Good Morning Moms,
My 3 month old daughter is unable to sleep (or sleep for longer than 10-30 minutes) unless she's swaddled up tightly in blankets. However, within the last week she's started to move so much during the night that when I go into her room the blankets have started to creep up over her face which is scary! Any suggestions or ideas on how to keep her snug without the danger of having blankets sneak up and cover her face?
Thank you!
Thanks to everyone! We swaddle her up super tight and have tried different materials in the blankets we used - including double swaddling her - she is ridiculously strong. I pulled out an old kiddopotamus that we had from when our son was born and it did the trick! She slept wonderfully last night although she managed to turn on her side while swaddled...crazy! We'll be checking out the miracle blanket also. Thanks again!
The same thing was happening when my daughter was 3 months old so I weaned her from swaddling. I had been using the Miracle Blanket but she was so strong she started busting out of that. Weaning her took a couple weeks of waking up through the night but now she sleeps fine without being swaddled. She's 5 months now.
If you want to continue to swaddle you can try The Woombie.
Have you come across the miracle blanket?
http://www.miracleblanket.com/index.htm
I used this with my daughter to great effect. Now i have a son who at 3 months is too big for the miracle blanket and that combined with this insanely hot weather has made me have to get creative to keep his arms from waking him up. I lie him on a normal swaddle blanket and then i bring the swaddle cloth up over his arm and then immediately under his body so his body weight holds it in place (as with the inner arm design in the miracle blanket if you watch their demonstration video). The rest of him is then in a really light sleep sack. This seems to have given him the benefits of being swaddled without the heat plus he isn't able to wriggle down into it like he was doing in a normal swaddle. I too kept waking up to find him with the swaddle over his face but this has stopped it happening.
Try the Halo Sleepsack w/ swaddler. They are on the pricier side but definitely worth it for the peace of mind knowing that your little one will sleep safely. The swaddler portion can be removed for use when the baby doesn't like to be swaddled anymore. My son didn't like to be swaddled after about 6 weeks but we were still able to use the sleepsack. I highly recommend it.
Here's a link to what the product looks like.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2596179
I agree with the suggestions you already have gotten. I have found the blankets from Gymboree are a good size and material for swaddling. I have NEVER had a child under 8 mos old get out of one of those. Also don't be afraid to swaddle TIGHT. If the baby is rolling and getting out cause of that, put them against the side of the crib to help them from moving as much.
Why not just get a preswaddled blanket like Kiddapotomus ones at babies r us.
The Miracle Blanket is awesome! I had my baby in it until he was about 7 or 8 months old, and then we transitioned him into a sleep sack. He also wouldn't sleep unless he was swaddled. I was a bit nervous about it at first because it felt like it was putting him in a little strait jacket, but he seriously slept SO much better with it. (Side note, he is a large boy, and 98% for height, but I still managed to fit him in it. When he got to about 7 or so months I would just leave his little legs out of the bottom part so they wouldn't be too scrunched up, and just swaddle his upper half. )
He was a little houdini in all the swaddles except for the Miracle Blanket. Definitely worth the money. Get 2 (or 3) at least so that if it gets wet or dirty at night you have a back up plan. Actually, even just for laundering it, because I never could get a load washed and dried in the space between his naps.
Good luck!
Hi L.,
swaddling sure can be tricky. You think you have the hang of it, then baby gets a little bigger/stronger, and it's like starting from scratch (lol).
I finally got comfortable with a baby blanket made from a stretchy jersey fabric. I could swaddle my little ones nice and snug, but just enough stretch kept them from wiggling out: it would just "give" when they pushed or wiggled.
If you can't find a stretchy blanket, get some yardage at a fabric store, and iron in some seam tape to keep it from fraying.
Good luck!
t
Hi L.,
We used the Halo Sleep Sack Swaddle with my daughter. It has swaddling flaps and hooks to keep the swaddle from coming up too high. I think they now make it in more sizes then they did when my daughter was a newborn.
I DO NOT recommend the Kiddopotamus Swaddle Me if she's getting out of her swaddle -- it was much easier to get out of (but goes up to bigger sizes).
If you're using a blanket, just make sure to make the swaddle very snug. Try the DUDU (Down Up, Down Up) wrap -- check out Dr. Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block DVD (maybe they have it at your library?) -- that might work better.
Best,
R.
I used the kidopatomus swaddles and then a sleep positioner that i kept in the middle of his body, so he couldn't roll. At about 5 months, we took him out of the wsaddle and kept the postiioner.
At about 6 months we got rid of the postitioner.
