Find out when and how to drop baby’s swaddle and still have your baby sleep well. Sleep doesn’t have to be ruined just because the swaddle is dropped!
Dropping the swaddle can be a scary thing if your baby is sleeping very well. Personally, when my baby is sleeping well, I do not want to change a thing!
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Using a swaddle has so far been very helpful in getting your baby to sleep well. It helped prevent the startle reflex, also known as the moro reflex, from waking baby up from naps early.
The swaddle is especially helpful for newborns. It mimics the womb and helps comfort newborns.
Some day, however, the time comes when a baby needs to drop the swaddle. This can be for a variety of reasons:
- Baby starts to dislike being swaddled
- Baby starts to roll to tummy while swaddled, which can be a dangerous sleeping position without arms free. Increased mobility leads to increased need to drop the swaddle
- Baby is just ready to drop it
- Insert your reason here
Post Contents
- Signs Baby is Ready to Drop the Swaddle
- Common Ages for Dropping the Swaddle
- Methods for Dropping the Swaddle
- One-Arm Weaning
- Sleep Aid or Transitional Swaddle
- Cold Turkey
- Combo
- Blankets After Dropping the Swaddle
- Will There Be Fussing When Dropping the Swaddle?
- Conclusion
- Poll Results from This Blog
- Reader Questions on Dropping the Swaddle
- Related Posts
Signs Baby is Ready to Drop the Swaddle
What are signs your little one is ready to drop the swaddle? You can see some reasons in my post When To Stop Swaddling Your Baby.
Here is a short list:
- Rolling To Tummy While Swaddled: If your baby starts rolling to her stomach, she might be ready to drop the swaddle. This doesn’t necessarily mean your child is ready, but this is a big reason people stop swaddling–ready or not. A baby on her tummy without her hands available isn’t safe. If your baby can roll over, it might be time.
Once your baby starts rolling over during tummy time, watch for this to happen during naps. - Improved Motor Control: When baby has improved motor control and baby’s arms to randomly flail about, it is a good sign baby is ready to try to slseep without the swaddle. When baby’s startle reflex is gone, she might be ready.
Most babies seem to be ready to drop the swaddle between 3-6 months old (but don’t live by that age range–that is most, not all). All babies develop fine and gross motor skills at an individual rate. - Sleeping Habits: If your child is sleeping well and happily, you probably don’t need to push dropping the swaddle.
If your child is sleeping fitfully, consider dropping it. This is especially true if your child was sleeping well and then suddenly starts not sleeping well. There are, of course, other reasons for poor sleep, but make this a consideration.
Brinley showed no signs when I started her first arm out, but after a couple of weeks of that she started getting mad sometimes at nap time. It wasn’t a huge thing, but it was out of character. It wasn’t until I dropped the swaddle all together that she went back to happy.
Note that some people worry about baby being swaddled and reaching milestones on time. Brinley was swaddled for a long time and still met her milestones.
Common Ages for Dropping the Swaddle
Like I said, most babies seem to be ready to drop the swaddle sometime between 3-6 months of age.
There are, however, babies younger who drop the swaddle and babies older who drop the swaddle.
Most of all, don’t feel pressure to drop the swaddle or to keep the swaddle. If your baby needs to be swaddled longer than “most,” don’t worry about it! In a poll I did, reader Danielle commented:
“Looking back, I don’t know why I felt such pressure to stop swaddling her at 3 & 6 months. She clearly wasn’t ready at either of those times. I was letting other people’s comments make me feel insecure about my decision to swaddle. I should have known it wasn’t a big deal and that eventually when she was ready we would stop.”
I think this is the perfect comment for us to remember. She is absolutely right.
If your baby isn’t ready, so long as there is not a safety concern, you don’t need to push it. Your baby will be ready someday.
If you suspect your baby is ready to drop the swaddle, give it a try!
If you try and it doesn’t go well, go back to swaddling.
Methods for Dropping the Swaddle
The final big question people have is “How do I do it?”
I always like to do my testing during the final nap of the day–so typically the third or fourth.
This is often a “cat nap” (meaning it is 30-60 minutes long) and it is right before bedtime, so it isn’t going to throw the whole day off if things don’t go well.
I am really a big fan of taking things slowly. I find taking things slowly with babies means you keep things as smooth as possible.
Some people prefer to go “cold turkey” and have a rough week or so and then have it behind them. I don’t like rough weeks, but we all have different preferences and personalities so pick a method that rings true to you.
The method you choose will also depend on your reason for dropping the swaddle.
