when to stop swaddling?

[sweede]

DD is 4 months old and we swaddle her at night in a swaddle me blanket in her crib until her early morning wake up when she comes into our bed (unswaddled). She's also swaddled for at least one nap a day at daycare. I'm just wondering when to transition her from the swaddle? I worry about when she learns to roll that she'll roll swaddled and not be able to turn back over. Maybe it's a silly fear, but it's been on my mind lately. I tried putting her in a sleep sack the other night but she just kept waking up and we gave up and swaddled her. She's only been in her crib for a little over a week. Before that she was in a co-sleeper and in our bed.

What are your experiences with ending the swaddle?

TIA!

[Kat's Mommy]

When DD slept in her crib, we stopped swaddling DD at 4 months. She had learned to roll over and kept rolling out of it. We placed a receiving blanket on her, but only up to the waist level. We found that when she rolled over, the blanket got tucked underneath and felt like a swaddle to her.

DD sleeps with us now and we've used the same technique - blanket only up to her waist.

I never used a sleep sack...didn't like it because if I had to do a diaper change in the middle of the night, I'd have to unzip it, get her out of it, and therefore wake her up more than was necessary.

[hipmama33]

We stopped swaddling our little one at 3 1/2 months. She just wasn't into it anymore. We started her out in a bassinet at first but then quickly switched to cosleeping and we are still cosleeping. The only change we noticed was that she seemed to wake up a little more often in the few nights right after we stopped swaddling her and we would just pat and "shush" her back to sleep. She does okay with just a little blanket pulled up to her waist.

-Marina wife to :heartbeat Adam since 09/00 and Mom to :heartbeat
Isabel Rayla 06/05

[kalisis]

we stopped when he got too big for the little crib blankets and the bigger ones were too much bulk and heft.

[Heatherb917]

If your dd sleeps better in the swaddle than without it, then she still needs it. If you wrap her tight enough I can't imagine her rolling in it. My ds is a big, strong 5 1/2 month old and cannot roll in his swaddle.

I have tried sleeping my ds without the swaddle and sometimes he can fall asleep without it, but he definitely does not sleep as well. Why mess with something that works? I tried...and well, we're back to swaddling!

there was a great discussion on this very recently on this forum called... Calling all swaddling experts. You can do a search or just page back a page or two.

[KayasMama04]

My dd never liked to be swaddled we tried and she would manage to get out of it...now we just use a blanket but she is 17months

[midstreammama]

I think that she will tell you when she is done with it.

Dd3 still likes/sleeps better when she is swaddled. She is about 13.5 months old. Dd2 liked to be swaddled until about 14 months. I can't remember about dd1 but I think it was much, much sooner than the other two. Maybe 6 months, or so. :wink

[turtlemama77]

I still swaddle my 13 month old for the first part of the night (when she sleeps in her crib). First I rock/nurse her, then I swaddle her up! She gets her arms out pretty easily in her sleep, so I'm not sure she really needs it. We gradually stopped swaddling for naps when she was around 10-11 months old, and when she's in bed with us we don't swaddle.

There is no way we could have stopped swaddling dd at 4 months. She was still startling a little bit and would wake herself up by flailing her arms and legs. :) Her blankets got too small for swaddling, so I just made her a new, bigger blanket with an old bedsheet (cut to square, edges sewn up).