Transition from swaddle to gro bag - help! Nothing's working!

[Dreemagurl]

So tonight we've tried to put 18 wk DD in a gro bag as the last few nights she has woken herself up continually by wriggling out of the swaddle. Disastrous results - her arms were flailing and she was hitting herself in the face and pulling her dummy out and screaming. Have tried tucking her arms in with a muslin but she easily wriggled out. After half an hour of screaming I caved and swaddled her - asleep straightaway. However I know that she'll somehow Houdini herself free throughout the night and continually wake herself (and us) up. We have tried the Woombie but she still managed to get her arms out up by her chin.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can either stop her from breaking out the swaddle or get her to go down in the Gro bag without keeping herself awake. I am at my wits end and completely sleep deprived :(

Why not put her in grobag, and still use the swaddle blanket for her arms? She'll get used to being able to move her legs, but have the secure feeling of having her arms swaddled. Then you could gradually make the arm-swaddle less and less tight. Maybe

I had something called a SwaddleMe, iirc, at that age (ebay). It comes in larger sizes, stays closed with soft velcro (no wriggling loose!) and was our sanity saver until DS accepted the Grobag! :) hth

I bought a woombie that goes up to 25lb and is 'convertible' you can let the arms out as baby is ready. Bit expensive though.

We had our DD in the miracle blanket from mothercare until she was at least 6 months. If you google it, you should see a pic. Good luck.

Sorry I read too fast and see you tried that already.

Hi. We are using the Woombie with our DD (16wo) and I recently bought another 2nd hand one to use when first one was in the wash. To my surprise, she could suddenly wiggle her fingers/hands out at the top and this alarmed me as she was able to pull the neck up to her nose so I was worried about smothering. Both Woombies are the same size but I think the second one was used more and lost some of it's stretch?
I have now noticed that the first one is going the same way - it is better just out of the wash!
Was yours new?

As bubbles said, miracle swaddling blanket from mothercare. I used it swaddle dd for 7 months. When she got to big for the feet bit I put her in a grobag and swaddled her arms over the top, worked really well.

Miracle blanket here too. Though she is 5.5 months and I have no idea how to deswaddle her! In the mean time you could try muslin or something over the arms and under the back, then wrap with a normal swaddle blanket.