You might have a baby rolling over and need to go cold turkey because it is a safety issue. Maybe you have a time deadline and need to work within that time constraint.
Whatever method you choose, absolutely feel free to tweak any method to work best with your baby and your family.
Also, keep your same sleep routine. You just cut out the swaddle part of the nap routine or bedtime routine.
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| 3 moth old Kaitlyn with one arm out |
One-Arm Weaning
This is the method I have used for all of my girls (Brayden was never swaddled).
- I start on the third (or last) nap with one arm out of the swaddle. If the nap goes well enough for my liking, we continue on with this for a week.
- The next week, I leave one arm out for the last two naps of the day. The test of this nap is that baby needs to make it through a transition (the 45-60 minute mark into the nap). With the final nap, baby doesn’t transition typically. I do this for a week, making sure baby can transition well with one arm out.
- The third week, I leave one arm out for the first nap (assuming we have three naps). So at this point, one arm is out for all of our naps. If this goes well, I do this for 3-4 days, then…
- I leave one arm out for night sleep. We do this for 3-7 days.
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| 4 month old Kaitlyn with two arms out |
By now, it has been about a month since we started one arm out. You see this is a long process! Next I move on to phase two.
- I start on the third (or last) nap with two arms out of the swaddle. I still swaddle the trunk of the baby’s body. If the nap goes well enough for my liking, we continue on with this for a week.
- The next week, I leave two arms out for the last two naps of the day. The test of this nap, again, is that baby needs to make it through a transition (the 45-60 minute mark into the nap).
- The third week, I leave two arms out for the first nap (assuming we have three naps). At this point, both arms are out for all of our naps. If this goes well, I do this for 3-4 days, then…
- I leave one arm out for night sleep. If things go well, then we are done!
With Kaitlyn and McKenna, once we started the one arm out, things progressed smoothly through the weaning.
With Brinley, she did well with one arm, then when I tried two she was not happy.
So we waited two weeks or so until she started getting upset and we moved on to having both arms out.
You can definitely take this method faster than I do if your baby is able. You could take it to every few days you change, or you could do it so all naps are one-arm at the start, wait a week, then do night, wait a week, then all naps both arms out, etc.
Tweak the idea to fit you. It is a long transition process, but it works well!
You can see a sequence of photos of Brinley following this method in the photos below.
Sleep Aid or Transitional Swaddle
There are many items out on the market that help baby transition from swaddling. You might be able to continue swaddling with a different swaddle blanket.
Two examples of transitional blankets are the Zipadee Zip and Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit.
Many people love, love, love these transition suits. I would find them very helpful in a situation where your baby is rolling while swaddled but isn’t really ready to sleep without a swaddle.
I considered these products for Brinley since she was getting older and still wanting to be swaddled. I thought it could be a good transition item.
It definitely could be. If she was my first or second baby, I probably would have gotten one because I could use it later. I couldn’t justify spending the money, though, when there was no real need for us. It would have been something else to transition out of in the future.
So I decided to stick with the swaddling until she was ready to drop the swaddle altogether. You might find it helpful to purchase one of these.
Cold Turkey
Another popular method for dropping the swaddle is cold turkey. This means you just take the swaddle away one day and don’t look back.
Many people find with this method that there are 3-7 days of rough naps and night until baby gets used to it.
Combo
Some people do some combo of these ideas. Some start weaning slowly, and then move to just finishing the process cold turkey.
Always trust yourself in what you think your baby needs. Try it, if it doesn’t work out, tweak it and move forward.
Also, it is still okay to use white noise for baby even though you won’t have a swaddled baby.
Blankets After Dropping the Swaddle
If your baby needs extra blankets after you drop the swaddle, look into a sleep sack (the Halo Sleepsack is popular) or some sort of wearable blanket so your baby can stay warm and safe.
Sleeping with loose blankets in the crib is still a hazard with your baby, so avoid using those. You still want to practice safe sleep recommendations and avoid suffocation.
Will There Be Fussing When Dropping the Swaddle?
People often wonder if fussing means baby just shouldn’t drop the swaddle. The answer is maybe. Some fussing can be expected and can be normal. But if your baby is really ready, it shouldn’t be extreme crying for more than a few days.
I asked people on this blog When you stopped swaddling baby, was there a period of crying/fussing (no matter the length of time)?
Results:
Yes: 84 votes (34%)
No: 166 votes (66%)
Total of 250 votes
In a follow up poll, I asked If baby cried at all while dropping the swaddle, about how long did it last?
