Can't sleep without full swaddling and wakes when arms are free

[JoTang]

I've been following the Baby Whisperer book and have swaddled my 3 month old DS for the past month and it's been going well. However, in the last couple of weeks, he's been getting strong and manages to break free from the swaddle and can't sleep after that. He's waking up from naps and several times during the night and has to be reswaddled and resettled. More worryingly, sometimes when he breaks free, he somehow manages to pull the blanket over part of his face and I'm worried he might suffocate himself. I need to get him out of the swaddle. I have tried putting him down for naps with one arm out but he cries for 45mins then sleeps for 15 continually. Any ideas anyone?

My 4.5-month old has just come out of swaddling after being unable to sleep without it since birth. If your DS isn't able yet to sleep unswaddled but your current swaddling isn't working very well, have you tried one of these? We found it to be a really easy way of swaddling, and there wouldn't be any excess fabric to cover your son's face. I got ours really cheaply off ebay.

There were times when I thought we'd be swaddling our DS til he was 15, but over the past month or so he has worked his own way through full swaddling, then one arm out, then both arms out, and has now been in a sleeping bag for the past week. We had some rocky nights when he was fighting the swaddling, but he sleeps pretty well now. I'm sure your son will do the same in his own time.

We also use the kidopotamus and it's brilliant.

DS was the same - we tried kiddopotomus and it worked until he was around 5 months... then we started him on a grobag and just swaddling one arm to get him used to not being fully swaddled the whole time (.i.e. gently easing him into not being swaddled - think the lightweight grobag helped). He was out of swaddling by 7 months and havent looked back since as he learned to self-settled to sleep.... dont worry, it will get better!

Thanks guys for all your advice. I think I will get one of those wraps with the velcro as suggested just in case I can't work this one out. Might just do the trick with Houdini! Have been swaddling with one arm for the last two nights and he's getting used to settling to sleep a bit more now but does wake up a lot more in the night and seems to take an age to fall back asleep. I will perservere!