Swaddling

[pie]

DD2 has only slept being swaddled since birth. She is 15 weeks old tomorrow, and the little sleep she is getting is only when she is swaddled. One of the reasons she is waking so much is because she is getting strong enough to brake free of her swaddling. As soon as the little arms come up the eyes pop open. She won't fall asleep being unswaddled at all. If she stays swaddled she stays asleep longer.

But as I said, she's just getting too big!! Any suggestions on weaning her off the swaddling? Or shall I just leave her as this is the only way she will sleep. How long did yours need to be swaddled for?

Ruth21, have sent you the details

Bobsmum I looked at those, apparantly they can cause overheating as fleece doesn't breathe as well as cotton. I'm sure as your experience shows that it is fine and they are being overcautious but I didn't have probs with normal swaddling (once I had read how to do it properly) so I continued with that.

How did you get on Ruth21?

Those miracle blankets look BRILLIANT - I didnt find them until Harvey was about 3.5 months and rather large so didnt think it was worth the money - I would definitely get one next time

Have to admit have not tried properly yet. Partly due to lack of square blanket, also because when I tried to do it from memory after studying Countess D's pictures on the computer, I must have got something wrong. I will have to do it in front of the computer ... maybe will try later. Thing is, she has been settling very well the last couple of days so I haven't felt such a need to figure out how to swaddle. Thanks anyway, Countess D.

Pie

I swaddled until DS was 8 weeks, as you say he kept waking up when he wriggled free. I took the plung and went into a GROBAG - he slept the whole night no problems, because there was no temperature variation from swaddled to unswaddled.

Also he found his thumb/ fingers, which he couldn't do when wrapped.

goodluck

Pie

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you - no 'puter for a week!

I think the blankets are just the one size - ours lasted until ds was about 20lbs and he's always been big, lengthwise - in fact we never bothered putting his feet in the little flap even when he was about 6 weeks old because he was too long It'll still work without wrapping the feet - it's really the arms that are the thing so as long as your dd is still comfy you can probably use it at least up to 6 months and maybe longer.

I've just given mine away to a friend who's due in 3 weeks - but I've made her promise on pain of death to return it because I won't do without it if no 2 ever comes along!

Hi moominmama86, my grandpa in law has brought one, and apparently its in the post now, so we'll have to see, but I had a good look at their site and saw the thing about leaving the feet out of the flap too, so hopefully that will do the trick!

Hi pollingfold, DD2 hates grobags!!! She just waves her arms around and hits herself in the face, but thanks for the info anyway

Sooo glad I found this thread ...
Hope you don't mind if I resurrect it?
Pie ... how are you getting on with the swaddling? Haven't seen you around too much lately so you might not find this to answer me ...
I started swaddling DS at 9 weeks and it sorted his sleeping out ...
With DD I swaddled from birth but like Pie's baby, if she escapes she wakes up .... but she does fight it when we swaddle her ...
So the other night I left her arms out and she slept really badly ... so I swaddled her tightly last night and she slept through from 11.30pm to 7am. I have been posting on the other thread and I did think it was to do with feeding but I also think swaddling has much to do with how well she sleeps.
Very interested to see that some of you swaddled until at least 6 months ... as I was thinking that I should try to wean DD off it now ... maybe I will keep on with it then ...

I used to swaddle my son, but he eventually sort of grew out of it. I have a pic of him all swaddled up. he like to be held all the time, so being swaddles made him feel like he was.

In my experience my ds hated being swaddled but I had to persevere because not having him swaddled meant that he would smack himself in the face until he knew that his arms were his own (about 12 weeks) and wake himself up. Then I half swaddled....for about 3-4 weeks and now have him in a sleeping bag.

I figure that once they know that their arms and hands belong to them and they have more control over them then they will sleep better out of swaddle.

He's on the GF routine (pretty close to it anyway) and I found her advice about fully swaddling then half swaddling to sleeping bag very useful. You do have to persevere if your baby is not a textbook one but it is worth it.

Hope this helps.

My ds (16 weeks) only sleeps swaddled. He sometimes spends a long time struggling to get out of his swaddling but seems happy enough as he does it. Maybe it is time to try without the swaddling now, but we're just so relieved to have got him to sleep that we're pretty reluctant to change anything! I think he knows his arms are his now but he is such a wriggler he can't seem to stay still without help. I'd love to know what happened with Pie and swaddling in the end!

As I know pie doesn't post on MN anymore I asked her for you. DD2 is nearly 7 months old and still being swaddled everynight!

Oh Popsycal ... why doesn't Pie post anymore?

I miss Pie too.

Ghosty: there was a huge fall out to do with Pie setting up her own website and MN feeling that she had advertised this other site on MN, which might be seen as competition, etc. I suspect this all occurred about the time you dropped your baby, so you can't be blamed for not following the drama!
ANYWAY, I think that MN is cool about us telling you where you can find Pie .

Well, it has just taken me 3 hours to catch up on the whole drama ...
I had no idea ... see what happens when you go and have a baby???
I won't get involved or drag it all up again but Pie, if you still lurk ... sorry that you have gone ...