Results:
1 day or less: 45 votes (45%)
2-5 days: 39 votes (39%)
6-10 days: 5 votes (5%)
11-14 days: 1 vote (1%)
2-3 weeks: 5 votes (5%)
4-6 weeks: 2 votes (2%)
6-8 weeks: 0 votes (0%)
two months or more: 2 votes (2%)
This poll should really be encouraging to you if you are trying to drop your swaddle with your baby. 84% of babies who cried cried for less than one week. 45 % for only one day or less! Hang in there!
Angipas said: We actually dropped the swaddle BECAUSE of crying. Santiago was 3 months when he started wrestling with me every time I put on the swaddle. The first few times I thought, he was just being fussy for being too tired or just because. After several naps, I tried leaving one arm out and he went to sleep much faster a few weeks later, he went back to crying and complaining. We left both arms out and naps were back to normal. So, no crying while dropping swaddle just crying TO drop swaddle.
Ashley said: As Angipas said we dropped the swaddle because it was a bit of a struggle once in a while. Teagan was only 6 weeks when we got rid of it, she was already sleeping 8 hours at night and just didn’t seem to need to be swaddled. There was no crying involved with dropping the swaddle for us.
Conclusion
If you suspect your baby is ready to drop the swaddle, don’t be afraid to give it a try! Just think of how much easier it will be to change diapers for diaper changes at night.
If it doesn’t work, swaddle her back up and try again when you think she might be ready in the future. And again, don’t stress about it. Your baby will drop the swaddle when she is ready as an individual–on her own time table.
Poll Results from This Blog
Here are the results of a poll I took on this blog: What Age Did You Drop the Swaddle Completely?
Results:
1-4 Weeks: 20 votes (14%)
5-8 Weeks: 24 votes (17%)
9-10 Weeks: 10 votes (7%)
11-12 Weeks: 5 votes (3%)
3-4 Months: 20 votes (14%)
4-5 Months: 18 votes (12%)
6-8 Months: 16 votes (11%)
9-12 Months: 0 votes
12 Months or older: 0 votes
Not Yet!: 27 votes (19%)
Total of 140 votes
Poll Results: What Method Did You Use to Drop the Swaddle?
Results:
Cold turkey: 28 votes (29%)
Gradual weaning: 9 votes (9%)
Unwrap arms but leave trunk wrapped: 23 votes (23%)
Stopped nights/swaddled naps: 2 votes (2%)
Stopped naps/swaddled nights: 11 vote (11%)
Other: 6 votes (6%)
Still swaddling: 17 votes (17%)
Total of 96 votes
Reader Questions on Dropping the Swaddle
Emily said: Any advice on how to break the swaddle? My daughter has decided (at 7 weeks) that she HATES it, but she can’t handle without it b/c her arms are so spastic. So I’m letting her CIO with no swaddle and instead of the usual 5-15 minute cry, she’s crying as long as I let her….for both of her naps today I’ve gotten her after an hour and put her in the swing to put her to sleep. Now she’s wailing again! Is it too young for her to get “used” to having her arms out? Should I stick it out for a few more days? She hates her tummy so I don’t know if tummy sleeping would work. Thanks for your help!
Babywise Mom said: Emily, I would either try different forms of swaddling (there are lots of different blankets out there) or try different degrees of the swaddle. One arm partially out, one arm fully out (and which one), one arm fully out with the other partially…Find what her preference is. Good luck!
Abby said: We are in the process of trying to drop the swaddle with our 5.5 month old. It is not going well. We have started by just taking her arms out for naps. The few times we have tried she never goes to sleep. She will lay in there for two hours and go back and forth between screaming and then tapering off into a whine. She normally does not cry for naps at all. Do you think that we should just go back to the full swaddle or is she just going to have to CIO until she learns to get to sleep without the swaddle? Anyone have experience with this?
Babywise Mom said: It depends on the reason you are dropping the swaddle. If you think there is a saftey issue involved (some babies will roll over swaddled then be unable to roll back for example), then I would stick with it. If you were just trying it out, I think I would go back to swaddling for a bit and try again later.You could also try just having one arm out first. I did that with Kaitlyn for a while. Odd, but it is what she liked 🙂
Abby’s Mom said: Thanks for the advice. I am not really worried about a safety issue because she doesn’t roll over from back to tummy yet even when she is not swaddled. I went back to the full swaddle yesterday and she is going down easily again. Still takes her a half hour to go to sleep, but at least she goes to sleep and there is no crying! Guess I am just getting paranoid picturing her wanting to be swaddled still at 12 months! 🙂 She is a very big baby 28 inches and 20 lbs. We had to cut up a bed sheet to get something big enough and cool enough to swaddle her in!
