De-swaddling hell

[missys]

Ok, so I know not swaddling LO is in my future. We use the miracle blanket on little Houdini now and tried the love to swaddle this past Saturday. He did ok for the first three hours and then when he realized he could actually move his arms inside the swaddle he woke up screaming and was like a pissed off Hulk butterfly trying to break the cocoon. Or think of the performance art scene in She's All That when they are breaking out of that silver "womb." This happened 4 more times in the span of an hour before I gave up and put him back in the miracle swaddle so I wouldn't ruin father's day.

Any advice you have for this process is welcomed. I have tried the merlin suit and O is not a fan. If your advice is to suck it up buttercup and pick him up when he cries and just deal with some long nights I will, I just need other moms advice who have succeeded in this. Tell me your secrets!

[miniwheat]

I am a huge mom jerk and stopped swaddling pretty much when we got home from the hospital cause I didn't want to have to go through the de-swaddle process.

A couple of my friends had babes who were swaddled until 6ish months and I remember one going cold turkey and the other started with one arm out, both arms out and then into a sleep sack. I would hazard to say whatever you do, you will have a few rough nights. After a week or so your LO will be used to a new normal.

[WittyLittle]

I'm so lucky DS hated being swaddled from the beginning. I swaddled him a while back attempting to calm him down when he was air-jogging instead of napping and he cracked up. Thinks it's absolutely hilarious. Anyway, I'm of absolutely no use to you... just wanted to say good luck, I hope it goes well. A few rough nights as miniwheat said and then hopefully a new normal appears. We have to start teaching DS we won't replace his paci every 10 minutes when he wakes up, soon. Think it will be similar.

[mommadozer]

I failed at swaddling within the first week of being home. DS hated it at night, who knows if it was my lack of skills or he just wanted his arms out.

Good luck to all of the moms having to go through this!

[PikoPiko]

We used the miracle swaddle too, we stopped using it when DS got too big for it at about 3 months. To begin the unswaddling, I swaddled him loosely on one side so his hand could break out, then the next week I left that arm out of the swaddle and then eventuaaly not swaddle him altogether. Hope this helps!

[jensoprano82]

We went cold turkey because DS decided to become a rolly polly overnight and I wouldn't be able to sleep with my paranoia. It sucked hardcore for two nights. He startled awake probably every thirty minutes or so then calmed down with a paci and a little mommy contact. I just scooted his rock and play right next to my side of the bed and sucked it up. Night three he was back to his regularly scheduled programming

[mishka29]

We went cold turkey when we started sleep training.

With DD1 we did more of a slow transition so 1 arm out at a time, etc.

[mands1125]

We also went cold turkey. I will say that she hasn't STTN since But she was rolling over so I felt like it was time.

I kind of think we should have tried a Merlin or something but at this point, I am not going to bother.

[michelle142]

We went cold turkey with swaddling when LO was about 8 weeks old.
You could try swaddling tightly with one arm out and see how that goes.

[mels823]

We did a few nights with one arm out (mostly because she could get it out on her own) but then went pretty much cold turkey. Like mands1125, she still hasn't sttn since I bought the Merlin but did not find it to work very well. She loves to roll over and at this point I think she could roll over in it so we don't even bother.

[GeekBeagle]

When DS started breaking his swaddle, I swaddled him one arm out, then two and then no swaddle. It took maybe a week to do this and honestly, he probably could have gone cold turkey because he still STTN just fine. *knock on wood*

[junebugjam]

We went cold turkey. He was breaking out of the swaddle often anyway. One night of nothing and he was up probably every 30-45 minutes. Then we went to Merlin and he slept 10 hours in a row. Hasn't happened again since, but I think the one night of nothing helped honestly. But it was an awful night.

[missys]

Jun 24, 2015 10:50:50 GMT -5 @nolagal said:

We are using a swaddle sleep sack to transition. I use the swaddle part to wrap tightly around her chest so she still feels pressure, but her arms are free. We also have the merlin suit, but it's used at daycare. How many nights have you been transitioning?

