Shhpat/swaddling - how long?

[Truffy18]

My 6 week old son has responded well to the shh-pat swaddling method but now seems to regularly get out the swaddle which then wakes him up. Should I therefore stop swaddling him? At what age do babies become aware that their arms/hands belong to them as I've heard this is when you should stop swaddling? I have tried many times to settle him without swaddling but he does not go to sleep this way. I am keen to put him into his sleeping bag soon but his arms will be free and I'm sure this will prevent him sleeping well at the moment.

I always make sure I put him down awake to he is learning to send himself to sleep.

Any advice/tips/suggestions?

Thanks.

What's shh-pat swaddling?

I might be tempted to try just swaddling him more securely to prevent arm-escape and see how that goes...

(juule I think it's settling for sleep by a combination of a) swaddling and b) lying ds in cot and patting his tummy whilst making soothing 'shh' noises, rather than holding/rocking. Theory is it'll avoid ds being able to fall asleep only if held/rocked)

I think I agree with MrsBadger as 6 weeks seems very early for a baby to be fighting his/her way free. I'd try doing it tighter for one or two nights and see how that helps. I know dd was only wanting to be out of swaddling at about 8 or 9 months! That might just be her though.

Thanks MrsB. I should have realised.
Truffy I also swaddled some of mine until 6m+. Agree with MrsB about trying swaddling him more securely. I have never heard about not swaddling them once they become aware of their hands. I swaddled mine for as long as I could, it was the only way to settle them.

My ds always got out of my home made swaddles so I bought one of these
and successfully swaddled and shushpatted until about 4 months.

joey's only just coming out of it now at 8 months - well naps are swaddled still. I used a wrap which tucked in the legs as well cos he used to grab his legs and have the blnket round his neck! was similar to FF's link. was fab.

fwiw - he was able to get out of the wrap early on so DH had to wrap him as he could do it tighter than me!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think this web site is so useful and people are so kind to take the time to reply. Cheers!

I did try swaddling my DS really tight last night but he still came out of it and woke up twice! He is very strong for his age - the MW and HV have commented about it!!

I've looked up the support cushions on Blooming Marvellous but they are out of stock currently. Anyone know anywhere else in the Midlands/on-line where I could get one - or even have one second hand they want to sell?

mine are all for the bigger babies, mothercare do a miricle blanket, I got mine from australia - then realised ebay sold them to!

there's these \link{http://www.babyrug.co.uk/zbaby rug} althou apparently you're not ment to let them sleep with anything on their heads.

or I got these from australia - they deliver to the UK took about 2 weeks to arrive, didn't get charged any import duty/customs etc, and bank charged me £1.00 for the currency transfer.

the baby shop online Kiddopotamus they're excellent as well - althou only cotton, so you'd need either a blanket/sleeping bag underneither in the winter months as it's only like a sheet - I used this with a bag underneath to ease him into sleeping unswaddled at night as it's quite elasticated.

baby rug even!