How to wean off swaddle

[Birdies]

My 6.5 month old is still swaddled as when her arms are free she wacks herself on the face/chews hands and wakes herself up.

But it's so hot and I'm really keen to get her out of it and just in a normal sleeping bag. Are there any tricks? I've tried those special all in one things (like a peke moe) and loosening swaddle (she breaks out). Anything else I can do?

Annoying thing is that in the day she sleeps really well on her front. But I daren't have her sleep on her front at night - or am I past the risky stage now?

Thank you!!

Well I've just taken our little girl out of swaddling this week and she is the same age as your!
We used the Miracle blankets (have you tried them? they look like torture devices but work brilliantly) to great effect but she is so wriggly now she can work the whole thing up and off, ending up with it round her neck!
I was bricking it, convinced she'd never sleep again but actually it's been fine.
Not sure what to suggest really except go for it, she will learn to settle. It can be done!

I think if she can roll by her self she is safe to sleep on her stomach. Peak danger times is between 1 and 4 months.
Can she roll?
I thinki would let her sleep on her tummy personally. What about one of those monitors that go off if they stop breathing if your worried.

In regards to sleeping position I've always worked on the principle when they can roll over 360, that they are fine to sleep on their front as they can switch.

Mine have always chosen to sleep on their front as soon as they can roll. When they weren't able to roll back (as in do front to back) I would turn them back on to their back whenever I noticed they switched.

As for the swaddling I can't really help as mine have always grown out of it and fought it at about 3 months so I switched to a sleeping bag.

If they are rolling over and can roll back again then it's out of your control.

To get them used to being unswaddled the reco is to take one arm out at a time. So one arm out for a few nights and then the next arm.

Thanks everyone.

She's only just started rolling from front to back (today in fact ). Only rarely goes from back to front. But I guess she can't be far away from rolling about more and more.

Right, I'm gonna be brave and maybe go cold turkey!

smartie does your baby self settle? Mine is fed to sleep or jiggled to sleep so I'm thinking that may make it harder in terms of weaning her off. Ie each time she wakes she's gonna need me (and am expecting her to wake more once arms are loose, at least at first anyway).

At this rate she'd still be swaddled at 18 though! I've just kept putting it off....

She generally settles on her own with swaddling and her white noise.
Now she just has the white noise.
She is pretty good but still waking and being fed about twice a night. 12 ish and 4 ish.
Learning to self settle did take a bit of time and some periods of crying which doesn't suit everyone.
I'm pretty strict with routines and ensuring she is not too tired to settle or she needs feeding to sleep.
She is still not reliable with her sleeping patterns as any changes lead to unsettled nights and early starts.
Would like to cut out the 4 am feeds as well but that's for a another day!
I think if she is happier on her front then let her sleep that way.

Update!! Decided to go for it and get rid of the swaddle completely. And she slept just as well, if not better without it! I could hardly believe it!

(I slept terribly as I kept waiting for her to wake haha!)

Thanks for all your advice

Ps smartie my babys feed pattern is exactly the same as yours - well, very similar. Just down to 2 feeds a night - bed at ~8pm, feed at 1am and 5am. Not sure how to drop a feed without more solids.

I'm not sure she really needs feeding more than once in the night but I can't rely on her to not be up at 5 otherwise so I just keep feeding her. She is still in with me at the moment. I'm hoping when she moves into her own room we can drop the 4am feed.
Glad it went well.
All this angst over these little people.