From the time of her birth, we have been swaddling my 3 1/2 month old. She started getting out of the blanket swaddle at around 2 months, so we started using a Wombie, which worked great! She would only wake up once throughout the night for a feeding and go right back to sleep. Occasionally she would sleep throughout the night. Recently, she has been trying very hard to get out of the Wombie and has a few times slipped an arm out. This has been waking her up at night more often. We tried putting her to bed without the swaddle, in a sleep sack, and she didn't sleep well that way either. Having her hands free kept waking her up. I'm not sure what to do because neither seems to be working and I'm not getting any sleep! Should I just keep trying to put her to bed without the swaddle and eventually she'll get used to having her arms free? I know I will need to do it eventually when she starts rolling around (which she is very close to!). Any advice you could give would be much appreciated!
Why stop? They make sleep sacks with a swaddle part. I know people whose kids like being swaddled at 5 and 6 months and it helps everyone sleep. If you are worried about rolling, try using a sleep positioner so she can only go so far. Or consider a breathable blanket (like the breathable bumpers) and tucking it in on 3 sides so she's tightly covered, but not really swaddled.
Our doc said to stop by about 4 months or it will be hard to break the habit. I stopped at 4 months with my daughter and 3 months with my son. Start with one arm out for a week. Then both. Then legs. Try one sleep time--either naps or nighttime. They obviously will have a harder time sleeping but you will get through it. You just want to do it before they begin rolling over so there is no chance of rolling over without arms to push his head up. Good luck. Just remember it takes time but will be fine soon.
I don't think you should stop we swaddled my son for quite awhile. Maybe until 9 months. We used a product called Swaddle Me. They have them at Babies R Us. I do not know what the wombie is but the swaddle me has different sizes. I don't know why as adults we expect our little babies to give up comforts to go asleep when we don't. We all have ways of sleeping that we like, back, stomache, side things we like to have with us, pillows, blankets no pillows whatever. How would we like it if someone came and took our comforts away. Sorry about the rant.
I know this is a little late, but we just went through this and maybe telling you what happened with us will help. Our little girl is now 5 months. We swaddled her from about week 2 to about 4 1/2 months. She started rolling over at 2 1/2 months and was getting really good about getting out of her swaddle, especially towards the end. We had a swaddle me and a miracle blanket, but it didn't matter what we used. She would cry when she got out of it so I would get her up, calm her down and reswaddle. Every now and then I would try to put her down with no swaddle and she would just cry (I'm not a fan of just letting her cry), so I would swaddle her up.
About 2 weeks ago, I swaddled her and put her down for the night. She woke up about 30 minutes later already out of her swaddle and since I was in the shower my husband went in and calmed her down and laid her down without the swaddle. For the next 30 minutes, everytime she would cry out he would go in and calm her down. Then she slept for the rest of the night, only waking once at which point my husband went in and calmed her. She's been sleeping through the night since.
I personally don't believe in letting them cry it out. It make it harder for me, but it was easier on on my baby. I can reason things out and deal with it, my baby can't.
Take what you will (or nothing) from my experience. I hope that it works for you. Babies are each so different, you need to do what is right for you and your baby. Good luck
Hi - believe it or not, my son just turned one year and we are still swaddling him! He often "breaks out" by the a.m. but it really helps him calm down and stay asleep - his hands especially wake him up. We have always put a thin blanket "swaddled" under the "Swaddler" (it has velcro). It stays on fairly well and has always helped with sleeping, even if he sometimes gets out. He is starting to sleep without the outer thing for naps but won't sleep for more than about 1.5 hours without it. At this point, I think he'll still have it as a teenager! Well, good luck - I guess I'm just sharing my swaddling experience!!!
Definitely start putting her to sleep without the Swaddle or anything, keep her hands free because at her age she could all of a sudden one night be able to roll over and if she is swaddled she would end up on her tummy and not be able to breathe well at all. I would be nervous for that to happen. And like with anything dealing with babies you will learn quickly that any habit formed is twice as hard breaking! Good luck to you and congratulations on your baby girl. Enjoy her!