Krystal said: Abby, My daughter is 8mo. now, but when we stopped swaddling her the only thing that finally worked was to put her down on her belly. I know that they say you shouldn’t do that, but it’s what she likes. I started only doing it for naps, and then continuing to swaddle at night, but around 6mo. we stopped swaddling completely. Now that she rolls, she sleeps on her side/tummy/and back. You might give it a try during a couple naps and see what happens. Maybe set up the playpen in a room where you are so that you can keep a close eye on her if you are worried about her being on her belly.
Babywise Mom said: You might try lengthening playtime just a bit. Whenever Kaitlyn would start to play before a nap suddenly, I would lengthen her playtime by only 5 minutes. That was usually enough to get her to go right t sleep.
Abby’s Mom said: I am not sure that Abby would go to sleep on her belly, as she absolutely HATES being on her belly still. I am sure this is the reason she is still not rolling over. Tummy time is always a struggle and she will usually only tolerate it for about 5 minutes at a time. Seems strange since she is getting close to 6 months. I am wondering if it is something I should mention to her pediatrician.Val- I think I may try different wake times and keep a log. I have just been putting her down when she starts rubbing her eyes which is always about 60-75 minutes after she woke last. Only problem with that is that she has never been a 2 hour napper. Naps are usually 45-75 minutes. She ALWAYS wakes during the transition (between 30-45 minutes) but will go back to sleep some (65%) of the time.
Krystal said: Abby, My daughter didn’t like being on her belly during her awake time either, but when I put her on her belly after about 10 min. of crying (the first time) she went right to sleep for 2hrs!! You might try it a couple of times just to see if she likes it. 🙂 good luck w/ whatever you try!
Jodie said: Hi, My daughter is 6.5 months old and still relies on being swaddled to fall asleep. We swaddle just one arm during the day to try and wean her off swaddling and she seems to be going ok. Though she often pulls her dummy out of her mouth then cries or spends ages staring at her fingers!! She is strong enough to get out of the swaddle during the night and often wakes up crying and unswaddled.Any other tips on how I wean her off at night? I’m not game to yet as she still isn’t sleeping through the night. But I’m worried she’s getting too old to swaddle…..Any thoughts on what age we should stop waddling baby? I wanted to get her unswaddled before she goes to day care but that may not be possible…..Jodie
Babywise Mom said: Jodie, it can take time for some babies. You just have to hang in there. If she likes being swaddled, you don’t HAVE to break it unless it is becoming a safety issue. As for age…it just depends on baby. Some say 3 months, but not all babies are ready by 3 months. At 6.5 months, a baby with no health issues should be able to sleep with out the swaddle without worry about reflexes messing up sleep.
LindsayJay said: Looking for anyone’s advice! My 5 month old is still swaddled, but is now waking at night (usually a 12 hour straight sleeper) because she has wiggled her arms out and it wakes her up–last night 3 times!!! We have decided to start dropping the swaddle (especially since she is rolling over), but our first attempt this evening was a failure! Put her in a sleeper sack, she went to bed and woke 45 mins into bedtime wailing. Waited for roughly 10 minutes before going in and deciding to swaddle her up again. So my question is this: do I just try and drop the swaddle cold-turkey again, or should I allow her to wiggle her arms out and then let herself put her back to sleep (thus basically helping her to sleep without the arms swaddled) I’m really concerned and I’m really wondering what I do. I am OK with CIO, but I’m not sure what avenue to take?
Babywise Mom said: I might try one arm at a time at first. But you also might want to be sure the waking is because of breaking out of the swaddle. Sometimes breaking out of the swaddle is a symptom of something else. So, she might be waking due to teething pain, then breaking out of the swaddle, then getting upset. If it is because of the swaddle, I would do one arm at a time, or just prepare yourself for some crying days.
Kameron said: My 8 month old still loves to be swaddled. She sleeps well like this and it still calms her down when she’s having a bad day. She can wiggle her arms out when she wants to, but sometimes prefers to stay bundled. My question is, if it’s working for her, do we need to drop it? What are some pros/cons on continuing to swaddle this long? I’m just curious for another opinion! Thanks!
Babywise Mom said: Many moms do swaddle until a year old. My concern with swaddling is just development physically. If she is developing and meeting physical milestones when she should, then there probably isn’t anything to worry about.
