Outgrowing the Swaddle

N.,
We swaddled my daughter until she was 6 month old. She starting busting out of it every night. After my husband and I discussed it we thought she was telling us that it was time to stop the swaddle method. She is 8 months now and for the most part sleeps about 10 hours each night. However, when she began cutting her teeth there were some nights that she would wake up several times a night then other nights where she would sleep all the way through. It just takes time and he will sleep through the night without being swaddled as well. Good Luck

When my little guy started breaking out, we just went with it... it did take a little getting used to but over 3-4 days he finally just started falling asleep.

One thing that did help with him calming himself was we hung a mirror in his crib. It had a little toy on it and he really loved it, but the best thing about the mirror when we laid him down for the night he would lay in his cribe for about 10 minutes talking to himself in the mirror. After that he would just fall asleep.

Couple of tips, make sure his room is a good temp. If its to hot or cold it will make it harder for him to fall asleep. Also you may want to look into getting something that would cause white noise. We have a small fan in my son's room. We dont point it at him, we just turn it on for the noise and to help the air keep moving. All of these combined make him sleep through the night and we dont have a fuss when its time to lay down for night night time.

Hope this helps :) Good luck!

Between 4 and 5 months old babies are reaching new milestones and may have outgrown swaddling so they can roll over. Then again, your baby may be hot. It's been well into the 90's this weekend and they get hot just like us. But my guess is that baby is outgrowing the swaddling and is having to adjust to life outside of the warm security of the swaddler. He will adjust. I would not get up with him until he is really crying and really wants you. My son was a good sleeper and he slept through the night from 1 wk old. We would have to wake him to eat. But once he got out of the swaddling stage he would wake at night. I would run in there and get him whether he was crying or not because he was making noise. Finally I stayed in the bed to see if he would go back to sleep and he did. As long as he's not crying I would leave him alone and let him put his self back to sleep. Otherwise you're going to develop bad sleeping habits. It's hard because if you're like me you wake up everytime he makes a sound. This will pass in a few weeks and he'll be back to sleeping through the night again.

Start a nighttime routine if you haven't already. We started swaddling from the chest down, leaving the arms free, then we started using HALO sleepsacks. He got used to the change pretty quickly.

I got 2 yards of microfleece fabric from Walmart. It's breathable but warm and thin and you don't have to bind the edges. It already came in a rectangle for swaddling. It worked great because it's a little stretchy and clingy. We were able to maintain the swaddling until she didn't want it anymore at around 5 months old.

We loved the swaddle as well starting from our 2nd day home from the hospital. My son is 4 1/2 months and is now swaddle free and sleeping through the night. I read and we were successful by easing him from swaddling. We began by swaddling but leaving one arm free. Once he got used to that (about a week), we swaddled below his arms and left both arms free (another week). This seemed to help him ease from the swaddling. He had a few nights of waking mid-way, but is now back to sleeping through the night.
One more note, my pediatrician said that once they can wiggle out of the swaddle, you should discontinue it because it becomes a suffocation hazard in the crib once it is loose. So even with arms free, make sure the swaddle is good and tight, and he won't wiggle out.

My first son loved to be swaddled. Around 4 mo old, I was telling the dr that I was having a hard time keeping him swaddled. First, the dr was amazed we persevered for so long and that our son endured it that long. He said it was natural for him to want to stretch out at this age and the swaddle was probably more for us than him. :) The dr advised to end swaddling because he may soon begin turning over and swaddling could hamper that and having a blanket in the crib could cause problems at this age. We changed to fitted sleepers. They gave him the all over touch. Our son was also addicted to a pacifier and this helped when he was fidgety.

N.,
Try sleep sacks, they let the arms free, but the legs are all enclosed. None of my 3 ever stayed swaddled past a week or so..but they all slept well in the sleep sacks. Good Luck
T.

Hi N.,

My son loved to be swaddled as well and couldn't sleep well without being swaddled until he was 6-7 months old. Around 4 months he also started busting out, which would cause him to wake. I wrote a response to a similar question about swaddling, and I described how I "reinforced" the swaddle. It sounds sort of crazy, but it worked like a charm. Check out this Mamsource Request...

http://www.mamasource.com/request/15864751063451041793

Swaddling isn't a bad thing. I think it makes them feel comfy and secure. Eventually they stop jerking themselves awake and you won't need the swaddle.

Good luck!

K.

It is basically a phase and they get used to sleeping with out it. But, if you want to try swaddling still . . . not sure what you are using to swaddle. But this one has velcro, so it is harder to bust out of. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2609022 I used this from the beginning. It comes in 3 sizes so you can use it when they are older.

Ainden and Anais makes a great swaddling blanket. Its muslin and huge. We use it and our son sleeps great. I like it so well that I ordered several for shower gifts. I got mine from diapers.com I am sure that there are other places you can get them

My friend's boy did the same thing around 5 motnhs. If you're using a swaddler with velcro closures a zipper might help. She made a swaddler with a zipper front from toe to neck. I've also seen these for sale so I don't think you'd really have to sew your own. He still tries to squirm out of it, but falls right back alseep with his little arms curled up and snuggled. If you're just using a tucked blanket to swaddle maybe the velcro swaddlers will do it for you. Good luck!

Hello N.,

We loved the swaddle too! When our son got bigger, we replaced our original swaddles (baby blankets/receiving blankets) with larger blankets (thin breathable throws) and with old sheets that we had cut/folded into rectangles. Anything will work as long as you are careful not to have too much material or any frayed edges.

We did find that the baby blankets that look like thermal underclothes (waffle material) were really stretchy and worked better when our son got larger. We swaddled our little guy this way until he way 6 months old. He didn't sleep without it.

S.

We had this issue with our little guy too. For a while we used a diaper pin to renforce the swaddle, then we started weening him from the swaddle. We started be putting him in a sleep sack, then when he got used to that we took him out and he just slept in footie pajammas. hope this helps.