My son is 3 months old and he is getting stronger and stronger. A couple of times this week, he got out of his swaddle (miracle blanket) in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep! He goes to bed around 6pm and this happens usually between 2am - 4 30 am. We would see from the monitor that he is out of the swaddle and sucking on his fists happily. So we would leave him be hoping he is able to go back to sleep. Usually after an hour, you would see him trying to fall asleep but then his hands would rub his eyes and then he would cry for help. We then would swaddle him back and he would sleep fine all the way through past his wake time (his usual wake time is between 5 and 6... but if he wakes up at night out of the swaddle, he wakes up between 7 and 8)... The nights where he fusses but does not get out of the swaddle, he sleeps through fine and wakes up at his normal wake time. I ordered a woombie just now hoping it will work better. But I really worry about this turning into a habit? waking up in the middle of the night to play? Also... when should I expect him to learn not to bother himself with his hands?
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Yes, my LO was like this so I found the swaddle that worked best was the Halo swaddle. She could get out of the Miracle Blanket right away. If her hands were out then she would rub her eyes like crazy. I found that she stopped the rubbing around 4-5 months and then we got rid of the swaddle. Hope the Woombie works - if not, have you tried the Halo one?
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We had to double swaddle at night to prevent my son from getting his hands out and waking himself. We used A+A blankets and didn't put him in PJs so he was plenty warm but not overly so. When we did use a miracle blanket, he did get his hands out on occasion but I'd just re-swaddle him right away and rock or nurse him back to sleep. We continued to double swaddle until my son was 6 months old and then sleep trained. Otherwise, his hands always bothered him. I tried removing the swaddle and using Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit around 4-5 months but that was a total bust for us since his arms were still able to wander about and within 3 hours I couldn't take the constant waking and just swaddled him like usual. Sleep training was the only thing that kept him from waking himself with his arms.
As an aside - anyone want a magic sleepsuit?
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@Andrea- no we haven't tried the Halo one, I'm going to look into it now! thanks! When you get rid of the swaddle at 4 -5 months, was it hard? did she have a hard time adjusting? or since she doesn't rub her eyes anymore, it didn't matter?
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@pelikila: How did sleep training go with you guys at 6 months? did he just learn how to sleep without bothering himself after some crying?
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@reggie: it wasn't hard and trust me i was soooooo worried about it. i think once their arms don't move around so much they are ready anyway. i started unswaddling her for naps first since those were short. and then at night i did one arm out first, then both arms, but still swaddling underneath her arms. i did each step for a week and then got rid of it completely.
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@reggie: Sleep training was good by night 4 and we had to take away the swaddle cold turkey. He'd get so worked up crying the first few nights that he'd roll onto his tummy. When they tummy sleep, those arms don't wave around and smack into their face. We never put him tummy down though until he could roll himself back and forth so that is why we waited so long to sleep train.
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@Andrea: aw thank you! I feel better now... now I just hope the woombie would work and if not, I have to try something else! Your LO always slept so well at night... did you still have to sleep train? if so... why did you decide to sleep train? Right now, I soothe Eli to drowsy every night before bedtime.. and it usually takes 5 - 15min... then he is down for good.
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@pelikila: yeah I've heard from other moms that when they can flip over and sleep on their tummies, they become better sleepers.. I can't wait to ditch the swaddle all together!
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@reggie: no, we never had to sleep train her. very lucky! i definitely would have, though, if we needed to. as i said in the other thread, i don't care so much about naps since i don't think my LO is much of a napper anyway but night time sleep is essential!
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@Andrea: your LO sounds just like mine! He has always been such a good sleeper at night.. but his naps are sooo inconsistent... and mostly he just catnaps... nowadays he is having one long morning nap.. and then 3 - 4 other catnaps lol but nothing is really on a schedule.. but like you said- nighttime is essential!
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@reggie: that is amazing! they do sound so similar. her morning nap was always the best one and was at 9 am like clockwork for the longest time even though all other kids her age had already dropped the morning nap. the rest of the day was more unpredictable but we learned to go with the flow.
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I was going to suggest the woombie but I see you already ordered it! Liv hasnt ever gotten out of hers
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Babies have a reflex that causes their hands to fly up near their face, it's called the Moro Reflex. Some babies get it under control earlier than others.
Also, for us, good day time sleep begets good night time sleep, so not having the nap situation under control during the day made for nights with lots of wakeups. I don't mean to sound like a downer, but that's been my experience!
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@looch: No, not a downer, definitely true! I told Reggie on her nap thread that my LO's night time sleep wasn't affected if she skipped a nap but I know that is not the case for a lot of other babies!
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@looch: how did you get your LO get into a good nap situation? my LO goes down for his nap easy... he can only be awake for 1.5 hrs max so I start our nap routine around the 1 hour and 15 min mark and he is usually down in 5 - 10 minutes... his first morning nap is usually the longest... (ranges from 1.5hrs to 2.5hrs)... then after that, he just catnaps all day... I think it has to do with the fact that he sleeps so much at night... he generally sleeps about 11 hours at night... so for his age. he gets the recommended total hours of sleep.. 15 - 16 hrs or so.. I just wish he has a regular nap time like some of the other babies...
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We use the A+A swaddles at night and sometimes we find her in the morning with her arms out (but not really any sooner/later than she normally would be getting up so I don't think thats whats waking her). For daycare they can't have blankets so she uses a Halo there.
We have just started trying to put her down without a swaddle and its going ok as long as she is REALLY tired. Hopefully as she goes from 3 months old to 4 months old she can transition smoothly.
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@reggie: I had to be consistent, that was the killer for me. No matter what we were doing, if the appropriate amount of time for awake time had expired, we started the nap routine. We do a quick diaper change, put on sleepsack, drink small bottle, look at books, in crib.
Makes my life a bit limiting right now but I know when I have pockets of time to go and get errands done, otherwise it waits.
I hate to be a downer, but since not every child is the perfect sleeper, I try to take what other parents say about the amount of time their kid sleeps with a grain of salt. I was getting frantic, it seemed like everyone had a child that STTN, didn't cry, could self soothe, etc.
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@reggie: the Woombie worked miracles for my now 10 week old daughter. She got free in the Halo swaddle, and was waking up every 3 hours or so. The night I started using the Woombie, she slept 7 hours straight and is now up to 9 hours.
I hope it works for you!
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