13 week old fighting swaddle but waking herself up with arm waving

[rhetorician]

what to do? she battles her arms out of the swaddle, but won't settle without it...i.e. she is just overall sleeping and napping crappily. Have put her in grobag and she is chuntering and warbling to herself. Not full on crying. Think I might just leave her to it for a bit...the swaddle has to go now I think

DS hated being swaddled, but was hard to settle as his moro reflex hadn't gone. I'm afraid I don't have a solution, we just rode it out. He napped on me mostly until he was about 5 months and then had no problems going in his cot.

Is she still in a basket? DD woke less when we moved her to cotbed at 11wk. We only tried swaddling briefly, around then actually, but she was a real thrasher. Still wriggles a lot but doesn't wake with flailing limbs so much

in cot for naps and first part of evening, and then in co-sleeper, but I think we need to eject her...always happy to sleep on a lap, too

I'm worried about this - my 6w old DD sleeps like a dream at night when swaddled but on the rare occasion she breaks out of it, she wakes herself up and then decides, sod it, I'll get some food then as I'm awake... So I'm in terror of when she grows out of it, as she's a big healthy girl so it might not be too long now!

A friend tucks her baby in REALLY tight, so with the blankets right under the mattress, which would make a sort of half-swaddle. I was thinking of trying that when DD gets herself out of her swaddle. That might do something?

Or you can do a half swaddle leaving the arms free? Or one arm free with the other one tucked in?

I don't know what to do either. Same situation with 6 week old (been flailing since birth). Swaddled first 2-3 weeks a night and then brakes out and really angry- cried for 20 mins- so not doing that again.
She naps for 45 mins each time in day but takes 40 mins for arms (and legs a bit) to stop. It is constant sometimes with fast breathing (does it at 4 in th morning too).
On seond yawn we put her in bed-eyes drooping, staring in to space and just as they close off the arms start to go. It's really upsetting. She is silent mostly with it now but eyes constanly trying to close and yawning. Sometimes she makes distressed noises and if we leave it until yawn three to put her down she can't cope with arms and ends up crying after about 20 mins of it. Has no one looked into this? It means she doesn't seem to get enough nap sleep (2 1/2) as not enough time in day!

this is where Back to Sleep is a bit of a PITA

when mine were tiny that hadn't started - the advice then was to put them down on their tummies (was considered safer if they were sick) & that took care of the flailing

might it help to put her down on her side, but with bottom arm out to stop her rolling forward? at 13 weeks will she be rolling herself over soon anyway? (my baby is nearly 19 so I can't remember how it goes )

That was the trouble I had ponders :) dd2 startle reflex woke her up constantly sometimes as often as every 15 mins. Never got more than an hours sleep at a time as she would wake herself up constantly with the flailing arms and legs. Ironically she also hated being swaddled and would squirm and squirm til she got her arms free. Unfortunately for me the only solution ( we tried all we could think of) was to have her sleep on her tummy. Worried me no end for weeks but that's all that would work

I would have too, caffeine

the sleeping on back thing is statistical - it clearly improves the odds for those babies who are at risk, but they can't be identified, so it's safer for them if all babies sleep on their backs. The startling awake thing is an unfortunate side-effect

as long as they're not overdressed, or under a quilt, or on a dodgy matteress, so that they're less likely to overheat or inhale fumes (2 of mine slept on fleeces & they all used the same mattress ) (was a proper grown-up type sprung one though, with a wipe-clean cover), then IMO when startling becomes a big issue they're actually better off tummy-sleeping

(I realise it's a difficult call to make though when it's your baby )

this was great for ds when he was at the in between stage
swaddleme graduate is an option too.
I loved the miracle blanket. None of my three have managed to get out of it!

Think it's the one thing you can't force reAlly. You can take things away or make them have things as far as you see fit but you can't force a baby to sleep. They are comfortable how they are comfortable and my dd had such a strong startle reflex for quite a long time there was no way I could change that :)

Disclaimer:- I am not in any way suggesting op follow suit and ignores guidelines and tummy sleeps just stating that unfortunately it was the only thing that worked fir caffeine baby .

that looks very nifty, McQ - what a brilliant invention

exactly, caffeine. there is no Rule Book for babies

woombie!!

try again - the woombie

www.thewoombie.com.au/id17.html
Argh

that does look amazing!

I used to swaddle mine with a tight-woven cotton sheet when they were newborns, but they went off that quite quickly, & looser/stretchy blankets didn't hold them enough - an enclosed-but-stretchy thing like that is perfect

they do look rather like grubs though

My dh thought it looked a bit like a body condom