Grunts & Fights Swaddle...hard to get to sleep.

[MPalmer]

Alex is 3 weeks old, has been swaddled since day one and has been on a 3 hr EASY since day one.  All is going good except that he just fights and grunts against his swaddle that he's not easy at all to get back to sleep.  Also, he just grunts & fights agains the swaddle in his sleep.  He's a good burper, so I don't think it's that...and we only give him about 10-15 minutes of wake time other than breast feeding. Breast feeding is going good at about 30-40 minutes. The pacifier only seems to distract him from grunting a little.  I'm a beleiver in swaddling...but why is he fighting it so much.  Is all his fighting keeping him from sleeping soundly?  Thank You!!

[kato]

My baby is 5 weeks old and hates being swaddled, maybe your babe is telling you the same? have you tried leaving arms out? some like that apparently???Good Luck and lucky you that the easy thing is working.........

[Jaime]

not necessarily, and the swaddle may be helping him.  they still have a strong startle reflex at that age, and that may be why he's so fidgety.

also, some babies are very noisy sleepers - my ds drove me crazy with all the grunting, but he was sound asleep!  :roll:

[jbepko]

I thought my ds hated being swaddled also until I tried SwaddleMe blankets...wonderful...and he doesn't break through. Been using them since about 3 weeks and he is 10 weeks now. He's a big baby- 14# at 8 weeks and the blankets stay put. I have him double wrapped last 2 nights b/c its started to get chilly and he's been sleeping 12 hours at night. Found it at Babies R Us, but also online and alot cheaper than miracle blanket.

[webbhouse]

I thought my son hated being swaddled too.  So I stopped swaddling him when he was a newborn just like I stopped with my older daughter.  Then I read 'Happiest Baby on the Block'.  Boy was I wrong.   I tried it again with their suggestions and he loves it (even though he resists- apparently that's from being overtired). It has a section on swaddling - it suggested using bigger blankets (square).  So I made them from lightweight flannel (4 ft x 4 ft) - it's hard to find big swaddlers in the stores.  The book says that at this age the baby is not conscious of his arm and leg movements - so he was actually not fighting the swaddle - even though it really seemed like it.  I tried the DUDU wrap and it worked wonders.  He stays snug in there.  He is now 11 weeks old.  Later I will leave one arm out when he starts to suck on his fingers.

[MPalmer]

Just a quick update on Alex...he's now a whoping 23 weeks old and I am SO GLAD I never gave up swaddling!  The grunting and fighting the swaddle only lasted for about 5 weeks and honestly, I think either he just was a restless little guy, or I was trying to make him sleep too much and he was fighting it.

Now he's 5 1/2 mo's old and we're still swaddling but we're leaving one arm out so he can suck on his fingers.  The swaddle has just sent such a STRONG sleep cue (because we swaddled for every nap & nighttime) that at about 2 1/2 mo's once we swaddled him, he would go right to sleep.  Also, I strongly beleive a very consistent nap winddown and nightime routine helped immensly!  He still needs the swaddle now because his little arms do still jerk around when he's trying to put himself to sleep, but my goal is to be totally unswaddled by 7 months?!?  Maybe...just maybe...then he can find his pacifier in the middle of the night!!   

I hear so many parents say "my baby hates swaddling" when they're trying to swaddle during the 1st few weeks of life, but you have to stick with it because those first few weeks a new baby makes such erratic involuntary movements that swaddling helps to contain those jerky limbs so baby can concentrate on sleeping.  After so many occurences of being swaddled, a baby will recognize that a swaddle means sleepy-time.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that without swaddling these last 23 weeks I'm sure would have been A LOT tougher!!!!

[Jaime]

WELL DONE!  thanks for the update!   

[Haydensmom]

My lo is almost 5 months old.  From day one we swaddled and had amazing results.  at about 3.5 months we started having some sleep issues.  My dh thought that our lo was fighting his swaddle and getting angry.  This seemed to make sense since ds would wake up 1 hr after a feed and do his angry cry if not picked up.  After one really awful night of screaming and crying, we took off his swaddle blanket and he went to sleep.  We haven't swaddled since.  But our sleep problems persist.  I've tried lots of things and I'm thinking about swaddling again.  I watched my lo sleep for about an hr last night.  He rubs his eyes and startles often.  Should I try to swaddle again, and how can I do it without really upsetting my spirited lo?

[teezee]

the aussie swaddle worked wonders for my spirited lo when she outgrew the 'regular swaddle'.  here is the link - it gives a little more freedom with the hands but still keeping lo and hands secure enough to let them sleep.

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=1439.0

good luck and btw i just stopped swaddling my lo at about 8 months!!!!