help need to get babies to sleep in crib, unswaddled

My twins are now over 4 months old. Until now they have been swaddled in their carseats to sleep, definetly at night, and sometimes even for naps. I started noticing that they are moving around more.. so I tried putting them in the crib just swaddled, this was hard because of of my daughters will often only go to sleep of we rock the car seat--but eventually she did go to sleep, probably from rocking her in a rocking chair, and ended up turning over and kind of stuck on her face because she was swaddled! so basically i really want to get them to sleep unswaddled- i tried lastr night for the first time and after trying for a few hours ended up swaddling them in their car seats so we could all get some sleep.. my other twin might be easier to train in this as she did sleep a little bit, and in general falls asleep easier, without having to rock, ect.

did anyone ever go through this? i even tried letting the first one cry a big last night but she got histerical and i felt maybe she is to young to just let her cry it out.. don't know what to do!!! any suggestions?? thanks!!

 

also-- i did put them in those long sleeved sleep sacks to keep them warm.. but i guess they just missed the comfort of beng all swaddled up.

 

I transitioned my girls to the crib and did away with swaddling at the same time at about 5 months old. I did CIO and it took a couple nights, but they got it. They are now excellent sleepers. I would talk to your pedi before trying CIO that young. Good Luck!

 

QUOTE(Kyrstyn @ Dec 9 2008, 10:32 AM) [snapback]1103674[/snapback]
I transitioned my girls to the crib and did away with swaddling at the same time at about 5 months old. I did CIO and it took a couple nights, but they got it. They are now excellent sleepers. I would talk to your pedi before trying CIO that young. Good Luck!



thanks for responding- When you let them cry it out, did you let them both cry at the same time? did they share a room? if i ever end up doing this, trying to figure out how to do it as they share a room right now, i really want them to share a room, but amd wondering if i am going to need to seperate them so they wont take eachother up.

 

QUOTE(someone @ Dec 9 2008, 10:27 AM) [snapback]1103662[/snapback]
My twins are now over 4 months old. Until now they have been swaddled in their carseats to sleep, definetly at night, and sometimes even for naps. I started noticing that they are moving around more.. so I tried putting them in the crib just swaddled, this was hard because of of my daughters will often only go to sleep of we rock the car seat--but eventually she did go to sleep, probably from rocking her in a rocking chair, and ended up turning over and kind of stuck on her face because she was swaddled! so basically i really want to get them to sleep unswaddled- i tried lastr night for the first time and after trying for a few hours ended up swaddling them in their car seats so we could all get some sleep.. my other twin might be easier to train in this as she did sleep a little bit, and in general falls asleep easier, without having to rock, ect.

did anyone ever go through this? i even tried letting the first one cry a big last night but she got histerical and i felt maybe she is to young to just let her cry it out.. don't know what to do!!! any suggestions?? thanks!!

I think that's too little for CIO, but I did have a similar issue with Mark. We put him in the carseat and put it in the crib, which made the transition to crib a little easier. I would only take away one thing at a time--swaddling or carseat. The carseat acts like a swaddle, so you may want to take away the swaddler, and let them sleep in the carseat in their crib for a week or so, and then put them into the crib, with no seat and swaddled. That's how we did it--gradual.

 

I'd do one at a time also... but I'd remove the car seat first. Maybe put in in their crib for a few nights as PP suggested first, then remove it and put them swaddled in the crib... then work on the swaddle.

 

QUOTE(someone @ Dec 9 2008, 09:35 AM) [snapback]1103679[/snapback]
thanks for responding- When you let them cry it out, did you let them both cry at the same time? did they share a room? if i ever end up doing this, trying to figure out how to do it as they share a room right now, i really want them to share a room, but amd wondering if i am going to need to seperate them so they wont take eachother up.


I let mine CIO and they share a room - the one baby crying doesn't really affect the other one. Even now if one wakes up it usually doesn't wake the other one unless she was about to wake up anyway. Does that make sense?

 

thanks everyone for replying.. so when they sleep in the car seats at night, they always sleep with the car seat in the crib.. so they have already been doing that.

one issue is one baby needs to rock the car seat to get to fall asleep.

also, at what age canyou start cry it out?

 

well we went through a similar issue this weekend. My b/g twins are 4 months old and the pedi told us to take htem out of their swaddles and swings for naps. They always slept through the night in swaddles in their cribs, and they are hit and miss in their cribs for naps. SO we tried it all weekend....they were freaking out. They never napped. The pedi told us that if they would cry for an hour to rescue them and that would make the next nap that much better b/c they would be so tired they would sleep better. YEAH RIGHT! That didn't happen either.....instead they cried for an hour for every nap and we had to continue rescuing them.

We've decided to keep swaddling them, but in a loose swaddle. We are using the Kidopautomus swaddles only..we used to use a blanket and the kidopautomus. We think this will be a better transition since it's looser. We also are trying them in their cribs for naps first..but if they don't cooperate or wake up too early from a nap and still seem tired we are putting them in their swings to continue the nap (then we turn the swing off). I know the swing is a crutch to help them be soothed back to sleep, but we don't know what else to do.

