HELP!! How long did you swaddle?? Sleep problems!

[lynettefrancois]

I need to help DD sleep again! She is still slightly stuffy from a 2 week long virus (I had it too), but she used to sleep 6-7 hours at a time. Now she is waking up every 3 hours, sometimes every hour (she slept 4 hours at a month, so this is not good!), even with the decongestant prescribed that should not wire her. I find her with her arms out of the blanket, rubbing her face, and does not fall back to sleep this way. She's almost 4 months so I have to ask...

How long did you swaddle?
How long did you swaddle the arms? (I've never swaddled her legs- she would wake up every time trying to kick out and straighten them)
How long would a Miracle blanket work for me now?
What do I do??? I'm exhausted!

Any help much appreciated!! TIA!

Edited to say: My mom says she obviously wants her arms free, just let her, but had no idea how long it would take for her to learn to sleep with them free... any ideas/thoughts on this? Thanks!

[Torey]

Can you get her a vaporizer? My DD (who is well over a year old and usually sleeping 10+ hours a night) recently had a bad cold and kept waking up with a stuffy nose. The medicines didn't seem to work all that well and I know she was waking up b/c she tried to breathe out of her nose and couldn't. So we finally got a steam vaporizer (Vicks brand for $15) and she can finally breathe and sleep again. If you do swaddle her, make sure you keep the room cool enough b/c the steam vaporizer will raise the temp in there a good 5+ degrees. It is great for us b/c I like to turn the heat down and now DD room stays warm and I don't have to worry about her getting cold (since she never keeps her blankets on).

[lynettefrancois]

We have a whole-house humidifier and the humidistat shows 40% in her room... Also when I took her to the ped last week I thought she was terribly stuffy and he didn't think it was that bad, and she's a LOT less stuffy now, so I'm thinking it's not from her nose... sigh.

Edited to say:
Ok, so now I'm thinking she's too warm- it's been warmer here lately. I tried a lighter weight blanket but it had no stretch, so she fought and fought. I finally let her have one arm out and she has been asleep for 2 hours. I tried the arms out about a week ago and she couldn't sleep at all... Anyone have insights on how to tell if they're ready to go unswaddled? I tried to look it up in the Weissbluth book but couldn't find anything. I just need sleep! Thanks!

[papal]

Lynette, my dd is 5 months old and we have been using the Miracle Blanket from when she was one month old. She is on the smaller side (23 inches) and we are just about able to fit her legs into the foot pocket. But the good thing about the MB is that you can leave their feet out of the pocket and just swaddle the arms. I would email Mike at Miracle Blanket with any questions you have. It has been a life-saver for us. Even at 5 monthd, dd flails her arms, takes out her binky, hits her head and basically cannot sleep if her arms are not swaddled. I would give it a try. It has a full guarantee so if it does not work you can return it. It also has a life time warantee so if something tears you can ask for a new one (I am recieving my 3rd one in a day or two!).

[lynettefrancois]

Thanks Rashmi!

[lynettefrancois]

Ok, I've tried swaddling tighter so she can't get out, but now she's waking up every time she goes into a light sleep mode, slightly wakes up and discovers her paci has fallen out! She didn't used to fully wake up like this at all. I was up every 2 hours last night, putting that paci back in.

She definitely always slept longer swaddled, but if she's now got a sleep association with sucking, won't swaddling keep her awake since she can't get to her fingers? She's just learned to suck her fingers, but still prefers a paci. Does anyone know how long it would take her to learn to soothe herself??? TIA!

[peanut4us]

We swaddled Sara until she was a little over 9 monhts old. She simply would not settle down to sleep without it. After she was about 4 monhts old we let her arms out and just swaddled her legs. We would fully expect for her to get out of the swaddling during the night. It was just used to help her get calm enough to sleep.

On occasion we did still swaddle her arms if she refused to calm down... but that was pretty rare after she was 6 monhts old. Swaddling so long for her did NOT affect her acheiving her motility milestones... she hit every one of them early. So don't let anyone tell you that's true.

Good luck!

[papal]

Lynette.. am i to understand that your dd prefers to soothe herself by sucking her fingers rather than the paci?? If so, you can try swaddling with one arm out. But if she prefers the paci, then i can't think of a solution other than popping that binky back into her mouth.. sorry!
I hope others can offer a better solution.

