Swaddling

[SarahK]

Katie is eight weeks old tomorrow and still sleeps in a swaddle at night. I think she's still safe in it--she's not rolling over and she doesn't wiggle too much (although she's starting to) while she's in it.

Here are my questions...
~how long is considered safe for the swaddle?
~how long did you swaddle your baby?
~how do I transition her to sleeping without the swaddle? (I'm really nervous about this one!)

[Lette]

Hi Sarah..

I think it's safe to swaddle for a few months, but maybe someone who knows for sure can comment here.
We swaddled for the first 2 months... Ben was very cranky so we had to get a miracle blanket.
From what I've heard, the way to transition is to start by leaving one arm out for a few nights, then the other, and so on until baby is out.
Good Luck!

[TtownAnne]

I think it's safe to swaddle as long as they want to! Or as long as you're not doing it so tightly it restricts movement of their limbs if they want to move.

Caroline wanted to be swaddled until she was nearly 5 months old - was the only way she would sleep for more than a few hours at a time, and her startle reflex hung on for a while longer than normal.

What we did for Caroline was that she was starting to bust her arms out of the swaddle at some point during the night, so we went from wrapping her arms to just loosely swaddling them to not swaddling them at all. Then the same thing with her legs when she would start kicking her way out of the blanket.

[SarahK]

I have left her arms out a few times...but not to start the night. When she used to nurse in the middle of the night, I would reswaddle her with her arms out and it worked well. Good to know that's a step I should try again when it's time to get rid of the swaddle entirely.

Right now she sleeps in her swaddle in her Moses Basket. Am I right in thinking that we shouldn't transition her to the crib AND get rid of the swaddle at the same time? (Not that I'm ready to do either right this minute!)

[Jillian]

Janelle slept swaddled forever, probably 7 or 8 months! Even now at 17 months she still sleeps in a sleep sack cause she can't sleep if her legs are free to move. My DH also can't sleep unless he has something heavy (like an extra blanket folded in half) on his legs...

[Jen S]

~how long is considered safe for the swaddle?
Our pediatrician said we could continue to swaddle DD up until 6 months--but that more than likely, she'd be ready to stop being swaddled before then (and he was right). You should definitely stop swaddling when your baby can roll over--because the fear is that she will roll over and be trapped face down because her arms/legs are bound.

~how long did you swaddle your baby?
we stopped swaddling Julia at the beginning of January--so right before she turned 5 months

~how do I transition her to sleeping without the swaddle?
There was no transition for us. DD started showing signs of not wanting to be swaddled anymore (crying and struggling when we'd swaddle her), so one night, we just put her down unswaddled, and she slept fine--and that was that!

[Amy]

Sarah, I agree...I wouldn't stop swaddling AND transition to the crib at the same time.

With that said, I swaddled Emily until early September...she was almost 8 months old. However, from day one, she HATED having her arms restrained. The nurses in the hospital even commented on how unusual it was for a newborn to fight having her arms swaddled. We never did swaddle her arms, just her legs. She could move pretty freely...once she was rolling over, there were nights I'd find her pointing 180 degrees in the other direction from how I put her to bed. We only stopped because so many mornings she'd kick herself completely out of it, so I stopped cold turkey, and never looked back.

[Eleanor]

We did basically the same thing as Anne did (probably also until Isabelle was about 5 months old...) And around that time, we noticed that she didn't sleep as well...she really liked the extra warmth! So we started putting her in a double sleeper at night, until it got warmer!

[Isaiah's Momma]

We couldn't swadle Isaiah becuse of his hip harness, how sad is that? When he was in the hospital they swadled him and he always wanted one arm out so the nurses just left his arm out.

[magoo]

Right now she sleeps in her swaddle in her Moses Basket. Am I right in thinking that we shouldn't transition her to the crib AND get rid of the swaddle at the same time? (Not that I'm ready to do either right this minute!)
We actually stopped swaddling Anna and moved her to her crib on the same night. We swaddled her until she was 5 months old, and she asked us to stop by crying when we started to swaddle her. There wasn't enough room for her arms to flail around in the cradle, so we moved her to her crib and just swaddled her legs. She did just fine with it. Her legs were swaddled until about 8 months.

Sarah

[Katrina]

The makers of the Miracle blanket say to stop swaddling at 14 months because after that, swaddling restricts movement to the point of restricting development. I am not quite sure I buy that, especially since most pediatricans (and Dr. Karp, swaddling guru) say otherwise.

That said, I stopped swaddling Zack when he was a few weeks old because he seemed to fight it so much and worked out of it so easily. But he slept horribly so I tried again (after reading Dr. Karp's book) and tighter. It worked but the reswaddling was a pain in the neck so I bought the Miracle Blanket. Now he doesn't fight it and I can get it tight enough, and reswaddling in the middle of the night is so much easier. He is 2 months and I plan on doing it until he shows otherwise, or is rolling over.

[harmonielyn]

I stopped swaddling Madison to sleep at about 3 days old. She HATED it. I would swaddle her to hold her but she would cry if I put her down swaddled.