How to not swaddle anymore?

[TrigsToo]

My little boy is 4.5 months (I'm not sure if we've hit regression yet or not) and so far I've only been able to get him to sleep at night while swaddled in those velcro swaddle blankets.

But now I need to get him out of them - he's far too big for them, and he can roll over. I bought one of the Love to Dream blankets which holds his arms up by his head and where the arms can be zipped off to transition him into a sleeping bag. However, when he's in it, as soon as I go to put him down in his crib, he wakes up and starts crying. After trying for over an hour tonight, I've given up and put him back in his swaddle. I'm exhausted, and I guess he is too! Any tips to make this easier for both of us?

Can you swaddle more loosely bit by bit? Or try swaddling with arms out for a while so he gets used to that?

We also swaddled with Velcro bags (or straight jackets as my parents used to call them 😂). DS was heavily reliant on them and needed them to settle. However at about 4.5 months he started to always wiggle out of them. I also bought the love to dream swaddle and used it 3 times but he hated in. In the end I just went cold turkey. He was a crap sleeper at night anyway to didn’t have much to loose. I’d say it only took 2 days for him to adjust

We're doing this at the moment (3 months).. We just started swaddling looser so she could get her arms out and now we just use cellulose blankets. We're on day 4 of the blankets and it definitely takes longer to get her down, but the key I think with most things is to persevere and hope it sinks in!

Oh god, I'm in the exact same position. We are using the miracle blanket swaddle which is brilliant and we've tried to slowly loosen 1 arm, swaddle with 1 arm out, go cold turkey, everything. DS knows. He will cry constantly. For hours. we cracked and swaddled him again. He's nearly 5month. Not rolling yet but it will definitely be soon. Want to stop swaddling before.

Watching this thread tentatively for a miracle!!

I have swaddled
Both of mine in those straight jackets and while I think they are marvellous I share your anxiety about weaning off.

My first had to be deswaddled at 5 months and my second we still swaddled at 8 months!!

For both we did one arm out for about a week. Choose the least reactive arm if that is obvious and keep that out.

Once that has become normal go for both arms but swaddle tightly round the middle. Give it another few days to a week and you should be ready for a sleeping bag.

We practiced with sleeping bags for day naps for a while as well. With dd2 I kept one arm in as long as I was sitting with her.

I also introduced transition objects like a cuddly rabbit and white noise

We swaddled for a little while when ds was tiny, (wow did that save our sanity!) and gradually did it looser and looser, also on the odd night he was very asleep we put him in his bed without the swaddle, if we could get him to drop off without it. He's 7 months now and sleeps in a grow bag type thing, because he's a bugger for kicking off blankets. It's still snuggly around him without being restrictive like a swaddle. May be worth a try?

Ds has a grobag an we swaddle his arms over the top

Ok, so so far this has been going really badly. I've put him back in his love to dream blanket and unzipped the arms, but zipped him in with his arms down at his sides so he can wiggle them out, but they're held down for when I put him into his crib which is when he tends to wake up if not swaddled.

The first night, he woke up at around 2 or 2.30 (I'm using my phone for white noise so I didn't check the time), was happy to play in his crib for a while but wanted picking up /food at around 3.15. He fell straight back to sleep on me, but everytime I tried to put him back in his crib he would last no more than 20 minutes before crying again (I don't even attempt to put him down before I think he's fully asleep, usually half an hour or so after he falls asleep). I gave up trying to put him down at around 5 and he slept on me until 8. I got no sleep during this time.

Tonight he went to bed at around 7 and woke up again around 9.30 which is when I went to bed. I rocked him back to sleep and was able to put him down around 10.30. He woke up again at 00.15, I fed him and put him back to sleep (rocking and white noise). From this point on, everytime I tried to put him down he woke up immediately. I've tried everything I can to make it gentle and barely noticeable, but he wakes up anyway. It's now 4am, I've been awake since 00.15 after about 2 hours sleep and I'm so tired all I can do is cry. I've just wrapped his swaddle blanket over his arms while he's in his love to dream blanket, but if this doesn't work, I'm looking at another night of just having him sleeping on me and I get no sleep.

Should I keep persevering? Try something else? Give up and swaddle him until he's 18? I just need sleep!

Trigs I'm right there with you! I gave up and reswaddled last night.

Tried picking up again, cuddle, wait till he's fully asleep, back down 10 mins later awake. Tried for 2 hours...

We then tried leaving him to cry it out (while laying next to him and holding is hand, shhing, kissing, everything but picking up) he cried for over an hour and a half. Couldn't see him so distressed any more. Picked him up, swaddle, asleep within 30 secs.

I'm at my Whits end

I had same unswaddling issues with my baby. He kept waking at night and not doing his naps right when I went cold turkey. I did it very very slowly. So one arm out for a few weeks then another. Some nights I would end up reswaddling him if he wouldn’t settle.
Eventually i ended up replacing the swaddle with a purflo/sleepyhead! Which worked great!
I then had to get rid of that but that was quite easy for some reason and took one day of bad naps and 2 bad nights and he was over it.

I only managed to get my son out of a swaddle at 6 months he could well and truly roll and get out of it but he couldn't get to sleep any other way. We were using the big swaddling muslins.

We did arms out and swaddled for a few nights, and then put him in a grobag and swaddled around it with his arms in for a few nights and then out for a few nights and then in his grobag with a cellular blanket tightly across from waist down after a few nights of that he's been fine in just a grobag it's been about three weeks now.

I'll be honest it was hard and in the night a couple of times I'd swaddle him so we could all get some sleep as he'd be lay awake making happy noises at 3am.

He may not be quite ready. My DS LOVED swaddling. I used the love to dream from 8 weeks so his arms were up by his head and he rubbed his face. I first tried to stop around 4 months but he just wasn’t ready. I then introduced a lovey (Jojo maman Bebe comforter) i let him play with it during the day then tucked it his head for day sleeps. At 5 months I bought the LTD zipped off arms suit and started with one arm out and gave him the lovey to hold. Within a week he was completely unswaddled. He now plays with his comforter to fall asleep (6months now) which stops his hands from flailing around. Good luck. You will get there in the end but only when they are ready.

Oh @TrigsToo four month sleep regression is brutal. Especially when you go from s baby who sleeps really well to suddenly no sleep.

I have no advice apart from it's only about a week and maybe you're half way through it? Keep swaddling as that's the comfort he knows turn the white noise up, and feed through the night when he wakes.

Right there with you as my 7 month old has decided sleep is unnecessary,

I find a massive coffee and pastry in the morning helps and eating snacks in the night.

I’ve sent you a PM to trigs.