LO is just over five months old. We swaddle her her at night using a miracle blanket, and are able to put her down awake and she falls asleep right away with the swaddle and paci, and usually sleeps through the night - occasionally we have to replace her paci once or twice but that's it. On Friday, we tried putting her down in a sleep sack instead, and she sobbed and wouldn't fall asleep, we gave up after about an hour of trying to soothe her and swaddled her - out like a light. Part of me thinks that we're crazy to consider messing with something that is obviously working. But she has mastered rolling back to front now - she has only rolled once at night and it was because she had loosened up the swaddle, but I wonder if that means we should give up the swaddle for good. Any tips on when and how you transitioned your child away from the swaddle? I'm terrified that we will never sleep again once we stop!
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Have you tried transitioning her slowly out of a full swaddle? My LO is a thumbsucker, so we started leaving one arm free to get her used to the freedom and so she could self-sooth.
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We quit the swaddle sometime after 4 months. We had a few attempts at weaning but didn't really commit to it and eventually I just went cold turkey and never went back.
I would just lay her in her crib and lightly keep her arms in place until she got drowsy for the first few nights because otherwise her hands would go wild! At that point she was dealing with a regression though so she wasn't falling asleep independently like your LO is so being with her until she was drowsy/drifted off wasn't much of a risk of introducing a new sleep 'prop'.
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We quit cold turkey at 4 months. She started sleeping on her tummy then, too, so it wasn't a bad transition. I do know people that swaddled 6+ months... a few to 10-12 months. I don't know how their LOs didn't roll around at night, but it worked for their families.
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We stopped pretty early because LO was more comfortable with her arms above her head. Maybe at 1 month?
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We're having the same exact problem in my house now. Will not sleep well with one or both arms out. Swaddle? Boom. Do I just need to deal with several nights of bad sleep to get him used to it?
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We transitioned using the magic sleepsuit at 4 months and it was a seamless transition with no changes in how quickly he fell asleep at night or how long he slept. We were super fortunate! I do think that for most babies it takes a few days for them to get used to the transition. You just need to stick with it!
I strongly believe that once a baby starts rolling that you need to ditch the swaddle. Babies work on their gross motor skills while they're sleeping and keeping them swaddled for a long time (10-12 months is looong!) may inhibit their motor development. Keeping them swaddled when they can roll is also a safety issue.
My LO didn't start rolling regularly until we got rid of the magic sleepsuit at 5.5 months. I didn't think he could do it until he started rolling in his sleep and we stopped inhibiting him.
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I finally stopped swaddling tonight! My LO is 4 months. I put her in a sleep sack instead. The past few nights she has been waking up at night and she's also had bad gas that doesn't pass unless she puts her legs up which she can't when swaddled! As soon as I un swaddled her she seems happier. When we out her down tonight she kept taking her own binky out and would start to cry. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night though, she's already been up numerous times because her binky fell out. More than usual. Anyway, It will be worth it once she gets used to it.
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We quit right around 4 months. She was already having sleep issues so during one of her wake ups, DH suggested that we unswaddle her arms. She uses a Woombie and we've been using the convertible ones so it was easy just to open up the arms to make it a sleep sack. She slept the rest of the night that night and hasn't had any issues with not being swaddle anymore.
For us, we did it in the middle of the night when she woke up during a period where sleep was already hard for her. And we stuck with it, she hasn't had her arms swaddled since.
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