We tried one night, the night before Father's Day and after 4 hours of hell I decided I couldn't ruin my husband's first FD so I gave in to the miracle blanket. I'm going to try again next week because my husband will be done teaching summer school and misery loves company.

[krispy83]

I did one arm out for several nights, then alternated to the other arm out. I probably did one arm out for 2 weeks before moving to both arms out. I just started with both arms out a couple of nights ago (after being unsuccessful a couple of times and going back to one arm in) and it's gone pretty well. The first night, there was a lot of quiet flailing around as she realized she could move BOTH at the same time lol! I'm still wrapping her with a blanket, just below her arms. I'm not looking forward to stopping that because all she's going to want to do is play with/chew on her toes.

[lilyelayne]

I'm more worried about moving to unswaddled naps than unswaddled nights. Do I do both at the same time? Or work on one first and then the other? We didn't start swaddling for naps until he was 10 weeks old or so & stopped sleeping more than 10 minutes not on me.

[taberbtb]

We moved from the swaddle to the Merlin suit, and now that she's rolling in it we are just using a sleep sack.

Like @holachica said it's much easier now that she can roll to her tummy and go to sleep. Before that she would just perform body slams and keep herself awake.

[missys]

Jun 24, 2015 8:10:17 GMT -5 @holachica said:

It was terrible for us too, so I admit I'm still swaddling. We tried the love to dream swaddle and the merlin suit on their own and he was waking every 20 minutes. It was bad. He has rolled, but only twice and he can't roll when swaddled (he really needs both arms and momentum to get himself over), so I'm not too worried. I even asked the pedi yesterday and he said it's alright to continue until he can roll while swaddled.

Currently, we have his arms swaddled with the a+a blanket and the merlin suit on over it. So I'm hoping to get him used to the merlin suit and I'm gonna try one arm out this weekend. I've also made it a goal to put him in the suit every nap time. If this doesn't work, we are planning to do Sleep Sense at the end of July, so that will go along with the swaddle transition.

Eta- my pedi is younger (about 40) and said he swaddled both of his kids. Then once they could roll in the swaddle, he said the transition unswaddled was fairly easy because he'd put them down to sleep on their backs, they'd roll to their stomachs and sleep much better like that.

I like you even more with this info. This eases my anxiety over the process.

[mle106]

My kid always hated the swaddle, so I don't have advice there, but he is obsessed with the Zipadee-Zip, which is intended to be a swaddle transition blanket. He rubs his face to soothe as he falls asleep, and it covers his hands so he doesn't scratch himself. And they are adorable! He looks like a little starfish. Good luck!

[abseptember]

With my older DD, we tried one arm but it didn't work so we went cold turkey. It took about 5 days.

[duckker]

Jun 24, 2015 19:12:19 GMT -5 mle106 said:

My kid always hated the swaddle, so I don't have advice there, but he is obsessed with the Zipadee-Zip, which is intended to be a swaddle transition blanket. He rubs his face to soothe as he falls asleep, and it covers his hands so he doesn't scratch himself. And they are adorable! He looks like a little starfish. Good luck!

I second the zipadeezip. My girl was a swaddle fiend, and after three weeks of pretty much sleepless nights for both of us, I got a ZZ (mystery sale knocked about $8 off). She slept 11 hours every night four nights in a row. She screams and giggles when I get it out for bedtime now. Last night and the night before she woke at 3:30 for a feeding, but was right back to sleep after.

[2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)]

Jun 24, 2015 3:06:55 GMT -5 jensoprano82 said:

We went cold turkey because DS decided to become a rolly polly overnight and I wouldn't be able to sleep with my paranoia. It sucked hardcore for two nights. He startled awake probably every thirty minutes or so then calmed down with a paci and a little mommy contact. I just scooted his rock and play right next to my side of the bed and sucked it up. Night three he was back to his regularly scheduled programming

This!!