Babies won't sleep unless swaddled - help!

[glamourbadger]

Our twins have slept swaddled in a thin cotton sheet since birth - they are now 3 months and I can't get them to settle unless fully swaddled. This was fine initially but now they are bigger they manage to work their arms up and I often find them with the sheet covering their face (scary).

I've tried half swaddling them and tucking a sheet round really tightly - they go down fine but as soon as they come into a light sleep (around 45mins) wake up and can't resettle themselves.

Did anyone else have this problem and have any suggestions? I'm keen to get them into sleeping bags but it seems impossible!

Many thanks

Have you tried the Miracle Blanket? It got us an extra couple of months of swaddling DS, although eventually he managed to get out of that too and we had to stop cold turkey [shudders at traumatic memory].

i had this problem

dh used to be the swaddling king, but then they got strong arms to push out with

we put them to sleep on their fronts. they seemed to settle so quickly, like they were more comfortable and cosy and felt more secure

in sleeping bags

I also agree with Grobags, they are fab. But not sure what to do if they won't sleep in them either!

ooh i've just found a kiddiscope thingy will find one on ebay for u, it'sa excellent for joey. althou he's too big now so gonna be using a plain grow bag in future.

the 45 mins thing, norty I know but I go in and shush joey back to sleep again - sometimes it takes a cuddle other times just a shushing.

blanket deffo a fab thing, wish i'd found it sooner tbh.

Same problem with DS2. I used to make the lanket around him very thight AND secure it with safety pins . Helped for a couple of weeks only because he managed to get out of it very quickly.
I then put him in a sleeping bag with a bed sheet over him tighly tucked under the matress.
Also had two towels on the sides of the cot, under the bed sheet, to make the cot 'smaller'. I had to leave them until he was about 14 months old becuse otherwise his sleep was diturbed.

The swaddling route defintely worked for us but our little poppet just grew out of needing to be swaddled. Not much help to you i am sure but once they realise that their arms are their own things get better.