It's all gone horribly wrong!!!

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

Ds is 5 months, he's been a decent sleeper since about 9 weeks but we've always swaddled him. Over the last few weeks I've been wanting to wean him off swaddling as he's started waking in the night and can't soothe himself if he's swaddled. I did a week of taking 1 arm out, then 2 arms and it was okish - a bit unsettled but not a major problem.

For the last 2 nights he's been completely unswaddled and we've had no sleep. He turns on to his side which is fine and sleeps ok in that position. But during the night he keeps flipping over on to his front and then getting upset because he can't sleep in that position. Last night he woke up at 12.40 and then only slept for half an hour at a time after that - and only then because I bought him into bed with me and held him in a sideways position.

Does anyone have any idea if I can stop him from rolling onto his front? I want him to go back to being a good sleeper before he goes into his own room.

Tia

How about rolling a blanket in front of him, so he can't get all the way over iyswim?
If not maybe just as you were with both arms out or a grobag?

Hi there, my ds (now 8.5mo) went through this. We decided to use a rolled up cellular blanket down either side of him (so that top of blanket is level with his nose). Due to increased risk of SIDS it is recommended not to do this. However it is the only thing that worked for us and we used a motion sensor baby monitor with him so we felt comfortable with it. Each to their own so just thought I'd let you know what we did.

Also just to add - ds's sleep improved dramatically once he was in his own room at 6 months. I think my snoring was waking him up more than anything else!

Thanks both of you. He's been in a Grobag for the last 2 nights and seems very unhappy in it so I don't know wether to persevere or not. I thought about blankets but am a bit nervous but might be worth doing as long as he's in my room until he gets used to sleeping unswaddled. I think he wants to be on his side because if I put him on his back he throws his legs in the air and wriggles until he turns over.

All very well but he does this in his sleep but bangs his legs up and down so hard it wakes me up!

I'm off to roll some blankets

I don't think you want to know we had rubbish sleep until DD learned to roll back onto her back and it took eight frigging weeks. However, in the grand scheme of things, we survived! Funnily enough although she didn't like being 'stuck' she actually sleeps on her tummy. I took the line that she had to work it out and trying to wedge her in would only stop her learning. Who knows if leaving her to it got us through quicker. I did use to go in and roll her back though, but now I actually wish I hadn't bothered and had tried to resettle her on her tummy. When I stopped rolling her back it was only a few days before she figured it out anyway.

I wasn't worried about her being on her tummy, incidentally. I suspect my feelings would be different if I had been.

Thanks fifi. He can roll front to back but he's only done it a couple of times do it's still too much of an effort for him while he's sleepy. I'm not worried about him being on his front if thats how he wants to sleep because I know he can lift his head etc.

When you were going through this what was your dd wearing? He just doesn't seem ken on gro bags.

Well we'd used sleeping bags from v early on as I just couldn't work out how to get blankets working and TBH it never occurred to me to swaddle her (I did actually end up trying at about 12 weeks but only to see if I could actually put her down for naps without waking her). She never seemed to mind them so I'm not sure what to suggest. If I recall, one of my friend's son struggled with sleeping bags and I think she just persisted. It's tough though - by the time they've been around for a year and a half a rough week seems perfectly manageable, but when they're little anything for longer than a couple of days feels like it's never going to end.