Swaddle Vs. No Swaddle

I swaddled my first until she was rolling over, around 4.5 months--I think that is what her doctor recommended for safety. We moved to the sleep sack also. I have a 3.5 month now and the transition away from the swaddle is right around the corner.

We also used a sleep sack as a transition from the swaddle to just a regular blanket. It worked fine for us.

I swaddled until about 4 months, when DD started getting her arms out on her own. Once I let her just sleep unswaddled, she was fine. I still use sleep sacks, though (at 16.5 mo), because she just moves too much to keep a blanket on her.

Our daughter was the same way she LOVED to be swaddled, and would wake herself if she was not swaddled. She loved it to much that as soon as you laid the blanket out she would go from crying to laughter. She did get to the point that she was breaking herself out of a swaddle and so we started going with what we jokingly called the "stray jacket". We would swaddle her tightly in a large receiving blanket (I think it was 20x20), then we used the Swaddle Me with velcro over the top of the receiving blanket. For her the tighter she was the happier she was so it worked out great. We swaddled her like that for 6-8 months and then one day we tried the halo sack and she was fine! I would suggest on occasion just trying the halo sack if not revert back to swaddling. I don't think you are going to do her any harm if you continue to swaddle, my daughter is 3.5 years old and seems perfectly normal =)

My babies wiggled out of the blanket before they ever hit 2 months. My second really didn't like to be swaddled at all. I think it will just take time for her to get used to it. I would start by not swaddling or loosely swaddling at naps because loosing a nap is better than being up all night. Maybe after a few days of no swaddling at naps she will get used to it and won't need it at night either. As far as being up talking and sucking her fingers, as long as she is in her crib and content then I see no harm in her not getting a lot of sleep, she'll sleep when she is tired enough. Do you not give her a paci at night? Or does it just fall out, so she goes for the fingers instead? I'd make sure she had a couple of pacis in her crib because soon she'll be old enough to reach out and get one and soothe herslf back to sleep. Good luck!

I never really swaddle my children,I always thought that after been curl up in the womb that they may want to stretch out after birth so I didn't really swaddle them.

My baby is 11 months old and still loves to be swaddled. She does want her arms free. She still moves around in the bed and kicks it off by morning. I figure, if she likes it, its OK.

My son was the same way. He felt safe and comfortable when swaddled and wouldn't sleep well otherwise. I've heard it is natural because babies are used to that comfortable closeness from their time in the womb. Plus when they first start moving around their movements sometimes scare them or wake them. I would continue for a while until your baby is a little older.

Our daughter was very similar. It seemed like all other soothing methods only stimulated her and made it more difficult for her to go to sleep. We swaddled her until she was four months old when the pedi told us to stop. We had one horrible night of her waking up every half hour or so, then the next night she slept 13 hrs. straight. We let her CIO for both naps and nighttime. The naps were a struggle for about a week or so, but for bedtime she only cried for about 10min. or so from that first night on, and then eventually not at all. I know a lot of other moms don't like to use the CIO method, but for us it worked wonderfully. She became very overstimulated if I tried to rock or sing her to sleep, so the best solution for us was to just lay in the crib with her pacifier and let her learn to put herself to sleep. She has slept wonderfully ever since.

What about the sleep sacks? Both of my kids loved those. I used them until they grew out of them. I started them when my kids started kicking themselves out of the swaddle. No guarantees that they will sleep through the night; however, at least I knew they weren't cold :)

Swaddle is my advice. Do you own the swaddle blankets with velcro? They are at Babies R Us if you need them. I swaddled mine last kid until she was 9 months old. When it is cold, swaddle with a regular blanket and then wrap the swaddle blanket around to hold everything in place. Not that I say you should do this, but I had a friend who actually used duct tape to keep her blanket closed and baby swaddled. At the age your child is, swaddling is what is needed.

I kept both of mine swaddled for 8 weeks then stopped. The first week or two after were a bit tough, but then they slept fine.

We stopped swaddling our twin boys around the same time. From what we read they need to be free to practice things they are working hard to learn and they do it in their sleep. Like rolling, crawling, rocking and such. They work on things they are trying to master in their sleep.

It is worth just giving them up.

My twins were swaddled until they were about 4 months. The initially slept better swaddled, but once they break free, I think its time to stop. Once I stopped and let them sleep on their stomachs, they starting sleeping through the night.

