a two-blanket swaddle for a long time - seen month? Eight? I can't remember.

In our case, it was totally okay if he got out of it. DS would routinely pop an arm out within minutes of being swaddled, but by then, he was drifting off to sleep. He'd wake up unswaddled in the middle of the night, which was fine - I'd re-wrap him if he seemed to need it. At the beginning, he needed his arms to be held in so he wouldn't startle himself awake, and by the end, he simply had a strong sleep association with being wrapped up, and it didn't matter whether his arms were in or not.

[birthmommom]

this is good feedback...thanks.

I have a bid on a miracle blanket on Ebay, just found out about it yesterday and it looks like what we need. I would love to see the thread on a two blanket swaddle.

I don't mind swaddling him and if that is how he likes to sleep so be it, but he always gets out and then wakes up crying. So i guess he is telling us he still likes it and he still needs it. I just been a better or bigger blanket.

[lunar forest]

I voted college, too, but sd is only 6.5. Now he isn't swaddled to sleep anymore, but he has sensory issues so he does get "swaddled" now and then, still.

But as a baby when he would start to act like he didn't like it we'd just try a different blanket and do it longer. Even though he always nursed to sleep it was still important for him to stay alseep.


IME working with babies I've found all babies (that I've encoutered) want to be swaddled, and for months and months, it's just that a lot of parents aren't very good at it, or worry that the baby doesn't like it. Just remember, the tighter, the better!

[operamommy]

Crossing my fingers that you win the miracle blanket! We have 1 for ds3, and it keeps him wrapped up nice and tight.

[Rogelito's Mommy]

Around 2-3 months old he just stopped liking it. It didn't calm him down anymore, and he seemed just as happy to be able to move his arms and legs, so I stopped then.

[Lady Lilya]

At 5.5mos he started squirming if he was swaddled. But couldn't sleep well otherwise. So basically, we were in a lose-lose situation. We gave up on the swaddling and it took about a week before his hands stopped waking him every 2 hours.

[kittywitty]

As soon as we left the hospital. I kept trying to un-swaddle and the nurses would re-swaddle. I find it stupid.

[Twinklefae]

Originally Posted by tbone_kneegrabber

Ds was born during a heat wave in August, we rarely swaddled at all. After the first two weeks, maybe once a week when he was really upset. And he got so big so fast (over 15lbs at 3 months) that he didn't fit well in any of the swaddling blankets we had.

Yeah to all that! We swaddled a bit at first, but then he didn't like it anymore, and it didn't help, and the blankets didn't fit... so we gave up, and he slept really well anyway!

[mama2rey]

We discovered that swaddling worked miracles for us when DS was 4 weeks old-and we learned how to 2 blanket swaddle. Before 4 weeks he would always get out of the swaddle. We stopped a few weeks ago because DS kept getting out of the double swaddle and has been sleeping fine without it.

[Tithonia]

We swaddled our LO for night time until she was close to 8 months, and weaned slowly off naps for awhile before that. I don't know if other babies are like this, but Sweet Pea's hands are constantly moving until she's solidly asleep, so we mostly swaddled to keep her from clawing herself awake all the time. We gradually started leaving one arm out for naps, then both arms if she could get to sleep that way, and then she (finally!) decided to start nursing to sleep for naps, so that's how we quit during the day. We stopped swaddling her at night because she would wake in the night and wiggle and strain to get out. We went cold turkey, sort of. I was scared to take the plunge, but we were all sleeping so badly it couldn't get much worse! The first night she slept really well until about 1:00 and then started thrashing and wiggling so much I couldn't sleep, so we swaddled her and she slept until morning. (!) The next night she slept really well until around 4:00, when we swaddled her. And that's it... we tried it a couple of times later when she had a wiggly night or two, but she's was NOT having any anymore.

Interestingly, as soon as we stopped swaddling she started sleeping on her side a lot of the time, so my theory is that that's what she was wanting to do when she was getting so restless around 8 months. When she was newborn, she would often roll onto her side to fall asleep.