4.5 month DD and transitioning her from swaddling

[Theeasypeasywoman]

So my DD (4.5 month old) has been swaddled at night since birth and now sleeps through the night from 9-5.30. She is at that stage where she wants to chew on everything and also tries to find her hands once or twice in sleep when swaddled to chew. I have to let her hands out at night for a minute and swaddle her again and she goes back to sleep immediately. I am now just afraid to transition her from swaddling as I know she will chew on her fingers all night and wake up multiple times. We have already passed 4 month sleep regression which only lasted few days (so glad). Anyone in a similar situation or any advice from experienced mums?

Have you considered using a dummy?

@MsSquiz
No, I have been strongly against dummy since her birth (no offense to anyone using it ) as It will add one more thing in the basket to wean her off it.

I’d rather she had a dummy than her thumbs or fingers….at least you can bin a dummy later on.

Give her a dummy.

Your choice to not offer a dummy but if wanting to chew on her fingers is keeping her awake and doing so helps settle her, there's not much else to suggest.

My DD has always had a dummy at bed time and has been a great sleeper from the get go.
She's 2 next month and only has them at bed time now. And if she wakes through the night, she finds her dummy, pops it in and goes back to sleep and sleeps 12 hours a night.
Not saying it's just the dummies, but they definitely help

Try one arm out of the swaddle (left is the one most babies tend to suck more) and then arms-out swaddle to transition her out.

You can get babygros with pop-over sleeves, how about one of those?

I was dead against a dummy until I had a child who needed to suck. I was also encouraged by her osteopath who was treating her. The sucking of the dummy helped loosed her head and neck muscles which where very tense from a difficult birth. The final decision maker for me was when I read about dummy helping to reduce SIDS.

She may mot even want it, one of mine had no interest in dummies.

It's definitely far easier to wean off a dummy than fingers and thumbs. My oldest only ever had her dummy in bed or when she was sick from about 9 months. She gave it up willingly after we talked about it with her for about 6 months. One day she came in about a week after turning 3 and said here mummy throw my dummy away Im a big girl now.

Seriously op just use a dummy!

My (now 4 year old) DD was like this, swaddled from birth and slept brilliantly. I tried to transition her at a similar time and it disrupted sleep, so I left her like that, didn't transition until nearly 6 months.

She was not an active baby though and I didn't have to worry about her rolling over - but she's never sucked her fingers/dummy

@EnidFrighten We have Ergobaby Swaddle bag with snap buttons on arms. So will take the advice of @Bertiebotts as she chews on left hand more.

Just to note that she doesn't suck, she just chews between her gums due to teething. I applied teething gel before bed once and she slept good without needing her fingers in her mouth but don't know if Its safe to use it every night. I give her teething toys during the day

My daughter used to chew her hands through the love to dream swaddle. When we transitioned her out she no longer did this to self settle. Presumably as they weren’t up by her face. So I would try and transition and see if she still wants her hands - she may not. My daughter now seems to self sooth by touching the bars of her cot

At a glance I thought it read -4.5 month old transitioning! I got quite a shock!!