We swaddled our son until he was 6 or 7 months old. I have a relative that had to use two swaddles on her daughter to keep her in it. Just make sure baby doesn't get too hot if you do that.

my two were swaddled past 6 or 7 months. We used two blankets...with the second one being a thin stretchy kind (pulled tight). We also would pull the blankets between the legs if they got strong enough to kick it loose and then we would just drape a blanket over their legs.....we loved the swaddle and so did the girls......if she needs it, I would find a way to keep it going a little bit longer.

My son was swaddled in 2 blankets until he was about 9 months. Every baby is different and some really need that input. We used to leave his hands out and he wiggled out less. Experiment with different blankets to see what works for her.

Good luck and enjoy her!

I swaddled until 9 months, when she was ready to give it up. Once night, she sounded like she was getting frustrated being swaddled so I took it off and she slept from that night not being swaddled. I used the miracle blanket and loved it.

Hi L.,
We swaddled our first baby until he was 5 months old, which is how long it took him to start breaking out of our best swaddles consistently. When I say best swaddles, I mean the Miracle Blanket. He was breaking out of the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe wraps WAY before he could break out of the MBs, which is why it surprises me that it is one of the wraps you speak of.

Are you doing it super-tight? Also, are you following the instructions that came with the Miracle Blanket? I ask that because, now that we have our second (now 4 mos old), we bought more of the MBs and when I looked at the instructions, it turns out that we weren't wrapping our first in it correctly (and it still lasted 5 months!!). You're supposed to use the first two smaller "wings" to wrap their arms and pass it back behind their body. This makes it much harder to break out of. Again, not something we ever did with our first.

If you already doing both of these things correctly, then you may have no choice but to start transitioning her out of swaddles altogether.

For our son's transition, we first wrapped him (still very tightly) with only one arm out for a week, then with both arms out for a week, then finally he was completely free of the tight binding. Fair warning, though: Once he was unswaddled, we had to do away with the sleep positioner (which had helped to keep him on his back, but became a SIDS risk---like any pillow---once he could move around and get UNDER it), and we found that Connor would flip himself over regularly, from his back to stomach, to sleep. This helped him to return to being a good sleeper, but I was still nervous about him sleeping on his stomach due to SIDS (now I'm wiser though...go to this site to learn about "mattress-wrapping": http://www.thecauseofsids.org/Cause_of_SIDS_found_by_Jane.... BTW, he became free of the paci too, at that time (not as comfie to suck a paci when he would flip himself to his stomach)!!

Just some things to consider.

I hope this helps!
D.

I swaddled until they couldn't be swaddled. There is NO REASON not to do this! They like it and it helps them sleep better. Most mine got to the point where they were only "swaddled" across the arms after a few minutes because they would kick the leg area free. It soothes them and lets YOU sleep. If I could still get them tucked in nicely, I would be swaddling my 3, 6 and 8 year old boys...

We stopped swaddling at about 3 1/2 months. Our daughter was breaking free too. She also used a paci at the time, but she would wake up when she lost the paci and/or got out of the swaddle. She also was turning over onto her stomach at that point too. So, we took away the paci and the swaddle one weekend. It took her some time to adjust, but then she slept MUCH better! In fact, that was when she started sleeping through the night!

Good luck!

There was another thread about swaddling a while ago - it seems a LOT of people swaddle their "older" infants. I had always stopped with mine as soon as they could wiggle out of it. I can't imagine my kids being swaddled at 6+ months, but if it works for you - great!

I am a newborn nurse - and there are some babies right at birth that wiggle out of swaddle wraps and don't like being swaddled.

My thought is do what works for you...

I sewed the arms on the sleep sacks shut and this worked well for us for another month or so. By 5 months, I undid the arms, and by 9 months, I got rid of the sleep sacks completely.

My husband and I went through the same thing with our now 7 month old. At around 4 months, we weaned her from the swaddle because she was breaking out of it almost everytime, but couldn't sleep without it. We used a little sleep sack called a Peke Moe (http://www.pekemoe.co.nz/), it's like the Halo sleep sacks, but it keeps the hands covered. With the Peke Moe, our baby could touch and rub her face, but not to distraction! The Peke Moe worked great, about three night with it, we were able to put her down with just a Halo sleep sack. It's almost a shame we didn't get more use out of it, but it got us from swaddle to no-swaddle without crying, so that's what counted with us.