How can I stop swaddling!!!

[Deaby]

Hi all My DD is now 19 weeks old and we have swaddled her whenever she sleeps, however, now she tries and wriggles out of the swaddled blanket to get her arms out.She then starts to suck her fingers and play with her face. When she does this, she wakes herself up and we have to re-swaddle her for her to go back to sleep. Any ideas how to stop swaddling and get her into the habit of sleeping with her arms out?

bumping for you - i never swaddled as i gave birth to two octopusses! (or is that Octopii....shuffles off to pedants corner)....

I just stopped. Moved to sleeping bags and after a couple of nights all was well. I used mittens to stop him scratching himself though.

I just stopped too. took 4 days for sleeping bag to be accepted.

I did this quite gradually.
For a few nights I swaddled him with one arm, so one arm was free.
Then, I swaddled just lower body for a few nights (so he still had some tight feeling).
Then I moved DS to gro-bag.

Might seem a bit long-winded, but moving 'baby steps' seemed to be easier with everything with my son! He gradually got used to the feeling, without being disturbed too much.

During this, I also stayed with him until he fell asleep. He still had the 'moro' reflex (is that the name?) where his arms would jump as he fell asleep and it kept waking him up (happened about 3 or 4 times). I used to gently hold his arms against mattress (god that sounds awful!) until he was properly asleep.

It did seem to take a while, but everything seems to be easier if done gradually for him anyway.

similar to likessleep, I would try

1. start loosening the wrap or
2. wrap one arm instead of both (try day npas first)
3. try a sleeping bag, perhaps try with arms inside and pin the arm holes shut to start with
4. try something like the Peke Moe that's what we used, to transition from swaddling (google it)
5. go cold turkey.

all the best! xx