TnT said: I have a question, unrelated to swaddling. I wasn’t sure where to post it….sorry! I have a BW 5.5 month old who recently introduce to the jumperoo. He was in it for only about 20 mins. The next three days, he wouldn’t sit still in my lap anymore and is constantly doing that “jumping” motion. I want to train him to sit still in my lap for church, bible studies, restaurants, etc. Any advice for me? Should I introduce a form of discipline that communicates “sit still.” What would you do? Should I take away the Junperoo and put it back in the garage for a later day?
Babywise Mom said: TnT, I am honestly laughing because that is how Brayden was–but from three weeks old. Seriously!For home, would still have the jumperoo and let him get his workout in. It is just a new experience for him and he loves it. For church, you can do blanket time (see blog label) so he won’t be in a lap. Also, work on the art of distraction. At church, you want to respect others, so this is a context to use distraction.At home, practice sitting still for short periods so you can learn how to get him to do so and he can get used to doing it. Bring lots of toys and books with you places. When he gets old enough, he can have small finger foods, too. Good luck!
Anna said: My daughter is 7 1/2 months old and still likes to be swaddled too. I haven’t swaddled her arms for a couple of months now but she still likes her body to be swaddled. Should we be stopping since she’s getting a little older?
Babywise Mom said: Anna, my advice would be the same to you, with also the addition that Redheads brought up (Thanks Amy!). Safety can be a concern with swaddling–but with arms out, it shouldn’t be a big deal. Since her arms are out, I think you could do a sleep sack instead. We use the ones by Carters that have sleeves. Kiddopotomus make similar. If you live in a warm climate (or it is summer for you now), you might want to try the halo sleep sack because it doesn’t have arms.
lwicks said: We tried weaning our LO of the swaddle as he would get out in the middle of the night and have a hard time going back to sleep. I started with naps and tried just leaving his arms out, but he wakes up after 30-45 min and cries the rest of the time. Do they eventually get to the point where they can drop the swaddle on their own, or will it take CIO? I’m still curious as to Val’s suggestions, but so far here is what I’ve done to help minimize the swaddle issues. During the day for his naps, I’ve started letting him sleep on his tummy unswaddled (I know, I know, they tell you to put your baby on their back to sleep, but he’s almost 5 months old now, and we have the AngelCare movement sensor, so I figure we’re good :o) ). He sleeps really well for his naps this way, and I’m hoping it’s getting him used to not being swaddled. I tried having him sleep on his tummy the first night I had him on his tummy for his naps, but he woke up in the middle of the night and got mad since he isn’t a big fan on laying on his stomach. So at night I still swaddle him in his MiracleBlanket (which is a lifesaver! It’s worked the best of anything I’ve tried so far, and I’ve got a little houdini on my hands), and then I swaddle over his legs again with another blanket since he tends to kick out of the MiracleBlanket in the middle of the night (if there’s a way to break loose, this kid will figure it out – ha). Not sure if that helps anyone, but it’s what’s working for me so far!
Babywise Mom said: They will get used to it, but it can also be just an issue of not being ready. It sounds like you have seen some improvement. I would suggest you also see the blog label “swadding” for all of my advice on the subject.
AnneMarie said: I dropped the swaddle last night because my DD just learned to roll over. I have been dreading the day when it had to happen (she is 4 months) and I really worked myself up over it. I had tried last week to leave one arm out to see what would happen and she never went to sleep. I think I was making it a little bit more complicated than it was, at least for my daughter. This week, I noticed that every time I put her in the swaddle she would cry. She would go to sleep, but it was putting her in it that she hated. So, I made the hard decision with my husband to drop it last night and she did fabulous! She slept through the night! Since, I wanted to be consistent in my approach, I unswaddled her for her very first nap (very scary since this is her most important nap) and she took about 5min longer to get to sleep, but no crying, just singing herself to sleep. She has now been asleep for an hour! So, I know for me, I was making it more complicated then it had to be for her. 🙂
Sarah said: I have a four month old daughter, and we had to stop swaddling because she kept breaking out of the swaddle… a friend recommended the “baby merlin’s magic sleep suit” (google it!) and we got it yesterday. It is a miracle-worker!! I would recommend it to anyone who is having sleep problems and extra night-waking! The magic sleep suit works like a swaddle in that it muffles your baby’s movements and helps soothe them to sleep. But they can’t break out of it like a swaddle! If weaning from the swaddle really doesn’t go well, you could try the suit! It has ended up working even better for my daughter than the swaddle ever did.
Hannah said: We used the SwaddleMe for our son and decided to break him of it once he reached the weight limit on it (14 lbs). He was only 2 1/2 months but was starting to get an arm out every time he went down for naps and it would wake him early. So my husband and I decided to get rid of it. It took two nights of him waking every two hours, and then we would go in and put his paci back in, and by night three, he was used to sleeping without it. I just made sure he had warmer pajamas on so that he wasn’t cold if he kicked his blankets off. It worked for us!
