Settling Technique Stopped Working

[ELW85]

Hi all

Much like the title says...when swaddled, we could put little one in his crib with a dummy and he would drift off to sleep no bother. Naps and nighttime.
Since unswaddling (he’s just turned 4 months) he is obsessed with his hands and spits his dummy out but can’t soothe himself enough with his hands to get to sleep.
I’ve kind of gotten around it by using a blanket and stroking his face but the past few days it’s been less and less effective.
This morning he simply wouldn’t go to sleep even though he was super tired and rubbing his eyes (is been trying to get him down before he got this tired).
I ended up bouncing him on my knee. He then only slept for 45 minutes.

Has this happened to anyone else, where their settling techniques just stopped. Wing effective and what did you do?

Speaking personally with my own children, I carried on swaddling until nearer to 6 months (on the basis that we did constant tummy time when awake, so had very strong neck muscles even when rolled onto front). That said, Lullaby Trust advice is to stop swaddling once baby is rolling. You dont mention if your baby is rolling, if not - keep the swaddle! Dont fix what isnt broken, especially through the 4 month regression.

Assuming he is rolling and that's why you're unswaddling, try holding his two hands in one of yours as he goes to sleep. This helps him calm and also leads into a more "grown up" settling method of your hand on babys chest to calm and sooth him - useful when ultimately teaching independent sleep post 6-months.

Bouncing him on your knee to sleep isnt a great habit to be starting. It will be difficult to break.

@FATEdestiny - thank you! To be fair, he isn’t rolling yet but now we’ve unswaddled, should we swaddle again?
I think the past few days he’s been harder to settle in general for some reason (possibly regression?) but tonight he went down like a dream; in his crib, dummy and comforter. No bouncing!
Hoping it was just a dust phase or maybe a couple of days of tiredness subsiding (we had a day out yesterday).

I would be trying to settle unswaddled first, but then if baby isn't settling swaddle as a way to comfort.

It might be the baby likes to be swaddled for the first stint of sleep and then after first wsle up is happy unswaddled. Or it might be baby likes being swaddled in the early hours of the morning to help get back to sleep, but wasn't needed earlier.

Basically what I'm saying is this doesn't need to be black or white. You can use the swaddle sometimes and not at others (esp if baby isn't rolling, I'd be using it all the time in your position). Like all settling methods, have it in the hirachey ready for if baby won't settle in other ways.

@FATEdestiny - thank you; I totally didn’t think of it as a settling technique in itself. Very helpful as always!!