I have to stop swaddling my DD at 9 months of age!!

[MyHazelnut]

I've been swaddling my DD for almost 9 months since she was born.   It's getting more and more difficult and obviously this has to come to an end  since I don't want to be swaddling my teenager 15 years from now. 

The thing is, she sleeps beautifully swaddled.  It's her queue that it's time to sleep and she gets sleepy even as I'm wrapping her.  On the two occations when I've tried to put her down without swaddling, she will not sleep - instead she plays or cries in an exhausted state.  She associates swaddling with sleep and freedom with wakefulness. 

Any suggestions as to how I can ease her into sleeping without swaddling??  We already have a wonderful pre-sleep routine that involves reading books and  singing lullabies etc. so I feel good about that.  I've considered sleeping bags which might give her that feeling of swaddling without the recieving blanket.  Any comments on the sleeping bag idea?

Does anyone else swaddle their 9 month old or has anyone any suggestions on how to wean her from swaddling?

[Liz R]

well Jake is 5 months, and was swaddled till about 2 weeks ago.It has been very hit and miss, but I felt like you..... a swaddled kid at Univeristy aint good!
We went with a sleeping bag(gro bag), but at first I used a light small sheet swaddled over his arms, to break him in gently.
After that I would put him down with his arms inside the sleeping bag, and during the night he would work them out the arm holes!
Now he sleeps in his sleeping bag, and it's lovely to see, plus he sometimes polls over and sleeps on his tummy, which he likes.
I say go for it, be be prepared for a bit of upset, its worth it.
good luck x

[Katw]

Hi there,

I am pretty much in the same situation with my 7month old!
She loves her swaddle but is increasingly escaping from it as she's getting so big now.

We have seen some improvement in that for naps she has been starting to be able to put herself to sleep even though her 'top' arm is either out or near her face. However with this we are only getting 40min naps, whereas if she is swaddled with both arms by her side then we can get 2 hours. I have been fighting the urge to re-swaddle as otherwise I just don't see how she'll ever learn!

At night she has to have arms in to go to sleep but after the DF we put her on her back for the rest of the night. For awhile she was going through the night but lately she's been waking and cannot go back to sleep without a re-swaddle. Even with this its been taking us 1 and 1/2 hrs to get her back to sleep sometimes and I'm nervous of how to do this without the swaddle!

If anyone knows how we can go about 'losing' the swaddle when they really still need it, please let us know??!!!

Thanks

[Jaime]

IMHO.... if it ain't broke, don't need to fix it.

it's been my (limited) experience that they outgrow it when they're ready.  i've never seen a kid at preschool who needed it.   :wink:

i will admit that my kids were weird - they only ever wanted to be swaddled from the waist down & have their hands free.  but each of them eventually got to the point where they could break out & no longer care about it.  then i stopped swaddling - pretty much cold turkey - and covered them with a blanket instead.

if you live in a colder climate, many moms swear by some type of baby grobag or sleep sack or sleeping bag, so they keep some blankets on.

my 2 cents  :wink: 

[MyHazelnut]

Thank you so much for your input everyone.  I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.

I especially agree with the "If it ain't broken, don't fix it rule".  However,  the situation is quickly breaking.  I have to fight off the temptation to go shopping for a psychiatric ward straight jacket because I can no longer keep her inside her swaddle - and that's just wrong :!: .  If a normal recieving blanket isn't enough, I know we have to wean her off of the swaddle, even though she sleeps so well in it... I can really identify with Jakeysmom and Katw. 

I like the graduated method suggested by Jakeysmom.  I would like to have a bag without arm holes so she can move her arms inside but she can't flail them around.  Does such a thing exist - I think i might have to get out my sewing machine!!  I'm expecting hours of crying - something like what we experienced when we first changed over to the EASY method about 3 months ago.  But if jaime-jaina&luke is correct, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Still, if there are more suggestions out there, we are all ears!!

[Jaime]

I have to fight off the temptation to go shopping for a psychiatric ward straight jacket because I can no longer keep her inside her swaddle - and that's just wrong

ROTF!!!   :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

believe it or not, with luke we folded a twin-size bedsheet in half, and that was big enough to contain him until he was finished.

