Anyone with experience of weaning baby off Miracle swaddle blanket?

[AngelDog]

I think I need to wean DS (5 months) off his Miracle blanket. At the moment, he doens't sleep well unless his arms are pinned by his side.

However, in a couple of months we're going on a holiday which will mean he will have to be taken (hopefully) asleep out of his travel cot, into the car seat and then back into the travel cot every night for a week. I can't see how to do that without waking him completely if he's swaddled, whereas I think it should (in theory) be possible if he's in a sleeping bag.

I know the books say to try swaddling more loosely, then with one arm out etc. Has anyone tried that with the Miracle blanket? Any tips?

Hi I had to be weaned off the miracle blanket myself as it really did save my sanity helping ds sleep more than an hour at a time! I started doing it looser and I found that ds soon started kicking himself out of it every night. The first few nights he was in a gro-bag were traumatic but he soon got used to it. Good luck!

we did the same thing.. weaning from our trusty miracle blanket.. we had lots of issues until we got this sleepsack called a pekemoe which keeps arms inside, but they can move.. worked for us maybe that will help? good luck!

I second the peke moe - you can tuck it in to start with to restrict movements until they start to settle down...

Have you still got his feet tucked in? Dd was in a miracle swaddling blanket until 7 months, at which stage she just started settling without it of her own accord (we tried every now and again and one time it just worked!). Anyway by that time she was obviously far too big for the feet bit, so I just swaddled her arms and left the feet bit flapping loose IYSWIM. If you did it like that you could probably get him in the car seat with the swaddle on?

Ah, good point, LiegeAndLief. He does have his feet tucked in still (alhtough his legs have to bend!) but it's the arms that matters. We have another swaddle blanket which is basically a big sock and when I used it for a nap, he woke after only 20 mins, which is unheard of. (I think it was his flailing arms as they were around his face when he woke.) I'll try tonight without the feet and see how it goes. And I'll have a go with the car seat.

I'd heard of the Peke Moe, but was hesitating about buying yet another piece of kit. I'll have another look. If it weren't for this holiday, I'd be happy to keep DS swaddled. I suppose the alternative is just to accept that we'll have to wake him up those couple of times to go in the car - after all, it's only a week . How long does it take to get a baby into a habit??

Incidentally, I think swaddling for naps is the best thing ever - DS won't sleep for more than 30 mins in the sling or pram - but will often sleep longer in his cot (swaddled) or if I swaddle him before putting him in the pram. I'm definitely sticking with it for naps!

I've just done this and I started by leaving one arm out and the other still tightly swaddled, did that for a week or two till he was really used to it. Then I put him in a really light sleeping bag and used a sheet to still wrap one arm up tightly. Then I stopped using the sheet. Seemed to work OK, had to be persuaded to have his first few naps fully unswaddled but slept ok for the first night (well, as OK as he ever does, but just the same as being swaddled anyway!!)

Well, I left his legs out of it last night and he didn't seem remotely fazed by it. I found the arms seemed looser, though and he woke at 4am (an unusual time for him) with one arm having escaped.

On the plus side he stayed asleep till 7am whereas it's usually 5.30 - 6 am. Probably coincidental but very nice all the same.

Glad that worked AngelDog - I found as dd got older I had to swaddle her more and more tightly to stop her escaping, especially as it didn't wrap around her as many times as when she was little. Always felt horrible doing it but she seemed to like it!

We also used the peke moe til @ 10 months then sleeping bags. Was a godsend for us.

Hi AngelDog - this might help as well - all you need to know about swaddling.

Seems like you're already doing great though!