What happened when you quit swaddling?

O.k. I posted eariler on my 4 mo. old waking frequently. Well I decided that I should just go cold turkey and quit swaddling and also make them sleep in the crib for naps instead of their bouncers. Well DD1 who won't take the paci is currently in their crying and when I go into soothe it doesn't help ONE FREAKIN' bit. My DH is leaving next weekend for a week of fishing (yeah, real nice huh?), and I don't want to have to get up every freakin' hour when he isn't here. I am hoping that doing this now that they will be adjusted by then.

So, what happened when you quit swaddling, did they instantly cry? Would they soothe easily? I just don't know what to do? Also, what happens when one twin goes down before the other one and then the 2nd one wakes the other?

Please help!

8 days until I am by myself!

 

I also would like details. My girls are 5 months and I still swaddle them, and I know I've been doing it way too long, but whenever I try to put them down unswaddled they cry and move around and cry more. I think tonight I'm going cold turkey no swaddling. We could do it together .

 

when we quit swaddling the babies kept waking themselves up with their hands/arms flailing around ~ they didnt sleep good for about 2-3 days till they figured it all out. So much of the sleeping is really trial & error to see what works, but that leaves with some totally FRUSTRATING days and nights (i cry alot...it helps!)
I still dont put the girls in their cribs for naps during the day (only at bedtime). I bet if I tried their cribs they would sleep for longer, but they normally pass out after their bottles (I feed them on pillows on either side of me on the couch). I would hate to wake them & haul them both upstairs to their rooms.
In my opinion I say stick with the routine that is the 'least irritating' for you while your DH is out of town (lucky him!). Changing their sleeping/napping right before he leaves might be too much for you??
I am sending good napping/sleeping vibes your way!!!!!

 

um, well. When we quit swaddling Ryan he stopped sleeping through the night for a month. He was sleeping 6pm-6am and then when we stopped swaddling he started waking at 2/3am. Then he finally got used to it and started sleeping through the night again. It also may be because he was starting to teeth, too?

When we quit swaddling Jack, nothing happened. He continued sleeping through the night as he had before. So....I think it's different with every baby.
Good luck!

 

QUOTE(angeez @ Jun 13 2008, 02:03 PM) [snapback]825377[/snapback]
Also, what happens when one twin goes down before the other one and then the 2nd one wakes the other?


We had this problem and had to separate them. They've been sleeping in separate rooms for almost a month now and it's made a HUGE difference!

Sorry...can't help on the swaddle question as mine were never that keen on it anyways. When we did swaddle, it was with their arms out and so when we stopped, it hardly made a difference at all. We were really just swaddling for warmth.

 

at 4 months, I started using a 4 ft square piece of flannel for swaddle blanket. Used that till 8 months old, at which time they were rolling over and crawling. So they would sleep on their stomachs under a blanket, not swaddled. They wriggled out of the swaddle. Also at 4 months I alternately used sleep sacs. When they started wriggling their arms out, I began to swaddle them from the armpit down -- hands free.

 

We went cold turkey on swaddling at about 5 months. We had been rocking them to sleep, but they were getting increasingly resistant (refusing to fall asleep), so we were ready to do CIO. And we knew we couldn't do CIO while swaddling them, because they'd just undo the swaddle while crying. So we combined the two transitions. We also put them in separate rooms (temporarily -- Sarah in a PNP in the dining room) to reduce the chances of one's crying making it harder for the other to fall asleep.

Amy screamed for over an hour the first night (Sarah slightly less, but it was hard to tell because Amy was so much louder). 45 minutes the second night, half an hour the third night, slight relapse (40 minutes) the second night, then down to 15-20 minutes at night for the next several months. After the 3rd night (I think), we started putting them down in the same room again. Amy's crying never seemed to wake Sarah (and except for the bedtime crying, Sarah never cried at night -- she still never does unless she's sick).

As far as nighttime wakeups, Amy did wake a little more often the first night or so. We'd go peek at her and make sure nothing was wrong (and if it was feeding time, we'd feed), but otherwise we just didn't go in and she eventually went back to sleep.

I was really surprised at how much of a nonissue the swaddle turned out to be. Maybe it was just because CIO was a bigger deal, but I was glad we did it that way, because by the time they were done with CIO, they had also totally forgotten about the swaddle.

Good luck -- and BTW, I really have no idea what your DH is thinking. I would have killed mine if he had left me overnight, let alone for a week, at that age.

 

I've just done it at 6 months. Last night was night #3 and it's going great. They only fussed for about 10 minutes. And we went cold turkey for night time and nap time.