Getting Rid of the Swaddle

My 6 month old DD will only sleep swaddled. If we do not swaddle her she cannot / will not sleep. My DS on the other hand never wanted to be swaddled. She will take a nap for an hour or 2 without the swaddle but when we put her down for the night, she wants the swaddle.

Any advice on how I can get my DD to sleep without being swaddled?

 

Have you tried to put her to sleep on her stomach to make her feel more secure? Maybe at first, you could rock her to sleep and then put her on her belly with her knees curled up. Just until she gets used to sleeping that way. I'm sure you don't want to rock her to sleep every time. Just a suggestion!

 

We just got rid of ours. I would try to start with swaddle free naps. Also swaddle with the arms out if you have to. At 6 months she is old enough for cio if you can bear it. Good luck.

 

We just stopped swaddling a couple of weeks ago. They were never swaddled for naps, only at night. I started with one arm out for a week, then the second arm out for another week or two, and finally removed everything. They did surprising well. It took a couple of nights to get used to having free arms. They woke themselves up for a few nights, but they do great now. Good luck!

 

we started with one arm out and one arm swaddled. we put a sock over the exposed hand to lend a sense of security. after a few days we unswaddled and socked the other hand. go slow and give her time to adjust.

 

QUOTE(ssb2e @ May 4 2009, 06:32 PM) [snapback]1300501[/snapback]
We just stopped swaddling a couple of weeks ago. They were never swaddled for naps, only at night. I started with one arm out for a week, then the second arm out for another week or two, and finally removed everything. They did surprising well. It took a couple of nights to get used to having free arms. They woke themselves up for a few nights, but they do great now. Good luck!

This is what we did with DD recently, and she still likes to be swaddled from the chest down. I figure, if it makes her happy, it works for me! I'm sure she'll be over swaddling before too long. We thought DS would be the tough one, but he SUDDENLY stopped wanting to be swaddled right at 7 months and hasn't looked back.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, I think they'll stop wanting it when they're ready. My nephew was about 8 months when he stopped. GL

 

QUOTE(ssb2e @ May 4 2009, 09:32 PM) [snapback]1300501[/snapback]
We just stopped swaddling a couple of weeks ago. They were never swaddled for naps, only at night. I started with one arm out for a week, then the second arm out for another week or two, and finally removed everything. They did surprising well. It took a couple of nights to get used to having free arms. They woke themselves up for a few nights, but they do great now. Good luck!


This is what we did too and it worked well. My dd took a little longer to wean than ds..he went cold turkey!

 

If she's happy swaddled I don't think you have to stop. Like a pp said she will stop wanting it when she's ready. However I think this:
QUOTE(piccologirl @ May 5 2009, 02:35 AM) [snapback]1300505[/snapback]
we started with one arm out and one arm swaddled. we put a sock over the exposed hand to lend a sense of security. after a few days we unswaddled and socked the other hand. go slow and give her time to adjust.
is a great idea. If you can get her used to sleeping with her arms out then you could move to using a baby sleeping bag, like a Sleep Sack (whick has a swaddle version)or a grobag, which she can stay in as long as she likes-they go all the way up to toddler sizes.

 

Thanks for all the great ideas. I think DD is definitely ready to sleep without the swaddle because she naps un-swaddled. So I will definitely try the one arm out at a time method.

Thanks ladies

 

We went from swaddles to sleep sacks -- it was weird, it just happened on its own at 5 months. We tried the one arm out method and they would freak...so my pedi told me that instead of gradually doing it (one arm out, then the next, etc) to just try them during naps completely out of swaddles. If they don't nap then they aren't ready for it -- then try the next week...and the first nap they took without the swaddles we then got rid of them and never looked back. Now we need to get them out of sleep sacks -- they like them so I'm going to wait until summer when it's hot in Seattle.

 

I had a hard time weaning mine and just like a month ago they finally started to sleep without the swaddles. I let them wean themselves pretty much because everytime I would leave an arm out they would fuss until I put it in the swaddle. So when I was feeding them and they would get there arm out then that was ok because they did it. Now they are in sleep sacks and they do great.