Removing a swaddle

[Stanley1099]

Hey. My two month old has been swaddled at night (only, not during day naps) in a tommee tippee gro bag - arms strapped in too.
They're totally fab, and settled my little one who sleeps most of the night.
The issue I have now is weaning her from it. You have to stop swaddling when they start rolling so I don't want to rely on her arms being tucked in. We had one night where we took her arms out and she didn't sleep as she just kept hitting herself in the face.
Tried taking one arm out first, but she does exactly the same and grunts and groans all night. The moment I strap her all back in she falls asleep.

How can I wean her from the swaddle? Her legs aren't strapped as it's more of a sleeping bag at the bottom. She just seems to love having her arms squidged in tight.

Thanks

Hi,

I've done this a few times, if your baby is used to being swaddled, then 2 months old is young to take it away. They don't usually start rolling until 4-6 months.

I tried too early with my first, and ended up reinstating it. When I took it away at 4.5 months (when he rolled) he took to it fine.They grow out of the reflexes. And it might be that yours hasn't yet.

With my second I removed it at about 3.5/4 months, and we had a difficult day or two of settling, but then she got used to it.

My DD was swaddled until 6 months (wasn’t rolling). Any reason you wanna stop now? Most babies grow out of the startle reflex around 4-6 months so I’d wait until then (unless she starts rolling before).

@Vicky1989x

My DD was swaddled until 6 months (wasn’t rolling). Any reason you wanna stop now? Most babies grow out of the startle reflex around 4-6 months so I’d wait until then (unless she starts rolling before).

Oh really? The health visitor said I should stop by 2-3 months as she'll be rolling by then! If it's not a massive issue then I'm happy to continue - thank you, I didn't know that

@ohthejoysoftoddler

Hi,

I've done this a few times, if your baby is used to being swaddled, then 2 months old is young to take it away. They don't usually start rolling until 4-6 months.

I tried too early with my first, and ended up reinstating it. When I took it away at 4.5 months (when he rolled) he took to it fine.They grow out of the reflexes. And it might be that yours hasn't yet.

With my second I removed it at about 3.5/4 months, and we had a difficult day or two of settling, but then she got used to it.

AHH thank you - health visitor was the one saying it needs to be earlier. But if that's not that case that's fine I can keep going! (First baby so I've no idea!)

@Stanley1099 My DD might’ve just been lazy but she didn’t roll back to front until 8.5 months (front to back at 5 months) so I continued swaddling until she decided she’d had enough which was just shy of 6 months. (I knew it was time cause she kept escaping and waking multiple times in the night).

I used a magic merlin sleepsuit (bought it on Amazon, they’re very thick though so kept the room cold) to help her transition and it worked wonders for her. She went into a normal sleeping bag shortly after and was fine.

I was like this with my DS (also a first time mum). I stressed about weaning him off the swaddle from about 2 1/2 months and actually the swaddle helped him sleep until he was about 5 months. That was when he rolled and also when he stopped hitting himself in the face and lost his startle reflex - all seemed to happen in one go as he just got more control of his body. Looking back I wish I'd just kept him in the swaddle for longer as we'd all have got more sleep!

Thank you everyone. Just wanted to update. We kept her in it up to three months and we've now successfully taken her arms out the grobag. She wakes up during the night for a feed now, but I'm all good with that as I know she's safer and I feel better for it! Thanks all