Transition from swaddle to sleeping bag

[GummiBear74]

My 6.5 week old DD has been swaddled at night using a SwaddleMe since birth. We use it as part of our bedtime routine - swaddle her, then give her a last feed in the darkened bedroom, before popping her into her crib.

We are trying to graduate from the swaddle to sleeping bags, but not finding this very successful. When the swaddle is replaced with a sleeping bag at bedtime, she settles fine in her crib, but wakes after about 45 minutes, getting really agitated. She can be settled back to sleep again with a feed or a cuddle, but 45 minutes later is awake again. After a few hours of this, we get fed up and change her back to the swaddle.

DH found that he could get her back to sleep in her sleeping bag by gently holding her arms against her body, but she wakes again almost as soon as he lets them go. She clearly finds it comforting to be restrained, but on the other hand, will fight her swaddle until she has one arm fully out and seems to have no trouble sleeping like that most nights.

We really want to transition her out of the swaddle before she's old enough to roll on to her front. If we wait until nearer the time, might we find the change a bit easier, or will her being a bit older not make a difference? Does anyone have any tips that would help with the transition, whenever we do it, please?

At 6ish weeks I put DD in a loosely swaddled blanket, rather than straight from swaddle to sleeping back. You have the option to leave one arm out and then both if you use a blanket. Then when your DC is happy with that you can swap to a sleeping bag.

Because they're up so frequently to feed at that age and don't move about very much you don't need to worry about kicking blankets off.

Good luck

Thanks, bohoec!

I think six weeks is too young. Wait until 12 weeks. Then the Moro reflex not so strong. We just stopped swaddling our four month old two weeks ago and use sleeping bag. His arms still go up sometimes or he doesn't know what to do w the, so I give him a muslin cloth to hold on to. That seems to help

I swaddled DS round the global with something light. I had a really cold house though.

*global = grobag

Have had exactly this problem, DS is now 6m and we are transitioning him out of swaddle we have just bought zippy dee zip online from US website which is brill

We loved the swaddle me! We used it until 17 weeks, DDs startle reflex was just too strong. One trick we used was to gro bag in the day, swaddle at night. This way she seemed to get used to the grobag. We then shifted to grobag at night too after a few weeks. Good luck!

Thanks! Looks like we should leave it a little bit longer, then transition gradually. We spoke to the HV yesterday and she suggested waiting until 10-12 weeks.