To swaddle or not to swaddle

[HandMini]

My DD is 14 weeks, sleeping well at night, but we're finding it very hard to get her to nap during the day. She gets tired and crotchety but will usually only sleep for 30-40 mins at a time before waking. A friend suggested swaddling her.

I did this when she was 0-4 weeks old, and it seemed appropriate and to work for her as a newborn. However, now she is very into sucking fingers / hopefully starting to self soothe and I wonder if a swaddle at this age is not right (is she too old?) or is going to limit self soothing behaviours.

Any thoughts you might have?

PS Yes, I know I could just try it and see what happens but thought I would canvas opinion first.

You could try a sleeping bag, she might be feeling a bit uncomfortable and these bags are great. She will feel as if she is being swaddled, but still be able to find her finger for comfort.

Big fan of swaddling here!! It worked a dream for naps (just did sleeping bag at.night) up to DD being around 5mo and wanting a bit more freedom.

Although she did end up needing a dummy as well (she self soothes now with a dummy at 8mo)so if u would rather her thumb suck it may be best not to do it.

thanks both, I'm next to a sleeping swaddled DD now!

She does use a dummy. I'm going to keep trying the swaddling for naps and we use a sleeping bag at night (which she seems fine with).

I am only concerned because she seems to be having only 12-13 total hours sleep per 24 hour period, with 11 or so of that overnight, so sometimes only 1 hour of napping a day which seems very little to me for a three month old.

I think you can swaddle underarm too, freeing their hands, yet giving the same feeling of 'tightness'?

You may find that she sleeps for longer stretches when swaddled. I could not get my DD to sleep for longer than 45mins at a time without a swaddle.

my 9mth old dd is STILL swaddled for naps and nighttime sleeps!! she rarely sleeps not swaddled, sometimes in the car or pushchair and she amazed me the other evening by falling asleep on the floor! unswaddled.

but she really does in general still need to be swaddled to go to sleep, if not she rubs her eyes, face etc and just gets upset :( and it seems that swaddling her is a 'cue' for her going to sleep.

you can just give it a go, she will let you know if she doesnt like it :)

thanks for the input everyone. I'm going with sleeping bag at night, and we're swaddling (includng arms at the moment) for naps. She doesn't actually go as ballistic as I expected when her arms are swaddled so I'm hoping it's going to be a good "cue" as 4madboys suggests.