[heidi_timms]

I swaddled DD with the arms in until 4 months and we still swaddle with the arms out at 11 months. It helps my DD sleep so we haven't given it up.

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[lynettefrancois]

She is just learning to use her fingers... she still prefers the paci! My mom says she'll learn to put it back in herself around 6 months... I sure hope so!!! That or be happy with fingers... Thanks all!

[akc]

Hi -

We swaddled my oldest daughter until she was 7 mos old - and that was before the miracle blanket. We used all sorts of blankets then but ended up the plain flannel cotton one sold by Dr. Karp on the Happiest Baby on the Block website. That was a full swaddle - arms and legs. She used a pacifier to fall asleep and would lose it by the time she got to REM sleep. We trained her to then go without it - had a little restlessness at first, but she was fine after that. Actually, the downside was that once she was unswaddled at 8 mos, she started putting the binky in and out herself (good) but sleeping all night with it, got addicted to it, and still has it at night (BAD!) After we swaddled, we put her in a sleeper bag with the arms pinned behind the back for transition. Then, we put her arms in the sleeper bag but had the hands closed off so she couldn't pull her binky out or scratch. Finally, she was home free.

The swaddling paid off big time for us and I still credit it for my daughter's incredible sleeping. On her 3-mo birthday, she started sleeping 14 hours a night - 6:30 pm to 8:30 am, plus 3 naps. Even now (at 20 mos), she sleeps 13-14 hours a night with a 1 1/2 to 2 hr nap in the afternoon.

I would say to stick with it and don't be afraid to swaddle and swaddle tightly. Sometimes a little bit of freedom can cause more problems because she will struggle against it. In terms of the pacifier, it's a hard trade off, but if you can try to help her fall asleep with it, but not need it all night it will help you immensely.

Finally, I would try to tune out the "parental" guidance or any other parents you know who eschew swaddling. My and DH's family thought the swaddling was strange until they saw the results. She always settled down and slept, slept, slept. Maeve and I ended up being on Fox in Washington D.C. with Dr. Karp of HBOTB because it worked so well for us. It is an age-old, time and multi-cultured technique that comforts babies - so what if some folks poo poo it!

Hope that helps!

Alexa

p.s. ADDED: DD was on tv with Dr. Karp at 4 mos old. He swaddled her very tightly and said we were doing it too loose. She fell asleep in about 6 seconds with the tight swaddle and turned on her side in his lap. He reiterated over and over: They CAN breathe, they CAN adjust their arms to a comfy position, they DON'T feel limited when it's super snug. And, for the naysayers, they WON'T be developmentally delayed in terms of arm, leg, and other limb functionality.

[papal]

Alexa... that is so cool about your dd and Dr. Karp being on TV. It was his book that helped us a lot when Leela was colicky. And swaddling has been so key to her sleep for us. Are you in the DC area?

ETA: Thats right.. you said you were in Baltimore in the Carriers forum! Glad you found something that works for you. Those Hug-a-Bubs looks very cool.

[firstbaby]

Lynette:

Can you give us an update? I am at the exact same place w/ DS - he wakes up immediately if he gets his arms out of the swaddle and he's starting to really dig the pacifier. We went for his 4 month checkup this week and she said no more swaddling when he can roll over - and he is days away from doing this! Last night I tried putting him down in his crib unswaddled and he slept for one hour! Yikes!

I'd love to hear where you are with this and what has worked and not worked.

TIA!

[akc]

Hi there -

I know that your ped is the #1 source of guidance, so take this with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't KILL yourself to completely unswaddle your DS if he can roll over.

First of all, Dr. Karp (who is a ped) and many other peds recommend swaddling long beyond when they roll. That just proves that it doesn't developmentally stunt them in any way! My oldest DD was swaddled - arms in - until 7 mos, and our ped was wholly behind it.

