Hellobee Boards

@paigeface: Well, I'm not sure I agree with your pediatrician because he's going to be rolling very soon, and you definitely don't want a swaddled baby doing that! Some folks like the Zippadeezip for this stage, but my baby liked to have her hands free. Other people do a weaning process--one arm in, one arm out. I'm more into ripping the bandaid off, knowing it might be tough for a day or two, and moving on (that's how it went for us!) She stayed in a sleepsack, so that helped to feel like she was still cozy.

My favorite sleep book talks about the importance of how your mood affects your baby. They're little sponges soaking up the vibes we're throwing off. I tried the "fake it till you make it" approach and pretended I was very confident. I do think it helped!

We also started with the non-dominant arm and only with the morning nap (when the sleep drive is greater) for a couple of days. We then added bedtime at night before the rest of the naps. We repeated this order with both arms out while swaddling only the chest before switching to a regular sleep sack.

another Merlin user here. Used it for about 2-3 months and loved it. it helped w the spastic arms and also prevented him from rolling over and getting stuck. I got rid of it and into a regular sleep sack once I was confident he could roll both ways easily.
oh, and babies that young don't really need any water. they get plenty of liquids through formula or breast milk.

I think we also did not provide water except for DS to sort of play with and get used to using a straw cup (we went from the bottle directly to a straw).

As for the swaddle, I believe that we transitioned both of our sons out of the swaddle around 4 months and we just sucked it up and went cold turkey using a sleep sack. It was brutal for about a week and then they got used to it.

We also used the halo...For dd1 I did it gradually , loose swaddle, one arm out, then both...it was fine and there were no issues. Dd2 was much more attached to the swaddle but I decided to sleep train/swaddle&soother wean at the same time so went cold turkey. Took one night of crying and then she was able to put herself to sleep without any props. I was amazed it went so well.