Swaddling

My girls have been swaddled pretty much since day 1 and sleep great. Especially now, they sleep from 8-8 and get up once at night to nurse. But I wonder when I should stop swaddling? At what point does it stop being comforting and becomes restrictive? I know every baby is different but I can't imagine still swaddling a few months from now. Should I try not swaddling during naps and see how that goes? Should I just do a loose swaddle and see how they sleep?

With my oldest daughter we never really swaddled that much mainly b/c I couldn't get the technique down. And she was such a good sleeper anyway, so we never had to face swaddle-weaning :lol:

Ideas??

 

I just weaned them recently. And they've done great.

I know what's worked for a lot of people is taking out one limb at a time. This week have an arm out, next week the other arm and so forth. Or you could just try it cold turkey and see how they do.

Good luck!

 

We quit swaddling when they were constantly breaking out of their swaddle and I could no longer keep them contained!! That was about 4 months adjusted. We did it cold turkey, but I know some people do one limb at a time.

 

QUOTE(Kyrstyn @ Jun 18 2008, 11:53 AM) [snapback]833128[/snapback]
We quit swaddling when they were constantly breaking out of their swaddle and I could no longer keep them contained!!


We did it cold turkey at 3 months for the same reason Krystyn said. You can always try when you think it's time.

 

Great suggestions ladies, thanks! I just put them down for their afternoon nap and swaddled them a little looser than normal, so an arm or two could come out. We'll see how it goes. At night I swaddle them in the Miracle blanket and haven't had them bust out of that yet, so I may need to be more creative with that one. Or just go without it. Thanks again!

 

We stopped swaddling as soon as our girls could regulate their body temps on their own. They had real trouble with their temps, but I would say around three or four months we stopped.

 

We did both arms out for awhile and then just stopped when they were just squirming all over the place and we felt like they wanted their legs free. It was about 12 weeks or so for us when they were done with it.

 

We stopped around 3 months. By this point they were really fighting to get out of them. One of my dd would usually have a leg and hand sticking out in the morning. Between that and me worrying they were getting too warm we started weaning them over a couple of days by swaddling them and leaving their arms out.

 

We actually kept swaddling until 5 1/2 months for nightime -- and 6 1/2 months for naps. We stoped at night (cold turkey) after they went two weeks breaking out of their miracle blankets and still STTN on their own. I figured if they broke out at some point - and didn't need to be swaddled to get themselves back to sleep - then they were ready to be without them. I tried right after that to take the swaddles away at nap time - but it didn't seem to work (they couldn't seem to calm themselves down enough to go to sleep without them during the day) -- so after about a month of not sleeping swaddled at night - we took it away cold turkey for naps - and this time it worked perfectly -- no "transition" needed at all.

FWIW - I thought about trying to go without swaddles earlier -- but my mom said to me "why take it away if they need it -- they'll let you know when their ready" -- and that's kind of the philosophy we went with.

 

We stopped when my DS started rolling over at 3 1/2 months. He rolled over and then couldn't move and was stuck with his face down and suffocating. Got scared pretty quick. I tried to out things by him so he couldn't roll, but he wanted to roll so bad he would get angry. I just stopped cold turkey because it became dangerous after that.

 

We stopped cold turkey about a month ago when both girls were rolling over pretty consistently. I was too worried about them rolling over and not being able to get to a safe position. DD1 is on her stomach within five minutes of being put down and stays there all night long. We were really lucky that they didn't even seem to notice or care that they weren't swaddled anymore.

 

QUOTE(SweetGirl @ Jun 18 2008, 12:04 PM) [snapback]833146[/snapback]
We did it cold turkey at 3 months for the same reason Krystyn said. You can always try when you think it's time.


Ditto.

 

Well last night was interesting. I swaddled them in their Miracle Blankets as usual but they were up three times! First time DH went in their room, Blake's arm was sticking out of her blanket. Next time, it was Kirby. They've never busted out of their MB before! They have been sleeping 8+ hours a night for the past week, what happend? Coincidence? Growth spurt? I don't know but I'm going to swaddle them tighter tonight hoping that they will go back to their good sleeping habits. I am sooo tired today.

I swaddled them looser for their naps and it didn't seem to affect them so I may keep going with that for a while.