Author Topic: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old  (Read 7077 times)

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Offline firsttimemummy

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2010, 13:17:11 pm »
A whole night's sleep - fantastic!  I think you just need to do what suits your LO rather than what you think you should be doing .... and trust your instincts!
L x Having a bw break from 1 Feb 2012 - if you want to get in touch please send me a pm.  I may not be here but you are all in my thoughts xxxx (probably be back some time)

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Offline JLSPAS09

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #16 on: January 23, 2010, 14:14:40 pm »
Thank you for the support :)


~Jamie~

Offline SThompson

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #17 on: January 23, 2010, 17:39:22 pm »
Great, glad it helped! 

Offline kaynay

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2010, 00:17:35 am »
we have gone back to basics although for naps I am not confining soo soo tight just using the swaddle KID POTAMUS and for night instead of 3 blankets will use 2 and will stay this way for a while...a tiny wean but no arms out and nothing loose...thanks ladies...in fact if things go back and he ready can settle I will go back to 2 blankets on top of swaddle at night he seems to have his fingers and his hands fine when he is awake and playing but not in the middle of the night!

Offline mischa.simpson

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2010, 19:39:31 pm »
ummmmm..... my ds is 7.5 months and he is still swaddled. Some babies need it. He can break out of it when he wants to but rarely does

Offline kaynay

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #20 on: February 03, 2010, 04:55:39 am »
hello everyone just checking in with you to see if you are all still swaddled...it is really getting in the way of our night sleep now...he busts out around 2am and starts crying at 3 gets rewrapped and goes back to sleep til 430 which he would have probably slept had he not had a bad nights sleep ...we are 4.5 mos next week...anyone had success on weaning or is just still swaddling??

Offline SThompson

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #21 on: February 03, 2010, 22:15:58 pm »
Kaynay - we are totally weaned now.  We're just using the sleep sack for all sleeping times.  She woke up this morning with a big tangle on the side of her head, so I think she might be rolling onto her side (at least the side of her head) at night!

Offline kaynay

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #22 on: February 04, 2010, 04:09:14 am »
so how did you wean? step by step? seriously this whole swaddle thing is really the worst for us now he was a great sleeper now that he is more mobile and swaddled he is horrid for nighttime...he is fine swaddled in day for naps...we tried to leave an arm out it was a disaster he was screaming crying awful!

Offline SThompson

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #23 on: February 04, 2010, 09:15:04 am »
We weaned by first starting with one arm out.  I did this for nighttime sleep as well as for the first nap because those were the sleeps she did best with.  She would go down okay, but I often found that when she woke in the early morning (4 or 5AM), I would often have to reswaddle her to get her to go back down.  I thought because we were weaning and she slept for most of the night without it, putting her back into it in the early morning was okay because we were on a gradual process.  I would also do one arm for her first nap.
However, for her second nap and her catnap I kept a full swaddle.  She just couldn't go down well for those naps without it.
We did this for about a 1-1.5 months, until DD was 4 mos old.  I eventually moved all of her sleep times to 1-arm swaddle during this time.  When DD was about 4 mos old, I removed the swaddle completely and put her into a sleep sack.  There were times early on that she would wake during a nap and I would often have to take her arm and hold it down in order to help her get to sleep.  The way I did this was to just cup my hand into a C-Shape and just place it over her wrist (so she couldn't grab my hand) like a handcuff.  But, I wasn't holding her down - it was there so that when she jolted her hand wouldn't fly up completely.  There was still enough room for it to move a little, but it would lift and hit my hand.  Bit by bit, I have stopped doing this as well. 
At first, it took much longer to get her to go to sleep and I totally expected that.  It also took longer for her to settle if we had to do s/p.  I was also concerned at first because she would grab her paci (we have sinced weaned her of that) or grab her face or her hair.  After a while, I just figured out that she needed to rub her face/hair as part of her calming technique, so I let her do it.

Breaking the swaddle is a gradual process for sure and not every baby is ready at the same time.  I would give it a try for a few days and if it's really not working, reswaddle and try again in a week or so.  If you try for just one or two sleep times, I don't think that is enough.  It will be hard at first, so I would go a few days before going back to the swaddle to give your LO a chance to get used to it.

Good Luck!

Offline kaynay

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2010, 19:08:59 pm »
fantastic thanks for the detail ours rubs his head, hair and forehead with the back of his hands so I have to keep his nails really short as they rub and scratch well that is good news it took over a month for  you...I am going to keep your step by step...good to know you reswaddled in early am...so you didnt do a any night feeds at that age? u would try a reswaddle and she if she went back down first right?

Offline SThompson

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Re: when to unswaddle? 4 mo old
« Reply #25 on: February 05, 2010, 20:17:31 pm »
When I said reswaddle, I'd actually put BOTH arms in.  Sorry, I left that out.  But as I said, it was a gradual process to me, so I did it for a while until I felt she could resettle without me putting both arms in.  She never broke out of her swaddle, but you could try to do a reswaddle (either full or half) to make sure he's snug and tight.

I would try to settle her with the full swaddle first, but I am still feeding (albeit it's moved out later and later) and working on weaning her from that now.  One of the things I am finding is that she does better with DH than me.  I think she thinks that when I come, she'll get fed, so, she wakes up more.  If my DH can get her resettled okay, then I know we're good.  If she keeps fussing, then I will go in and give her a partial feed.

Our LO are constantly evolving!, I feel like I'm constantly tweaking something in her routine!