How do you stop swaddling?

[PartialToACupOfMilo]

I've had my DD (14 wks) in a swaddle blanket (miracle wrap) for the past three weeks or so and she sleeps brilliantly in it. It's really helped her to get to sleep and we've gone from spending up to an hour getting her to fall asleep to ten minutes from screaming after bath to fast asleep. The problem is that she is starting to lean on her side from being on her back and I'm really scared that she'll roll one night and not be able to roll back or get into a safe position because her arms are inside the blanket pinned to her sides. Also the wrap is only to be used up to 14 wks (although not sure of the manufacturers' main reason for this) and she fights it a bit more now when I'm wrapping her arms into it, so I think she is 'ready' to not be snuggled up in that way anymore. I have a couple of grobags to move her into and have tried them out with her on a few occasions, but she takes absolutely ages to get to sleep and keeps waking up. She still has quite a strong startle reflex and as she drops off her arms shoot up and she wakes herself up. She also tries to scratch her head and face when she's out of her swaddle - have turned over her babygrow sleeves but she still bashes herself in the head, which is what wakes her up.

Does anyone have any advice of how to get her sleeping well in the grobag? Do I just need to put her in a grobag and be prepared to have a few nights of disrupted sleep? She wakes up twice in the night anyway - I don't think I can cope with more often now

I swaddle ds2 in a large holey blanket or a thin sheet. He keeps his arms out. I put a blanket on top.

I did the same with dd until she kept unwrapping herself through kicking (at about 1 year), I moved onto a grobag then.

When they fight their way out its generally time to stop swaddling. DS1 was partly swaddled until around 7 months. DS2 was swaddled till around 4 months. We then moved to grobag and a huge muslin to partly swaddle them (just went to a department store and got a metre by metre piece and hemmed it) - one arm out then both arms out then no swaddle at all. If her startle reflex is still strong she probably could do with being swaddled for longer. The 14 week cut off really isnt the end of the world - some babies like the comfort of being swaddled for longer (as demonstrated by my 2 sons) - just do what works for you as a family.

Thanks for the advice mel and dinky.

Well, this evening she went down with her usual swaddle blanket on, but with one arm out (scratch mitt on hand just in case) and as yet I haven't heard a peep out of her .

Think I'm going to stick with her usual blanket and have one arm out for 4-5 days, then add the other for a few days then move her into her grobag - will hopefully take a couple of weeks max. The grobag body part is actually quite tight so fingers crossed it will be a bit like a swaddle on her. I can always use a muslin on the arms at that stage if I need to.

My dd was swaddled for ages, when she started fighting her way out of it my dp started tucking her in really tightly with sheets and and blankets and she seems to feel really secure. She still goes to bed like this age 2, I can't see her ever having a duvet tbh.

Well Tess had her own ideas about how this was going to go!

When she woke to be fed at 2am she had both arms out of the swaddle - she'd started with just one. She had a long sleeved bodysuit on and the swaddle blanket really pins the arms in tight so God knows how she managed it . The scratch mitt was also off and at the other end of the cot!
I reswaddled her and on her second waking at 4am it was all off again, so I just left it off for the rest of the night.

She's fast asleep in a grobag at the moment - went off like an angel... well with minimal crying - she was really tired.

Oh and she rolled from front to back and back to side today, so I'm glad I'd starting thinking about it

Sounds like you've got it sorted but if you still have trouble when not using the swaddle jojmamanbebe sell a 'comfort blanket' which is effectively a weighted cotton blanket. I've been using that to tuck daughters arms in when she's in her grobag as a transition from swaddling and so far it seems to work - she can still roll around and have her arms out if she wants but settles to sleep well when tucked in - think it provides that level of comfort that a swaddle did without being restrictive once she's asleep.

Good luck!