8 months old tomorrow and STILL swaddled

[minties]

Sophie is my "little" baby...she doesn't roll, crawl or pull to stand. She's still swaddled and using a dummy to sleep.

I know that the swaddling isn't causing any problems, as my son was swaddled until 7.5 and he was rolling at 3 months, crawling and cruising well at 6 months etc.

It just seems like she's geting a bit old for this? Or maybe that's just in my head. When her arms are free she just rubs her face and cries inconsolably. And because she uses a dummy to fall asleep, she keeps ripping it out, dropping it and getting frantic.

I've looked at looser swaddle products like the woombie, and a local product called a pekemoe (it's just a giant square sack with a hole at the top for the head and a zip across the bottom). But everything looks expensive. I could sew something but it would be by hand and would take forever.

Thomas used to nurse to sleep, so I weaned him off being swaddled by holding his arms while he fed. Sophie wont nurse to sleep and she wont sleep if I'm there next to her (which is weird as we co-sleep and she has no problems falling asleep next to me once I've gone to bed).

Just not sure where to go from here? It's winter so the swaddle seems to keep her arms warm, and it pins her arms to her side, so having them free is a huge change.

Should I just keep trying arms free? I hate to make her miserable for no real reason.

From about 4am she grizzles and seems to be uncomfortable lately. She acts like she wants to stretch and maybe sleep on her side, but if I unwrap her she wont go back to sleep anyway.

 

[Zephram]

I say just unswaddle. She will be miserable for a week or so until she learns to go to sleep without it, it's a learning process no matter what age she is. I unswaddled my dude between 3 and 4 months and it took him a while to learn not to rub his eyes, but he got it.

 

[IrelandsOwn]

Maybe leave one arm out for a week and see how she does? And then do the other one, and eventually her legs.

 

[F0xybabe]

I unswaddled Leyla at 4 months. She started to want to stretch as well, and I tried the woombie but she would just stretch her arms out an stare at them.

I was so nervous and upset but she adjusted so quickly. Getting her to sleep was hard, I had to hold her hands while rocking her so they wouldn't grab her face, but once she was asleep she slept much better. Sprawled out.

A week after I unswaddled her she was sleeping on her side and loving it. Unfortunately this means when she falls back onto her back she wakes up and wants me to move her on her side again (even though she knows how to get onto her side!)

But what I'm trying to say is maybe you'll discover that your lo adjusts super easily because they're ready to be unswaddled!

 

[minties]

I've tried going cold turkey, ands can't do one arm out as she's swaddled in a purpose made wrap with a zip and arm flaps galore, her arm would have to stick out the neck hole.

She ended up screaming on and off for almost 12 hours and kept waking our son up, which makes it harder. He's not STTN right now which is tiring, so I don't really want to wake him up more than he already does.

Hmm...maybe some white noise for the toddler?

I was also thinking to use a stretchy blanket and swaddle her with her arms inside her sleeping bag maybe? It's 2.5 hours until bedtime, so I will experiment soon.

 

[stephie_corin]

It's tough. My boy is 8 months too and has sleep associations galore. At this age they seem really tough to break. I think you have two options - go cold turkey and put up with her being upset, or try and break the habit gently, which could take a while. I like the idea of using a stretchy wrap to swaddle and releasing one arm and then the other, but I think with one arm loose she may still pull out the pacifier. Could you swaddle her for bedtime in a stretchy wrap and unwrap it when you go to bed without waking her? Good luck!

 

[stephie_corin]

I just had an idea... Could you dress her in a warm sleep suit (to keep her warm without the swaddle) and put mittens on her hands?

 

[minties]

Thanks for the idea! Socks might work? As they could go up to her elbows and she wont be able to yank them off.

I'll try that, and a stretchy blanket so she can slowly break free as she sleeps, but feels her usual security while falling asleep.

 

[Zephram]

You can swaddle over a sleeping bag with a light muslin or some such. Have you looked on the sleepstore website? They have good ideas to share.

Also, the one arm out thing didn't work with my son so what I did was put him unswaddled in his sleeping bag at the beginning of the night and get him off to sleep the usual way (at the time it was rocking or feeding) and I would keep him that way until he started waking through the night until I couldn't bear it anymore, at which point I would swaddle him for the rest of the night so we could both get some sleep. What happened was that the time period after which he would wake and wake and wake became later through the night until after about two weeks I had him going all night unswaddled in his sleeping bag. So the first night I probably swaddled him after two hours, the next night it might have been after three hours, and so on. You could try that!

 

[Noelle610]

When is the last time you tried unswaddling her? Babies change and grow so much in a short span of time; you may find you have much more success now going cold turkey!

At this point, I would drop it. She's at the age where she wants to learn to get into a comfortable position and self-soothe, but she needs to learn. The swaddle is likely hindering her right now. You may find she sleeps much better without it once the initial frustration passes.

 

[lomelly]

Zipadee zip

 

[All Girls]

I am of the opinion stop swaddling.
My OH used to swaddle our second child and she was 6 months old. She was at the pediatrician to get her hips checked, she wasn't moving. I said it to him about swaddling. He said to stop immediately.

 

[skye93]

We had no choice but to stop swaddling once little one was 3 months (started rolling)
We just transitioned to a winter sleeping bag. Took a couple of weeks for him to learn not to rub his eyes but now he's really good

 

[aliss]

It's up to you, I know Alex went till 10.

What I do (because Philippe also rips his out) is let him nurse to sleep with one in each hand and then I put one in his mouth after

 

[minties]

5:44Am and she's been up since 5, urgh. I fogive her though, she's been whispering "raaaaaaaar" at me, it's funny.

I just had to say quickly that her legs and hips are fully free. Her swaddle thingy does not restrict any lower body movement, it's very loose. Just upper body movement. It's the same one Thomas used, I kept it, and like I say, he was very physically able and his hips and legs are all cool and normal. She can thrash her legs up and down and kick me etc, which she enjoys!


It was a horrible night of sleep, she went to bed ok at 6:30, then Thomas woke her at 7 being noisy and it just went downhill from there. I'll try again tonight.

I usually try to either get rid of the dummy or wrap once or twice a week, I started at 6 months.

Thomas couldn't self sooth until he was about 18 months :/, de-swaddling didn't help.

edit: she can easily go from sitting to a crawling position then back to sitting:

https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/DSC_0076.jpg

...and CAN pull to stand, from sitting on her bum, she's pretty good at it, but as she can't crawl up to things she'll only do it using my hands or a chair nearby. Just didn't want anyone thinking she was abnormal.

 

[minties]

Some success! I stayed up until 10:30 last night sewing some cotton lined fleece arm thingamabobs (kinda look like starfish legs) onto a swaddle wrap. I cut off all the arm flaps and velco bits, so I was justg left with a loose tube shape with a zip up the middle. I cut arm holes and sewed on the starfish bits.

Doesn't make much sense when I say it on here, and it's ugly...hand sewed with random coloured fabrics...but she slept in it from 10:30pm and it's 7:08 now. She pretty much slept as usual. Perhaps one or two more wakings, but brief.

I'm happy!

 

[Tess.ie]

Well done minties I hope your good progress continues

 

[AngelofTroy]

You should go into business minties, that is a good stretch of sleep!!

 

[minties]

I wish it was a stretch! That was just from when she woke for her first feed of the night. She woke a few more time after that, and woke for the day at 8am which is the latest she ever has.

Unswaddling seems to have gone well. 2 Naps today, and she went to bed happy as Larry 2 hours ago at 7pm. Much much easier and better than I was expecting. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[stephie_corin]

Awesome news!!! So happy for you! And I never thought she was abnormal xxx