This is a great post. I can't remember when I did this with my older daughter (mommy fog)so this was a great reminder. My almost four month old has been sleeping consistently through the night and has recently been waking up randomly throughout the night. I think I have discovered it's because she wants to move her arms! I'm going to try and wean her off the swaddle and see if that makes her happier!
Good luck Rachel!
Ugh! This is so timely for me. My 4 month old has started to roll to her tummy fully swaddled, yet when we tried to drop the swaddle cold turkey it was a miserable night for her and us. Couple this with her having her first cold. We've started "strapping" her in by using a sheet wrapped around the crip (at the suggestion of her pediatrician!) However, she still is waking up multiple times. I guess we were spoilled that the week before all this she had finally started sleeping 12 hours and dropped the middle of the night bottle. I feel like we've taken major steps backwards and just hoping and praying we will get back to where we were.
I feel famous for getting quoted on your blog! :). Great post! I wish I had read this when we were in the midst of the swaddling drama we had over here back in the baby stage. Now it's a new set of 2 year old challenges. 🙂
I did the swaddle weaning with my son, also, and it worked very well. What do you do when you're done swaddling? Just put them to sleep with no blankets or anything? I did the torso swaddle with both arms out for months because he was done swaddling but I felt weird putting him in there just with nothing. Eventually I started putting him to bed in a sleep sack/blanket and that's working nicely. I like to have something on me when I sleep, so I did for him. I just wondered what other people do; no covering at all when they're done swaddling, or what?
Both of my kids LOVED to be swaddled. My daughter was happily swaddled until she was 6 months old when she began rolling over in the crib. My son began to be too strong for the swaddle to adequately hold him. I found cold-turkey worked the best for us. It made for 1-2 bad nights, but after that, they seemed to get right back to their old sleep schedule.If anyone is wanting to extend swaddling (like for our son, a month or two he was so strong he would break out of the swaddle, but couldn't sleep without it – I know, weird), we used the Miracle Blanket: http://www.target.com/p/miracle-blanket-baby-swaddling-blanket-beige/-/A-11027864?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=%7C11027864&CPNG=Baby&kpid=11027864&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=11027864It hold baby a lot tighter than normal swaddlers. My pediatrician also recommended double-swaddling with my daughter since she went SO long needing to be swaddled. We did the miracle blanket and then a summer sleeper around that. Worked great.
GREAT post!!
Kathleen You will! Hang in there!
Danielle — I really loved that comment!And lol–there are always challenges with each age.
mrs.enright ,That would probably depend on your child's age exactly. I am like you–I like to have something on me when I sleep. So I always have my babies in something (well, except for Kaitlyn because she really did not like to be warm when sleeping–she still doesn't). I put them in sleep sacks until around 7-8 months old.I just moved Brinley into warm footed PJs–even for naps. I just slip her into them right over her clothes. It is like a blanket but she can move around in it better.I gave Brayden, Kaitlyn, and Brinley a blanket. I don't remember for sure if I did McKenna at this age or not–I think not but I am not positive.
Dee Stephens Thanks!
Unkown–thanks for sharing your experience!
Looking for some advice for my 3 month old baby boy. We are swaddling and he is a really good napper and sleeps great for naps. At night, he usually goes 7-9 hours before he needs to eat, but he oftentimes wakes up one or more times during the night being fussy. If we give him his binky, he goes back to sleep (sometimes for 15 mins, sometimes for hours). If we just let him cry, he will cry for over an hour and he ends up breaking out of his swaddle so it's all over his face and arms. There is no way he will sleep like that. So I don't know what to do! I am doing a double swaddle too. Should I try stopping the swaddle? Should I stop at night only? Should we just keep giving him his binky? Help! Thanks!
Haley,The trick will be to figure out why he is waking up. Is he waking up because he needs the pacifier to sleep? If so, you will have to addrses that. Is it that he is hungry? If so, you address that. Is it that he wants to not be swaddled? Address that (though honestly from what you wrote, my first guess is he needs the pacifier to sleep and second guess is hunger, and it might be some of each on different days).
