De-swaddling baby of 4 months

[Buffyfan26]

Hi,

My baby has rolled from his front to his back a couple of days ago during the day. Up to this point he had been swaddled for all naps and night as he loves it. We have been taking one arm out for naps which has been a bit hit and miss but he won’t go to sleep without being swaddled completely. He has not rolled from his back to front at all yet and I’ve given him plenty of time on his back to try during the daytime. Therefore I’m thinking he is ok temporarily in a swaddle at night, thought the internet offers mixed options.

Does anyone have any experience of transitioning out of the swaddle? We have a gro bag so can easily make it a sleeping bag. Any advice or experiences appreciated :) x

At 4 months I would personally not swaddle at night - I would’ve stopped at 12 weeks max tbh. Your baby has rolled over a couple of days ago and could suddenly start. Since he loves it, it won’t be easy but I would just go cold turkey. It will mean a few nights of wake ups but babies adapt very quickly and it’s far safer

@AfterGlow87 yes in hindsight I would have stopped swaddling earlier but unfortunately that is done now. Thank you for the reply

Did anyone else have an experiences of de swaddling a baby? How long it took for the baby to accept it etc? I’ve been having to walk my son to get him to go to sleep as he’s so resistant

Not exactly, but I have read that between 4-6 minths is when they begin to develop sleep associations. Just keep gently encouraging him to go to sleep in his bed and pay attention to awake windows. Maybe look up some early sleep training methods?

I didn't know this until my boy was 6mo, so by that point for me it was too late and I had a b!tch of a time undoing his sleep association.

We unswaddled DD at 8 weeks, did one arm out for a week, then both arms out for a week, then a few days of both arms out plus bag, then moved to just bag. Tbh she didn't seem to notice at all, made no difference to her sleep. She rolled onto her side at 9 weeks so we were just in time.

@Sbena I’m watching his wake windows like a hawk but he didn’t have his last nap so has now been awake over 4 hours and so is struggling massively to go down. How long did it take your baby to adjust at 6 months?

@MolliciousIntent wish I had thought of it that early! He has always slept so well in the swaddle I didn’t think of taking it away yet! My other son was straight into a sleeping bag so at least I’m only having to do this once I guess!

Sorry to say it took 3 months of sleep training. He would get it for a few days, then regress.

Maybe yours is having a sleep regression as well? They do tend to at 4mo, so it could be a combination of losing the swaddle plus sleep regression that's making him difficult to go down

We had this at 8 weeks. It was 2 really bad nights but then he adjusted. Safety outweighs poor sleep unfortunately so you just need to bite the bullet and go cold turkey. We did find the dummy helped settle. But there are a lot of sleep changes at 4 months, it could just be the famous regression coming to bite you. Good luck and I hope it passes quickly!

The thing is around 4 months their sleep changes anyway, they become more alert. In the end I stopped cold turkey with my daughter.

I didn't sleep train though. All children are different but my DD started waking hourly, I continuously responded to her for 5 weeks and then I started bed sharing safely every night around 3am eventually we started bed sharing every night from start to finish and we all slept and it was wonderful.

Thanks all for the replies its def not a sleep regression, he’s a great sleeper and has slept through for a while now, just finding it hard to settle with his arms out. I will keep going as obviously this has to be done for safety reasons. I saw a you tube video where it suggested holding the arms lightly as he is going to sleep so am going to do that now until he cracks it!

@Buffyfan26 I'm just unswaddling now. Last night was tough! How did you get on?

@thingymaboob it was actually fine after a couple of nights! I was quite terrified but wasn’t a major issue :) fingers crossed for you!