Is 7months and a half to old to be swaddle?

[Marie-Claude]

My baby needs his pacifier to sleep. When he is not swaddle, he takes his pacifier out and cry. To make him sleep, we kept him swaddle. We wanted to swaddle him until he was able to put his pacifier back in his mouth on his own. He is now almost 8 months. Most of the time, he seems able to put his pacifier back in his mouth.
But it seems that he became dependant of the swaddling.

He will be able to fall asleep no swaddled but he will wake up after half an hour and won't be able to go back to sleep even if his pacifier is in his mouth. I don't know if I should stop swaddling him or wait that he is older and, hopefully, will naturally preffer not to be swaddle anymore.

On hard day, like teething, my baby wakes up once or twice. I put his pacifier back in his mouth and he go right back to sleep. So it is not a big problem. He can usually sleep all night long and have good naps when he is swaddle. If his not swaddle, he doesn't nap for long and can't fall asleep on his own at all.

Am I creating a bad habit? Will I get in bigger trouble if I keep swaddling him? If it works well for him, should I let him stay swaddle or should I no swaddle him so he can learn to get independent from it?  It's just seems a lot of work to wean him off... So if it doesn't cause any problems later or if he will naturally preffer not fall asleep without being swaddle, I will prefer that... But I don't know any baby who stayed swaddle so long so I don't know please help!

Sorry for my english !

[MargaretC]

Hi Marie Claude! Firstly, your English is MUCH better than ANY second language I have  We still swaddle DD for naps - leaving 1 arm out so she can suck her thumb. She's just about to turn 7 mo. I have no plans to stop this unless someone gives me a very good reason. She's begining to move about her cot and I feel swaddling settles her and keeps her in one place, so better sleep! At night we put her in a baby sleeping bag, and she's quite happy in that. if you feel it's becoming a prop, why don't you try loosening the swaddle a bit more every few days? Just a suggestion!  Take care, Margaret xx

[writelydivided]

My son is a bit over 8 months old, and I still have to swaddle him, too. I've thought about trying to wean him from the swaddle, but frankly, I'm too exhausted to deal with a potential lost nap or middle of the night wake-up. We started swaddling him at about 10 weeks, due to what I call "crazy arm" syndrome. He'd bat at his face and couldn't get to sleep unless we held his arms down. A friend introduced us to swaddling, and it worked wonders (he almost immediately went from 3-4 hours of sleep to an amazing 6+).

Now, at 8 months (and an amazing 12 hours of sleep at night!) Jack can get his arms out if he wants to. Every once in a while if I go in his room before he's awake in the morning, I'll find an arm or two out and he's still half asleep. He's even fallen asleep for a nap recently after having wiggled out of the swaddle while I was out of the room for a few minutes letting him settle. I was so surprised when I went back in to check and he was sleeping with both arms and one leg out. 

I worried when he started rolling over to sleep on his belly, but he's shown me his amazing rolling while swaddled abilities (which he seems to be quite proud of) and he's quite agile!

I do worry too, about getting him out of the swaddle. But, I think he's getting closer to where he'll just stop needing/wanting it. I don't think it's a prop for him. I think it's more like part of his wind-down ritual--a comforting cue that it's time to sleep.  It's spring here now so I do hope he'll grow out of it soon, because it's going to get too warm for the fleece swaddle we use.

Margaret, I think I'll try the sleeping bag like you mentioned for night soon. I think that will work well for us, but that it will take a while longer to remove the swaddle for naps.

Jack's still got a bit of his "crazy arm" syndrome. . . but I have noticed that he's starting to be able to fall asleep with a hand up by his face. He'll sometimes gnaw on his fingers (teething, likely), and I think he can soothe himself that way now as long as he's not overtired. Even just a few months ago, if he had a hand by his face, there was no way he was going to sleep.

You're not alone, Marie-Claude! I hope others will post their swaddle weaning stories. I'm interested, too. (We don't want to be swaddling 5 year olds, do we?

[mich0902]

Although my LO is younger than yours (my DD is 4.5 months old), I have the same issues.  I want to start unswaddling her since she tends to wake up as soon as her arms are free and she is strong enough so that they're free pretty quickly.  It's very hard!  I started doing it for her first nap, since that one is easier, but I don't see the day where she won't be swaddled at night.  If you do it gradually, maybe he'll learn to adjust?  I too feel some pressure to not swaddle, but if it works for her, I don't know why it's such a big deal for me anyway.  It's not like he depends on your arms or a car seat to fall asleep; if he falls asleep on his own, it's a pretty big victory!

BTW, where are you from?  I'm from Quebec, and I feel my english is not so great either!

GL and keep us posted!

Michele

[nursekat]

We didn't stop our swaddle until 9mos when dd started getting more mobile.  I had weaned her paci at 4.5 mos due to her waking every 20mins because it fell out, and reintroduced it at 6mos during an illness with EVERY intention to wean the swaddle since she could put her paci in by herself at this age.  Every attempt to wean the swaddle was awful, she wiggles the more tired she is and couldn't settle herself.  So we waited until she seemed ready, and kept joking she was going to have to have her university roommate tuck her in bed every night.    However once she started getting more mobile we gave it another try and it was super easy.  She was ready and all went well.  In fact it is easier to put her down as she can entertain herself in her crib until she gets drowsy and falls asleep.

HTH! 

[mich0902]

Oh and I just thought about something else...  My DD goes to sleep by herself and sleeps for 1.5-2 hr unswaddled in the morning (hope I'm not jinxing myself, this has only been going on for the past 2-3 days!).  I don't even try to put her down unswaddled for her afternoon nap.  She's moving all over the place and just needs the reassurance.  Maybe try it when you know he sleeps great, maybe that could be easier?

Michele

[writelydivided]

I tried not swaddling Jack for his afternoon nap today. He immediately started rolling over when I laid him down after our story time, so I just left him, hoping he'd put himself to sleep without it. He played quietly for about ten minutes, then started fussing, then crying. I went to check on him, and he was in the corner of the crib frustrated/playing with the bumper banging his arm back and forth (still with the crazy arms! ). He was overtired at that point. Who knows, maybe he would have fallen asleep on his own, given a few more minutes. But, I picked him up, swaddled him, and he was asleep in five minutes. I guess he's not quite ready yet to be done with the swaddle. He napped close to an hour and a half then, so I'm happy to swaddle.

[nursekat]

Yup, that's why we waited for so long, my spirited babe couldn't settle herself very well until recently.