Okay…so I really don't think it's hunger unless he wakes closer to 5 or 6. But when he wakes at 1 or 3 or whatever, I would assume it's that he wants the pacifier to get back to sleep. But he doesn't suck on the pacifier constantly when he sleeps, he eventually spits it out and continues to sleep without it. He almost always has his naps without it so I know he doesn't always *need* it. But he does go right back to sleep when we give it to him if he wakes in the night. I just don't know how to address it. Like I said, if we just let him cry, he doesn't seem to calm down and the swaddle blanket ends up all tangled and over his face so that doesn't help either. So do I stop swaddling and stop the pacifier? Or what would you suggest? Thanks again
Valerie, I love the blog. It has been extremely helpful as we have now had four children, the youngest twins, and have tried to remember what schedules look like as we transition. Both of the twin girls, now 5 months old, love to be swaddled. We still have them sleeping in the same bed for naps and night, but just this week they have both taken to rolling over even when swaddled. This brings me to working on weaning the swaddle (we are doing the one arm swaddle for naps) but they rarely make it through the 45 or 60 min transition without some help from mom. Also, I am guessing it will be wise to put them in their own beds as we break from the swaddle because of the freedom of movement. Any suggestions on this time table with two, and my fear of going backwards from their really great progress on sleeping. I don't want to make too many changes too quickly, but I'm a bit unsure how to do this gradually for them. Thanks! Sarah
I have a 9 week old little boy, will be 10 weeks on Saturday. I am personally just tired of the swaddle because I would like to be able to just put him in the crib, but it is a disaster when I try with no swaddle with an early wake or I tried a one arm swaddle that didn't do well either. Should I just leave this issue alone and swaddle him or how do I wean him off of it?
hey valerie, so if that third nap is in the swing since its only an hour or bit more, would you still start at that nap?and if the transition needs to be started because baby is rolling onto tummy while swaddled, would you still do a slow transition?
I need some HELP!My 6 mo old son has started to roll over at night swaddled. He usually breaks an arm or two out so I haven't been overly concerned about that. However, during his second nap he refuses to be swaddled. He just keeps breaking free and fighting it! Then, he gets overly tired and won't sleep for the rest of the day-Which is not good! Obviously I need to break the swaddle. I have tried, but he rubs his face and pulls his hair when he is tired and won't fall asleep. Any tips?!
Help!! Too young not to swaddle. I have three kids-all Babywise! I swaddled my first two and did the weaning just like you suggested above. They were around 3 months when I started one arm out and we slowly progressed to two. My third is 7 weeks. I KNOW she's too young to no be swaddled but she's big and strong. I have tried muslin blankets, halo and woombie. She can get an arm or hand or both arms completely out. If she even gets her arms away from her sides she keeps herself awake trying to get them out. She can't sleep unless they are down by her sides and it's impossible for her to move them. In the woombie she puts her hand in her mouth thru the woombie and is mad the whole time. She even eventually gets one hand out the top. In the halo, she squirms and squirms when you first lay her down but as long as her arms stay down she goes to sleep fine. She ALWAYS wakes up at the sleep cycle change 45-60 min into the nap. If her arms are not down by her sides then she fusses quietly getting her arms up and if they move at all she stays awake trying to get to them for about 30 minutes then starts screaming (overtired). I have let her CIO and she went back to sleep but by then she really needs to be woken to eat. When her arms do not get to her chest she sleeps through the cycle change. She might make a few fuss noises at the cycle change but goes back to sleep. The biggest problem is suddenly is impacting her sleep at night. She's waking and fighting it and getting an arm out too. And this spirals into then I feed her MOTN which makes her first feed stink which makes her wake up early hungry at the next cycle and ultimately overtired bc she didn't take a full nap bc she woke early hungry etcMy question is do I keep fighting this swaddle battle? Or is it possible for me to drop it and expect sleep? If I drop it how should I drop it since she's so young. I am so exhausted this go round.
Kelly, I would actually guess this isn't about the swaddle. For some reason, she is sleeping fitfully. One common reason for sleeping fitfully is the waketime length being too long. It could also be that she is having gas pain or reflux pain. If you can get her to sleep calmly, you can get her to stop fighting the swaddle so much.
Thanks! I wondered that too. It's so hard to watch her closely for sleep cues and be timely with the other littles distracting me too. She does have reflux–she is on Zantac. She is gassy allllllll the time. No matter what I do I have hyper let down and it makes it hard for her to eat. Anyways. How long is an appropriate wake time for her age? I felt like my first one (angel baby) had much longer wake times already. 50 min? I so admire you and wish I was half the mom you are!