[Katw]

I am just worried that my re-swaddling may become a prop???

Do you think that maybe the case or that I should just keep doing it and eventually it'll work itself out?

At nights lately she wakes and cannot put herself back to sleep without us re-swaddling over and over until she eventually drops off - generally after 1 1/2 hrs when she totally knackered!

I can't understand the wakings as at 5-6months she slept through every night for a month!
Its seems she doesn't know how to put herself to sleep if she wakes and on the nights that she does sleep through - she literally does just that - sleep through without waking at all. If she does then thats the nights we're up for ages.

So I'm concerned we're becoming a 're-swaddle' prop but I don't know how else to get her back to sleep as pat/.sh doesn't work anymore!

[mrs_kat]

MyHazelnut,

Does the sleep sack have long sleeves?  Mine does (made by Carters, cost about $10 at Target), so I just tie each of the sleeves in a knot.  My 4 1/2 month old can move her arms around inside, but can't get them out.  When we're ready, then we'll just untie the arms and let her at it.

Let me know how things are going - I've only done this for naps so far.  I still swaddle Kenzie's arms at night before zipping her up; I'm afraid of being up all night after being spoiled by her sleeping so well!

Kat V.

[MyHazelnut]

No, her current sleeping bag doesn't have long sleeves - In fact, I've never seen one with long sleeves until I googled Carter's just now and saw an assortment of them for babies up to 20lbs.  Tying the sleeves seems like a really good idea though.  In our cold climate, I'm surprised that they would attempt to sell sleeping bags without sleeves.  Mittens would be nice too.  Unfortunately, the Carter's sleeping bags are getting a bit small for my DD. 

After tonnes of thought, I have decided to sew one.  My plans are radical but I'm willing to share them with you  :wink: .  My sleeping bag will have no sleeves or openings for the arms (although I like the idea of sleeves, I'm not that good of a seamstress).  The neck opening will be adjustable because there will be velcro tabs that come over the shoulders from the back and adhere to the chest.  To prevent my DD from slipping into the bag or getting twisted inside the bag, I'm going to install a broad chest strap to fit under her arms.  Hopefully, having her arms confined to the inside of the bag will give her that feeling of security that swaddling now provides, and she won't be able to flail her arms as much. 

Message Forum Experts:  Is there a way I can let the others who have participated in this subject know how my sleeping bag works out in about a month from now???

Thank you all for your input.

[Jaime]

Message Forum Experts: Is there a way I can let the others who have participated in this subject know how my sleeping bag works out in about a month from now???

you can start a new thread here or in the craft board and share your findings with everyone.  or if you only want to share with the folks in this thread, you can private message them by clicking on the PM button on the bottom of their post.

[MyHazelnut]

Well, my DD is now 16 months old!!  And she is finally free of any swaddle or sleeping bag!!  In a previous posting on this subject, I described the sleeping bag that I sewed for my DD and it worked wonderfully.  She barely noticed the transistion from full swaddle to the bag.  She kept nice and comfy warm inside of it.  The sleeping bag worked until this last June (when my DD was 15 months old) because it became too hot and she was starting to sweat in it. 

As a slight departure from the topic at hand, you should know I put my DD in daycare when she was 12 months old.  She went through a HORRIBLE transition there that lasted almost 6 weeks.  The daycare was so noisy that she wasn't sleeping at all during the day.  Furthermore, the workers REFUSED to use my sleeping bag because they were concerned that the inspectors would accuse them of binding or confining her.  The daycare was EXTREMELY unsupportive of my requests.  Finally, my DD just adjusted to sleeping in daycare in the midst of the noise and without her sleeping back. 

Back to the topic at hand... that nightmarish daycare experience actually helped when it came to weaning her from the sleeping bag at night.  When it became just too hot for the bag, she transitioned peacefully to a bag-free sleep.

BTW, I'd have changed her to another daycare through that experience, but the daycare situation is abominable!!  I've been on multiple waiting lists for years (not exaggerating)!!

Cheers to all of you in a similar situation!!

[Jaime]

thanks for sharing your update!  good to know how things turned out.   

although  at that daycare!!  makes me even more thankful for the one i have.