I had read up on swaddle weaning (who knew?) like 2 months ago and found that most babies are ready to stop swaddling around 4 months, but others take a lot longer. I kept reading "You'll know when your baby is ready to stop swaddling." How? Was I missing some secret signal other moms can pick up on? I mean, Silas would fight his way out of his swaddle often and then wake us up, so I'd go in and reswaddle him. I never asked him, "Silas, would you rather stay out of your swaddle and keep Mom and Dad awake for a couple of hours?" He did always go back to sleep when reswaddled, so I kept taking that to mean he "wasn't ready."
We tried doing the toga thing last month, where you just leave one arm out of the swaddle so the baby can get used to it. Well, that didn't last long; when we went to DC and he kept us up half the night we decided to eliminate any factors that might be keeping him awake, nixing the toga.
My friend Kim, mother of twins, (read her blog here) weaned her boys from the swaddle cold turkey. It worked for them, so we decided to try it the night after Nathan's last final.
SUCCESS!
Nights were almost perfect, just a couple of random shriek sessions where I'm sure Silas was disoriented from waking up and noticing strange, fleshy entities in his crib (his arms) for the first time, but he almost immediately went back to sleep. Naps were a little tougher; he would wake up and not be able to go back to sleep, leading to his longest crying sessions of life (like an hour maybe?) before I would let him out of his crib. (Mean mom, I know.)
But it only lasted a couple of days, and now his sleeping is back to normal!!! Which, in case your wondering, is about 16 hours a day.
8-9am- wake up (I don't let him out of his crib until 9, so he talks to himself and plays with his feet until then.)
11-1:30- nap I
3:30-5:30- nap II
9:00- bedtime
I know, it's amazing. We are very thankful for a good sleeper. And he's always SUPER excited when we come to get him out of his crib. It's enough cuteness to make me almost die with joy.
I read that you're not technically supposed to cover kids up at night until they're a year old...It seemed cold (literally and figuratively) to let Silas sleep with no blanket, so we let him have a loosely knitted one, made by his Gjyshja (Grandma in Albanian). When I checked on him this morning, he was sleeping with it completely over his face (which caused momentary freak out for me) but he hadn't suffocated (obviously). So I think we can rest at ease.
Here's our big boy with no swaddle (or pants) during his nap!
Anybody else swaddle their kids? For how long? Did you have to "wean"? How did you do it?
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI know Kate uses these blanket-bag things for Penelope. They're sleeveless, zip-up and are sort of like wearable sleeping bags. It's supposed to reduce the risk of suffocating, the baby can still move around, and it keeps them warm.
I don't know how well it works, but there ya go!
Even though Megan is only a month old, she does not get swaddled tightly. From the time she was born, she would scream bloody murder unless her arms were up by her face. So we just loosly wrap the blankets around her as if we were swaddling, just not like a burrito. :) I was afraid she would be too cold, but she seems much happier when she wiggles halfway out of the blankets. Oh well!
ReplyDeleteWe never swaddled. She would scream!! But I just tightly tuck her in with a blanket and she (knocking on wood) has always been a great sleeper too. Well, a great night sleeper, I'm envious of those 2 great naps he takes! Raegan is a BAD napper. I'm lucky to get 30 minutes sometimes, but she's usually happy.. so whatever works I guess! Cute picture! :)
ReplyDeleteWe swaddled Sim until he was around 4 months (I didn't even read about swaddle weaning, but I guess I/he was right on ;-)) By the point he was consistently squirming his way out, getting not only his arms out but also often squirming so much the swaddle blanket would be lower than his waist. I decided he was probably beyond the point of needing to be swaddled! He did fine quitting cold turkey.
ReplyDeleteNow we use a blanket sleeper at night (like what Kristin described, only the ones I like have arms), and it seems to keep him warm enough.
I'm cracking up right now because I remember researching "swaddle weaning" and thinking "Oh man, my kids are 9 months old and still swaddled! I've screwed them up for life!" I thought I was missing all the signs too, but they really did love their swaddles. We only stopped because they literally ripped a hole in their Miracle Blanket so I took that to mean they were probably outgrowing them. Haha, we had no choice but to cold turkey it after that ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for writing this post! Caleb is 3 months and almost 2 weeks. We have swaddled from Day One, and he seems to love it. We've used the SwaddleMe blankets with velcro because it didn't take long before he was able to wiggle out the swaddles we did with receiving blankets, which would always upset him.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I've been wondering when we need to wean him, and it sounds like we're about there (at least based on the norm). I'm planning on using one of those SleepSacks that Kristin described. Thanks for the tips!