You are sweet! I am sure you are an awesome mom :)Have you ever tried pumping for a bit before you nurse? With hyper let down, a lot of moms find success with pumping, letting the let down happen, and then nursing baby once the major spray is done. On the other side, you can use a product called "milkies." It catches the let down. For waketime length, probably anywhere from 40-60 min. And it can vary from wake time to wake time. Usually, the trend will be shorter in theorning and longer as the day goes on. I would focus on the letdown and reflux/gas. Do you do gas drops and gripe water? Those can help. Chances are if you get those taken care of, the rest will be easier to do. It is hard to tell of a baby who is in pain is tired or not.
I know that it is not supposed to be possible for a baby to get "addicted" to the swaddle, but it really seems like mine is. He is 10.5 months old and refuses to sleep without it. I have tried weaning, using every method, multiple times and he will not go to sleep. Most recently, I tried the one arm out for a nap thing and after 25 minutes he finally went to sleep (it normally takes two minutes or less). I was so excited. My excitement was short lived. He woke up screaming after only 30 minutes (he normally sleeps for 1.5 hours at this nap). I soothed him and hoped he would fall back asleep but he continued to cry and would only go to sleep when I put his arm back in the swaddle. He is big enough and strong enough that he can roll back and forth and all around his crib fully swaddled. What should I do? I know 9 months is supposed to be the oldest a baby is swaddled and we are well past that with no signs of improvement. At this point, do you think it's possibly that he just isn't ready and I need to keep trying until he is or do we maybe just need to go cold turkey? Thanks for your help!
I don't know. On one hand, I say it is fine to continue the swaddle. But on the other hand, he is old. I know many people have said it took a few days of rough naps for their baby to get used to it and sleep well without the swaddle. The rolling around is what would make me want to work on dropping it.
He has shown himself to be stubborn so we probably do just need to tough it out. Thanks for responding, your blog has helped me so much!
this was helpful! We did a very similar transition. Our LO loved to be swaddle but we stopped when she was rolling over because of safety concerns. We transitioned her into the zipadee zip and it was truly a lifesaver. She slept so well in it and it gave me the peace of mind knowing it was safe for her!
Hello! I think my LO is ready to drop the swaddle but we have been dealing with the 45 min intruder for the last 3wks. At first, I handled it as a growth spurt (he was 12 weeks) and evetually after about a week, he quit eating well when I would get him up. Anyways, I can tell he trully dislikes being swaddled now. He fights us on it every time he goes down. When I leave one arm out, he is still waking up within the 45min window. I guess my question is, how do you deal with 45min intruder and baby who really dislikes the swaddle and you want to wean them from it? He is 14wks now. I understand about waiting out the 45m intruder right now with this age and he will fall asleep on own when put down for a nap. I continue to work towards waketime, etc to help with the intruder, but my gut feels like partially why he sleeps so fitfully is because of the swaddle. I just don't know how to handle it with the intruder problem. Thanks!
Maybe cold turkey is sometimes best, if gradually moving away isn't getting results.
My LO is 15 weeks old. He is strong! He usually doesn't break out of the swaddle during naps, but he is starting to every night. He doesn't like it when his arms come out. He flails all over the place. We tried the zipadee zip and it didn't work very well for us. I think he's just to small yet to feel confined enough in it. He is starting to fall asleep on his own for naps. Just a few minutes of crying usually, sometimes no crying at all. At night he falls asleep while I'm holding him because he has reflux and I have to keep him elevated after eating. The crib wedge just wasn't enough for him. I'm concerned about him breaking out of the swaddle because of the loose blanket being in the crib. I can usually re-swaddle and he'll go back to sleep. He's not rolling over yet, but during playtime he can get onto his side pretty good and then he falls back. When we tried the zipadee zip, this would wake him. It's like he doesn't know he can lay still!! I'm not sure if he's ready to drop the swaddle or not. He sleeps so much better with it. Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you!
We are trying to kick the swaddle because our lo, 19 weeks, has flipped over from her back to front one time during a nap in her halo. I used the swaddle me small with a flannel swaddling blanket over it to prevent her from flipping again. We bought the merlin magic sleep suit and waited until the weekend to try it. She is having an ok time falling asleep in it but always wakes up at the 45 minute mark and is having a hard time soothing herself back to sleep. We are still swaddling at night. We have tried letting her cio to go back to sleep after the 45 minute mark and we have tried going back in and putting her back down like it is the beginning of the nap and nothing is working. Her first nap of the day was always 2.5 and then the 2-3 naps after that were always 1.5. We have been dealing with an overtired baby for two days. How long will it take for her to adjust? At what point do we just keep swaddling and try again later? My sister said she would continue to swaddle past when they rolled and then they would just sleep on their stomachs swaddled. I know that method is a "hazard" but I am willing to do anything since she is not getting good naps now.