Hello, this is my first message so I hope someone replies. 10 week old Finlay has been swaddled to go to sleep since he was a few weeks old. The problem we're facing now is that he's really resisting being swaddled (screaming and flailing his whole body around so that we literally have to hold him down to swaddle him) and when he wakes up during a nap or during the night he will fight and fight until he gets his arms out of the top of the swaddle. I've observed him on the sly to see what's happening, and it seems like he wants to get his hands to his mouth but since he still doesn't have control over his arms it's impossible. Then he ends up whacking himself in the face and of course waking himself up completely until he's crying. I've ordered a Miracle Blanket from Mothercare in the UK (I live in Paris) and counting the days until it gets here. I tried swaddling him for one nap today with one of his arms out and he was able to fall asleep (albeit with me holding his arm lightly so it wouldn't flail around), but as I predicted, he woke up crying after 30 minutes, I presume because he'd whacked himself in his sleep. I'm praying for the day when he finds his little fingers (he finds them accidentally from time to time) and I can stop swaddling him because it's such a fight to get him swaddled and I really get the impression that he doesn't want to be swaddled any more. Can anyone give me any suggestions until the Miracle (let's hope it really is miraculous) Blanket arrives?
