Where do i go from here?

[rooby-rooby-roo]

Red is now 14 weeks old and is generally speaking a good sleeper. Given the chance (dim room, not too noisy, swaddled etc) he will go down for a nap quickly (within 10 minutes) and sleep between 45mins and 2 hours.
He sleeps well at night too, going down at 7pm, df at 10.30pm then through till anywhere between 5-7am.

He is finding his hands and loves to suck on them, he just hasn't found a particular thumb or finger consistently yet. He is swaddled for his naps and seems to need it to sleep, he also has a paci, that he needs to fall asleep. I don't mind this at all, it has not been a problem at any stage yet. I would like to unswaddle him and give him a chance to self-soothe, in whatever form that takes, but he won't settle if i even leave one arm out. The main problem being that he pulls his paci out and then cannot settle without it, he is also touchy and the fact that his arms are loose really bothers him.

What should i do next? Should i continue on with what we are doing? He is sleeping successfully and settles easily, but i feel like i am giving him no chance to self soothe, or learn how to self soothe. Or should i unswaddle him and start PU/PD?? He is the kind of baby that like to be left, even now we have no wind down as he hates the stimulation of it. We go to his room, swaddle, place in cot, insert paci and walk away, if i am even in his line of sight he won't settle, so i fear that pu/pd will overstimualte him further??

What do you all think??

[tylersmommy]

Wow, it sounds like things are going great! Have you tried the Aussie swaddle? If you use a thin piece of fabric, like a muslin or bedsheet cut in half, he can suck his hands through the fabric. His hands are swaddled near his face instead of at his sides, so he'd have easy access to them. We used the Aussie swaddle until Tyler was 8 mo and it worked like a charm! Directions are at the top of this forum...

If you decide to unswaddle him, there are some alternatives if he can't settle with you in sight. Tyler was the same way, so PU/PD didn't work for us until he was a little older. We did pat/shh forever, but we modified it a bit. Instead of patting, we'd rest one hand on his chest or thigh (patting wound him up). We'd use our other hand to shield his eyes and block out visual stimulation because he had a hard time doing it himself. Does that make any sense? HTH!

[jchang]

My SIL did this with her kids - she would thread a large piece of fabric  (like the burp cloth) through the pacificier.  The fabric prevented the pacifier from falling out of baby's mouth as it would be resting on the mattress.  My DD didn't likepacifiers so I never tried that technique.

[rooby-rooby-roo]

Do you know, i have seen those paci's with the crazy stuffed animals attached - never thought they might serve a purpose!! I might try that with the cloth - its worth a shot!

Melissa - i cannot make the Aussie swaddle work! I get it right on the arms but then it means his legs aren't swaddled well, Do you have any tips?

[tylersmommy]

Clair-

Are you using a big enough piece of fabric? With the Aussie swaddle, it works better if you're using a lot of fabric, like enough to wrap around him a couple of times. The sheet we used was a rectangle, and I'd lay Tyler so that the long side of the fabric ran across his body.

When you make the fold across the fabric to tuck his arms into, don't make the fold too big. Just make it the size of his forearm length. Too big of a fold will make it harder to get enough fabric for the wrap. After you tuck Red's arm in the fold, and you pull the top part of the fold underneath his body, don't tuck it too far underneath him. If you can tuck it into his armpit tightly, you won't have to tuck it in as far down by his feet. That will help make sure you have enough fabric to wrap him up.

I hope this isn't a bunch of jibberish...it does take some practice, but once you get it, it works like a charm. Let me know if you need more help!

[jswerczek]

Melissa- I have been trying to master the aussie swaddle for the past few days, but can't seem to get it right. I took a full sheet and cut it in half so I think the dimensions are 5ft x 3.5ft. It just doesn't seem big enough. I put his little arms under the fold, then bring the side along his body but then there is a lot of material to be tucked under him and it gets bunched up. But when I continue with the other side, there doesn't seem to be enough to wrap it around and after a few minutes of squirming, his arms become looser until he can really move them about. Should I try a bigger sheet?

I am beside myself with this swaddle thing, in fact I just had a good cry at the start of his nap. I want to try to wean him off but am too afraid to do it at night, so I thought I would try it out at naptime.

He is fighting the swaddle so much so I left one arm out and he hated it so I put it back in and he hated that too. I left him each time, but he never settled. So I decided to go cold turkey because it seems like what he wants but the poor baby would just nod off and then he would jolt and of course hit himself with arms that he is used to not being there. After about 15 minutes of this (and now awake time is over 2.5 hours and he is only 15 weeks old) I finally went in and re-swaddled and he went to sleep. I just don't understand why he won't settle as well as he used to. I suppose he is now able to move more and hates the feeling of being restrained so to speak. I have a baby who hates the swaddle but can't sleep without it! I wish it didn't make me so sad.... I suppose we should have never started it.

Anyway, I would appreciate any suggestions.