Want to get away from swaddling!

[NikkiH]

Hi All - Max was 11 weeks old on Saturday and I've been swaddling him to sleep in the evenings from around 7 weeks.  Its been very successful, but he screams blue murder most times when I swaddle him, and can scream for around 5 - 10 minutes whilst patting before falling to sleep.  I've been trying to sort out his day time naps, but I can't face putting myself or Max through this more than once a day.

He sleeps sometimes in his bouncy chair, will always sleep in the buggy or car seat, but I'm desperate to get him into his cot at night and for naps without the aid of the swaddling...he likes white noise, but I'm reluctant to keep swapping sleep props...any ideas?

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello,
I was just wondering why you want to stop swaddling if you think it's successful? 11 weeks is still very young, and most young babies do seem to benefit from this. Do you think that the screaming is due to the swaddling? Is he fighting it, ie trying to break free? If not, it might be worth keeping it up. I don't know how you are doing it, but I believe the Aussie swaddle is really good if you haven't tried it (http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/swaddling-technique-aka-quotaussie-swaddle-quot-vt1439.html) - it takes a couple of days to get used to, but is very good.

If you do think it's the swaddle that's upsetting him, I'll tell you how I weaned my lo away from the swaddle (when he was nearly 8 months old :oops:  :lol: ). We first started with one arm out of the swaddle (for the 1st day I had to hold his arm still as he fell asleep), kept it like that for a few days, then wrapped him with both arms out (but legs still wrapped) for a few days, and then transferred to the grobag. In black & white that sounds so easy, but it wasn't - it took  quite a big of getting used to! But it did work eventually, so hang in there!

BTW, I wouldn't worry about using white noise for now, a lot of Mums use it, I know I did for a while, and it really does help. I think using 'props' like these at this age, whilst you are teaching them the basics of independent sleep are not a problem, as long as you don't use them when they are older babies, and are difficult to wean them off them (if that makes sense, I'm tired :roll: )

Also, just a tip I learnt when I was establishing sleep patterns with ds, if you want him to sleep in his cot for naps & nightime, try always to put him in there, even if it's just for a period of, say, 2 weeks. That establishes to him that, this is my cot, this is where I sleep. Then, once he's clear on that, it's much easier when you do have to go out & he has a nap in his pram/car seat, so it doesn't mess up his naps in his cot so much.

HTH (if not, let me know, I'm tired, and have probably typed complete gobbledygook :roll:  :lol: )