Second, if you are going to abandon it now, you are going to have to wean him, so it will not be instant. I think I posted this above, but you can either try one arm out and one arm in or both in something looser. We had trouble with the former. One arm completely free just didn't work. We created a "potato sack" of sorts by sewing the arms of a sleeper bag together so it was just a little bag. Her arms were in, so they didn't flail and hit her face and give her a total change from the snug swaddle, but loose inside and got her used to being able to move the around. It did shorten back her sleep a tiny bit at first, but not wholesale abandonment of her schedule. After about two weeks of that, she was ready to be without the swaddle and slept her usual long hours.

Now, if you want to stick with it (we will be for a while even after DD can roll), my second DD is now 14 weeks old and she can really get her arms out of the Miracle Blanket. We actually now take a little hair bow (the soft kind that can stretch around her whole head but is ridiculous because she has no hair!) and put it over the swaddling blanket, around her tummy portion - about the middle of her arms. It made the difference b/c now she's going 7 pm to 2 am and 2 am to 7 am. You might be able to find something like that (albeit not with a bow) - it is really not anything big, not even tighter than the initial swaddle. I think it just gives the sensation that those arms are there to stay. You could probably use a cotton hair band that you can pick up at the drug store (usually come in white, gray, and black).

Lastly, I will tell you the upside! Once we did relinquish the swaddle at 7 mos, my DD quickly learned how to pick up her pacifier herself and put it in her mouth on her own. SCORE!!! She never needed it in at all times -just to fall asleep. She always started the night with it (when she was swaddled) and then it fell out. Since she did wake up a bit when she wasn't swaddled, she'd pick up the binkie and start over. I suppose she was older though - that would be tough at 4 mos. And, of course, we just weaned her of the "binty" about a month ago, so I suppose that's the trade off!

Hope any of this helps! I highly recommend the potato sack strategy if you try to wean. Where do you live and do you have AC? That would determine my suggested strategy on what to use to do the weaning!

Alexa

[lynettefrancois]

Well, I have good news and bad news... We did the "half" swaddle (just legs) for a little while, but found that the blanket just went elsewhere. I tried without a blanket, and she slept longer at that point, so I decided to just go with that. She kept throwing her legs up in the air, and finally one day she rolled sideways (she was late to roll I think at 4 months)... She slept pretty well for awhile. Now she rolls to the side/tummy and is trying to put her plug back in while asleep. However, she's not succeeding while half asleep, only while fully awake. So I have to get up to put the plug back in. And NOW she's TEETHING so I haven't gotten any sleep lately at all. I'm trying the tylenol, but it's not gotten me more than 4 hours at a time. Sigh. I think she's about to get the plug back in while half asleep, but the teething may keep me from sleeping for awhile. Sorry this probably wasn't helpful!! Good luck! :)

[firstbaby]

Thanks so much ladies for your feedback and suggestions. This weekend we did try DS sleeping sans swaddle and he did much much much better than I anticipated. He naturally rolled to his side for sleep so I think that helped his startle reflex. The couple of times he did wake up that were not feeding times he needed about 5 minutes before soothing himself back to sleep but I am a happy camper! I have asked my SIL to help me make a sleeping sack suggested by AKC.

Your suggestions and support were very appreciated!

[lynettefrancois]

You are so lucky your DS can self soothe! My DD still can't. Sounds like you will have lots of luck with unswaddling. :)

[akc]

Hi -

I was surfing over the last couple days and saw that they have a new Halo sleep sack that is cotton and not fleece. You could get that and just have someone stitch up the little arm holes. Then, when you are ready to set those arms free, just unstitch AND you've taken care of the blanket issue. I'm thinking that may be what we do when we get to that point. Until then, I'm just turning up the AC, wrapping my naked baby up in that miracle blanket, and pulling as tight as I can so she can't get her little arms out!

It's funny, I can always hear when she's getting them out. We have video monitors for both our girls, so I begin to hear this little funny grunty noise - not a poo, nor a cry - just like she's working really hard. If I hear that sound and I look over in the video monitor, she's ALWAYS pushing that little fist out through the top of the swaddle. It's like Rocky pumping those fists in the air! Too funny - :-)

Best of luck. It sounds like it's going to go well. We stressed so much with Maeve when we "set her free" - it was rough going the first couple days - more at naps than at night. But, it just proved that babies are far more adaptable than adults! She adjusted just fine and is still an awesome sleeper!

Alexa