8 week old hand sucking

[hrp2020]

Our little one is in a zip swaddle but she has just started to try and push her hands out the top to suck on them. This is now impacting her sleep as sucking her hands isn't actually soothing her it makes her more fussy. This will presumably get worse once we transition out of swaddle (which wasn't far away). We did try one sleep with one arm out and again she struggled to get to sleep. Any thoughts?

Teething? Hunger?

@FelicityPike thank you. can teething really happen this early? Is it not just that she has found her hands? Can't be hunger as she will do it after a feed that she hasn't even wanted all of it.

Try offering a dummy. I know some people see them as nasty horrible things, but it may actually soothe your baby enough to sleep soundly

Absolutely it can.
Course it could be just discovery too.
I’ve no solutions to offer, I’m sorry.

Mine has been doing the same, she's 10 weeks now and loves to try to get her whole hand in her mouth, it's like a personal challenge to her

We stopped swaddling early as she just wasn't enjoying it and she's been fine in a sleeping bag.

With my other DD we used a love2dream swaddleup which swaddles them with their arms up at their heads. She used to suck her hand through the cloth but seemed happy enough!

Mine was hungry when he did this, have you offered a feed?

Following with interest because my 9w old does exactly the same and I'm dreading not being able to swaddle him any more... He sucks his hands when he's tired, despite this making him more awake, and then he cries. I've tried unswaddling him but that's just carnage.

At how many weeks does a baby's sense of irony develop please?

It isn't hunger with her as she will do it after a feed. I think it's mainly when tired and she is trying to self soothe but she just gets more annoyed. We are currently still swaddling and actually it's been a bit better since folding over her mitts on her sleepsuit too so that even if she managed to get a hand out of the top of the swaddle bag she isn't so interested in sucking them). I think we will gradually transition her from the swaddle it in a week or two with one arm out at first as I have a feeling we might be in for a few tricky nights whilst she gets at her hands.