Our daughter has loved to be swaddled from the time she was born. I'm sure she loves the feeling of being hugged and secure. She has slept soundly this way for almost six months now. We tried for a little while about two months ago to break the swaddle and allow her arms to be free (her legs have been since she was about a month old). Her little arms just kept waking her up by hitting her head or knocking our her binky.
Up until this point we have kept her by our bedside in an inclined sleeper but are hoping to move her in to her own room, and her crib, soon (since she now has one!!). Our little lady sleeps very well whether we are in the room with her or not, so I am not at all worried that she will feel lonely or abandoned in her crib.
I have been vigilant recently that during two of her naps throughout the day she is not swaddled. During those two naps she sleeps for about 20 minutes to an hour. She is usually woken up because she spit out the binky or knocked it out with one of her arms. I have tried to not swaddle her while she is in her sleeper for her long nap in the middle of the day, but she does not sleep well. She wakes up repeatedly and is generally very cranky after that nap.
Previously we tried to take her less active arm (which is her right) out of the swaddle. It seemed ok for a short while, but eventually she started moving it around and waking herself up. I attempted, at one point, to try the "cold turkey" method and leave both arms out but wrap up her torso. This attempt was an awful failure. Now we are at a point where we would like to try again but are at a loss on where to start.
Should we just repeat what we've already done? Do you have any advice on how to break a swaddle or transition to a crib?
My first child slept in a tight swaddle until she was about 7 months old. Then she slept with 1 arm out for about a month. The she slept with both arms out until she was almost 18 months old. Seriously. She was the world's biggest swaddle fan!
ReplyDeleteMy almost 4 month old is still fully swaddled, but she is a power house, and manages to break out of it on her own. But if we put her down without her being in her swaddles, she wakes herself up with those arms!