Swaddle

After reading about different people who are sleep training, I am curious. My boys are a little over 4 months actual (about 7 weeks adjusted) and for the last month they have slept through the night with no wakings except ONE night and only ONE boy (the night before a 7am ophthalmology appt lol). During the day we kind of have set naps, they eat every 3 hours and will spend about 30-45 minutes awake, sometimes right after they finish their bottle, sometimes right before their next bottle. So the other 1.5 hours- 2 hours they are napping I guess you could say. So it's like

7am feed
nap from about 8-9:30
10am feed
nap from about 11-12:30
1pm feed
nap from about 2-3:30
4pm feed
nap from about 5-6:30
7pm feed
nap from about 8-9
9:00pm bath time (we were doing a bath every night to have a routine, then I was told it wasn't good for them to have a bath that often, so now it's every other day)
9:30pm feed

Then we swaddle them up (I should say my husband does cause he does it much tighter than I EVER can) by 10pm, turn on the mobile, no pacis hardly ever. Like maybe 1 twin once a week will want a paci and with in a minute or 2 it drops out of their mouth cause he's out cold and he doesn't even notice.

We leave them in their crib, they make their normal weird noises, but never a cry, just mainly they try to get out of the swaddle, but don't succeed. Then they sleep until 7am, where sometimes I have to go wake them up or they'd sleep till 8am.

So I was wondering, is it bad that we are still swaddling them? Is it going to be a habit to break later? If Wyatt gets his arms out he will freak out in his sleep and wake himself. Riley does fine w/ his arms out, but we always start off with them in and if he manages to get them out, we leave them out and he's fine. Neither of them will really sleep more than an hour or hour and a half at a time w/o being swaddled. During the day time naps, they are not swaddled. They are in their pack n play or in their swing and bouncer.

 

Nope, I would keep swaddling since it seems to be working so well. I think they will let you know by starting to break out of it when they dont want it anymore.

 

That's exactly what happened to us. My two began to Houdini themselves out of the swaddle and that's when we knew they were done with it (I believe that started to happen about 5 months).

 

Keep on swaddling if it works! Me and my sister (she has an 8 month old) like to say, it's not like they are going to be 21 and needing to be swaddled, so why wean them from it before they are ready? My girls have been busting out for about 2 weeks and waking up mad mad mad that they werent swaddled to I just started weaning them from it. It's honestly not too bad. They are a million times better after 2 full days of not being swaddled. They just went to bed and only fussed for 25 minutes.

 

My babies are 4.5 months and LOVE being swaddled. Honestly, we tried sleep sacks a few weeks ago, and nope, totally not ready! They woke up EVERY hour the entire night. My son is four pounds larger than my daughter, so he will soon be busting out of all swaddles just do to size. But, I agree with the other posters.... do wean just because so many others think its time. Let them sleep how they are comfortable and continue to do what makes them feel safe.

 

No, it's not bad! I wouldn't mess with something that is clearly working!

 

I tried to lose the swaddles around 4 months, let's just say it wasn't a good thing (mine started sleeping 11-12 hrs around that time with the swaddle's). By 5 months I ended up finding large swaddle-me's for them. By about 6 months they were fighting the swaddle and we transitioned to sleep sacks.

Don't mess with a good thing! They'll let you know when it's time to lose the swaddle!

 

I would say to keep swaddling as long as your babies like it. My dd was a big baby (almost 9 lbs) and was swaddled until about 4 months - she got too strong for the blanket and didn't seem to need it. I am planning to swaddle the twins when they come, and since they will be smaller, I would think they would stay swaddled a little longer than my first dd.

 

We swaddled until 4 1/2 months when DD started sucking on her fingers to put herself to sleep and DS started wanting to roll over on his stomach to sleep. Do it as long as it works! It will probably work longer for you than for me since your babies were early and mine were full term. For us there was no "transition." We just put them into sleep sacks one night instead of swaddling them and laid them down and the rest is history.

 

We unswaddled about a week ago because Henry rolled over on his front (swaddled) and daycare refused to swaddle him after that. I was expecting the worst but they were actually ready for it and they don't freak out anymore. I would swaddle for as long as you are comfortable doing it. They will eventually sleep unswaddled but for now, they need it so it is fine.

 

I would definitely continue to swaddle if it is working. We swaddled until 5 or 6 months.

 

I still swaddle and it works great. Actually just lately babies started to protest when swaddled at night so we stopped, but funny enough they will not nap without being swaddled. Go figure.

I am planning to stop once I will be finding them unswaddled during naps. Also, I've heard some people believe that swaddling slows down motor skill development but both my babies stated rolling over at 5 months both ways and are tandem crawling now at 6 months as well as sitting with minimal assistance while still being swaddled, so I find that to be a wrong statement.

Also, you should go by their adjusted age. Yours are only 2 months for you most likely have a good 3 more months of swaddling ahead and if it works, keep on doing it.

Good luck!