Good luck! let me know if you have any luck

 

Mine slept in their cribs in their carseats until 3 months (2.5 for one). When I took the carseats away, I would roll up blankets and push them around the babies so they felt a bit more secure. We did have to let them CIO a few times at naptime. If I were you, I would start moving them into their cribs (without carseats) at naptime first. After they have that down, move them at night. But the rolled up blankets and pushing them into the side of the crib worked for us. We eventually got rid of the blankets and now they just sleep with a loose blanket in the crib.

 

A couple of thoughts:

1) Sleep positioners. I'm not a huge fan, but it will keep a swaddled baby from rolling over. Might be a good temporary step to get them out of the car seats. (Even if you still have to rock before you put the one down. We rocked until almost 10 months ... yeah.) Just keep an eye on making sure the baby doesn't wiggle down so her head is in between the positioners.

2) Sleep sacks with swaddle arms (Halo, I think). We very quickly grew to love these instead of traditional swaddles, and they held our little Houdini in with all that velcro. No other one worked for him. When we were ready to start deswaddling them, we could still tightly wrap one arm, and then go no arms but still tightly wrap the belly.

We started all that around 4 months, and by 6 months they were sleeping swaddle-free, positioner-free.

Good luck!

 

I had a similar situation as you. Mine were sleeping at night in their car seats or boppy pillows swaddled and slept in swings unswaddled for naps. We did CIO at just before 5 months and the first night we left things the same (just no 2am feed), but on night two I took away their swaddle and car seat as I figured they were so upset, I wouldn't drag out the changes and make them adjust later to no swaddle and again for no car seat.

The first night of CIO they both cried for about an hour when they were used to eating at 2am, but weren't hysterical. On night two, one baby slept and the other fussed at 2am for fifteen minutes. The same thing happened on night three, and from night four on they've slept all night without rocking, car seats, or swaddles. After about one week of the nighttime routine, I did CIO for naps in their cribs, and that went very well too. From what I saw, they were unfazed by going unswaddled and without their car seats and I wished I had changed that sooner.

They sleep in separate cribs in our bedroom. They don't seem to bother each other whey they cry, unless it's time to wake up anyways, like the pp said.

 

I would swaddle with one arm out at first and then the other. I would also use a sleep sac. When we broke the girls of the swaddle, I'd swaddle with their arms out and I think it helped transition them. Do you use binkies? Also, you could give them a lovey to grab onto. I found it was easier to break the swaddle at night. Naps were harder, but didn't take more than a couple days for them to catch on. Abby was probably around 4 months when we took away her swaddle, but she was a thumb sucker, so she prefered it. Ellie just gave up the swaddle on Thanksgiving and she is 6 months.

 

QUOTE(dezmitch @ Dec 9 2008, 11:01 AM) [snapback]1103732[/snapback]
well we went through a similar issue this weekend. My b/g twins are 4 months old and the pedi told us to take htem out of their swaddles and swings for naps. They always slept through the night in swaddles in their cribs, and they are hit and miss in their cribs for naps. SO we tried it all weekend....they were freaking out. They never napped. The pedi told us that if they would cry for an hour to rescue them and that would make the next nap that much better b/c they would be so tired they would sleep better. YEAH RIGHT! That didn't happen either.....instead they cried for an hour for every nap and we had to continue rescuing them.

We've decided to keep swaddling them, but in a loose swaddle. We are using the Kidopautomus swaddles only..we used to use a blanket and the kidopautomus. We think this will be a better transition since it's looser. We also are trying them in their cribs for naps first..but if they don't cooperate or wake up too early from a nap and still seem tired we are putting them in their swings to continue the nap (then we turn the swing off). I know the swing is a crutch to help them be soothed back to sleep, but we don't know what else to do.

Good luck! let me know if you have any luck

 

I am still swaddling my twins and they are almost 4 months old....when you talk about sleeping through the night with the swaddles, what exactly does that mean? How many hours do they sleep? My girls get up at midnight, 3:00 or 4:00, and then 6:00 or so. Has anyone dropped the middle of the night feeding at this age?

 

when we did sleep training with our girls (at 14 weeks old, 8 weeks adjusted) we did a modified CIO (more of a check & console) and for the first couple of weeks we kept them in separate rooms. once they were sleeping really well we put them back in together. now, for the most part, they will sleep through any noises the other makes.

 

QUOTE(miss_bossy18 @ Dec 23 2008, 02:47 PM) [snapback]1120638[/snapback]
when we did sleep training with our girls (at 14 weeks old, 8 weeks adjusted) we did a modified CIO (more of a check & console) and for the first couple of weeks we kept them in separate rooms. once they were sleeping really well we put them back in together. now, for the most part, they will sleep through any noises the other makes.

 

thanks...i will try this soon...i will see if a pacifier will work to keep them asleep a little longer. i hate for them to miss a feeding if they need it but they are growing so well and gaining weight at a terrific pace.