Swaddling questions

I was wondering when you all stopped swaddling your twins. My girls are 9 weeks tomorrow and I am debating on stopping swaddling. They both sleep much better swaddled, but they are beginning to fight the swaddle at times to get their arms out. When they have their arms out, though, they tend to wake themselves up constantly. I would appreciate your advice!

 

My advice: Learn to super swaddle! We swaddled until after 5 months with my daughter, 4.5 months with my son. We use regular blankets until about 4 weeks, then moved on to Swaddle Me blankets and Miracle blankets and eventually around 3 months when they were really able to break out of those (I did them up super tightly!) After that I thought we were done swaddling, but after one AWFUL night of having arms free in sleep sacks, we looked online to learn how to double swaddle which I then called the super swaddle lol.

Basically we used a receiving blanket to hold their arms to their sides (lay baby on blanket folded in half, and weave it over their arm and then under their back, and again on the other side til their arms are essentially pinned) and then used a Swaddle Me velcroed on top of that. That lasted us until after 5 months with Katelyn when she finally flipped herself face down in he swaddle and then we move to a sleep sack and she was fine with it.

If you need links to the videos that we found for double swaddling let me know.

 

My boys were swaddled until four months for bedtime, and six months for naptime. They slept so much better that way! Annabella only slept swaddled one or two times-that was it! She would constantly break free!

We did the Swaddle Me blankets and those worked well for us-dh was the master swaddler! LOL!

 

We still swaddle one DS. He just sleeps better that way. They are 8 1/2 months actual, 5 1/2 adjusted. My other DS has been unswaddled for about 2 weeks and is doing well.

 

We kept them swaddled until they were about 4 months, and we did the same thing with DS1. Even to this day, if the twins are having a hard time falling asleep or fighting sleep, I will swaddle them. I found that the twins did fight the swaddle at times, but it wasn't to the point that they would wake themselves up. I think it was just a comfort thing to get them to sleep....

 

That sounds great, but how do you keep them from getting over heated? We keep our house at 75, the girls are in onsies{sp} only and swaddled in lightweight, breathable cotton blankets, and they STILL wake up sweating and very warm. I have swaddle me's but I'm afraid they'll get overheated if I use them. I can't even use normal receiving blankets because they get too hot. I'm so afraid of SIDS and I know overheating is a risk factor. So I'm not sure how to handle that.

 

Hmmm that is a problem. Is there no way that you can keep your house cooler? We had ours at 69 or 70 overnight and so they were in a light cotton sleeper, the light blanket, and then the Swaddle Me.

 

Hooray for swaddling! We swaddled until they were 7 months old. We double swaddled them and kept them in onesies only (no sleepers). Mind you, it was also the fall/winter. You can also just swaddle them in diapers only - and is there any way you could keep the house a little cooler? Or at least maybe put a fan in the babies' room? To double swaddle, we put the miracle blanket on first, followed by the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe blanket. We stopped swaddling when they started flipping over onto their tummies a lot. Now they both sleep in sleep sacks on their tummies.

 

I worry about that, too. We keep our house at 72. I run a fan in the nursery which also acts as white noise. There have been nights when its been warm when I've just used a diaper and the swaddle.

 

DH is a tightwad and refuses to go lower than 75. I'll try just a diaper and a fan and see if that helps. I would love to keep them swaddled as long as possible but it is already so hot outside and it's just gonna get hotter.

 

I would think a diaper & fan would do it.

We swaddled until 5 months when they weren't sleeping well and really trying to break free.

Good luck,

 

We stopped at around the 5 or 6 month mark because I just could not keep those little arms in any longer...wigglers! Even when they were young and fought it though I didn't give in. My MIL would think we were awful...they would cry as we were wrapping them up and then they would just limp...brings back memories. Even when they started fighting it, we figured out ways to swaddle tighter...their reflexes would jolt them awake all the time without that swaddle. Good luck but I say keep it up!

 

We swaddled until about 5 months, when they started trying to roll over while swaddled! We used the stretchy waffle weave blankets because they allow a really tight swaddle and are bigger than receiving blankets. We would dress them in just onesies under the blanket. I never thought about it getting too hot...since it gets cooler at night I always had the window open and the fan running.

 

I second the swaddle me blankets!!!

Our twins will be 7 weeks tomorrow (OMG...already?!) and DS is a champ at completely unwrapping himself within an hour after bedtime. :grr: DD is well on her way to following his example. I didn't want to stop swaddling because they do sleep so much better with the swaddles on. We went and bought one swaddle me blanket this past weekend for each baby just to try them out and see how they work and I was amazed. When I first saw them I thought they were a gimmick and one of those things that they try to dump on new parents who don't know what they do and don't need...but I was wrong. We have used them every nap and bedtime since we bought them and as soon as either myself or DH can escape to run to BRU again we will be buying more.

I also like that there is a slit in the back of them so you can feed the carseat straps through the swaddle me and they can be swaddled in their carseat. We take trips to Oklahoma City (about 2 1/2 hours) once a month and this will help them sleep on the ride I think.

Also check Ebay for them....they have a lot of them listed for 6 or 7 bucks a piece with free shipping.

 

I am swaddle queen. I am a hot box, and we keep our house around 72, but I would put the fan on and swaddle them up. I did finally figure out that one of my girls is cold natured and the other hot. I still keep Alden in her fleece zip up sack that is as tight as a swaddle, she just needs it and week keep the fan on in her room.

Our other girlie is in our room in in pnp because she is hot natured and needs our fans on and is a little bit behind her.

Good Luck, I truly believe swaddling makes for better sleeping!

 

We stopped swaddling around 3.5 months. At that point, the babies were only up once in a 12 hour period. After we stopped until about a week ago(and they are almost five months now), they were up twice in a 12 hour period. I really can't believe the regression lasted that long.