L. - wow some of these responses are SO rude! Anyway, we also stopped the swaddling around this time (as well as the pacifier, as our baby always lost it while sleeping and then woke himself up when he realized it was gone but could not get it back himself). Around 4-5 months we actually started using the Ferber method (get his book if you are interested) and went cold turkey on the swaddle and paci at the same time rather than drag it out. It took a long time for me to reesearch the details of Ferber and to feel comfortable with using it (some people don't like it) but I am so so sooooo glad that we did it. We let our baby cry (mad cries, not scared cries - there is a difference and as his mom I could tell he was just mad) for a bit in his crib after we did his bedtime routine, but we went in every 2 minutes or so to comfort him and he did learn (very quickly) to put himself to sleep. Of course we still had nighttime feedings for a few months after that, but we no longer had a baby that needed things (swaddle, paci, bouncing / rocking or boob) to get or stay sleep. He slept way better, was much happier during the day, and I was able to be a better mother to him when I was awake as I was more rested (not totally rested like before baby, but not miserable at all like I had been). I really feel like we did our baby a service. Now (at 15 months old - and for the past 7 months, at least) he has a diaper change, a bottle, a book, and then he himself tosses his teddy bear into his crib, leans over to be put into his crib, cuddles with his bear as we walk out of the room saying night night, and he falls asleep on his own. No crying. Just babbles to the bear and falls asleep. I know how hard it is in the beginning with the lack of sleep, but it DOES get better, I promise :-) Good luck!
ok breaking all the new rules about babies and sleeping.
one of the reasons behind swaddling is that it helps combat the feeling of falling for babies.
so quite bluntly try this.
dont swaddle her too tight and lay her down on her stomach. do this at a nap time so you can observe her.
( i would probably just not swaddle her at all) if she is near rolling around she should be at a good stage of lifting her head. just make sure there are no loose sheets in the bed. but try putting her down on her stomach.
if this works and you get cumfortable with it then move to her night time sleep.
hope that this helps.
If you don't want to give up the swaddle yet you could try the Miracle Blanket. My little Houdini can't get out of them.
If it is working don't stop. My daughter was 6 months when she stopped needing it. I know others that have done up to 9 months w/ swaddling. Some kids just need that feeling to fall or stay asleep. Another helpful book I read was Babywise. It is all about how to get your child to sleep through the night :) It is similar to Ferber, but a little nicer. It also talks about how daytime routine can be adjusted to help night time sleep. Good luck
We had the same problem. We would put her at one end of receiving blanket and roll her up in it, like a carpet. It worked until almost 5 1/2 months. We started not swaddling for naps first (at about 4 1/2 months) so that when we couldn't do it at night anymore, it wasn't such a shock. Good luck!
Well i don't swaddle. I believe it doesn't help later you can't swaddle forever and I don't do things i can't do forever. I have never had a baby that it's been a prob. If i was you and i swaddled i would stop now since your having trouble keeping her in it. Otherwise you will be fighting this battle all the time. You need to give her a chance to learn how to sleep better in a bag or blanket she will get used to it after a while. Good luck
What about putting her in light weight full body nappers? They sell them at Kmart where you can wrap material around the hands and feet so that they are completely covered.
When we stopped swaddling, we found a comfort item for our son. It took a couple tries to find the right thing, but it worked. For the longest time he had to wear a sleep blanket, but he gave that up too!
We got Cody a blankie. Its super soft on one side, silky on the other and has an animal head w/rattle in the middle. Its great because its small and portable. We picked up several of them - we have 2 at home, 1 at my parents and 1 at my work (I'm a nanny so he goes with me). He goes to sleep anywhere as L. as he has his blankie!
Miracle blanket! Best thing we ever bought. Both our kids needed to be swaddled and this product was a life saver (we could ALL sleep)! Once they started rolling though, we stopped using it and it wasn't a terrible problem. It took a couple nights for them to get used to it though. They cried but thankfully not for hours at a time. Good luck! Here's the link: http://www.miracleblanket.com/
