DS keeps wiggling his arms out of his swaddle!

[Jenny_A]

Alright all you master swaddlers out there! I need some advice! Right now I'm swaddling DS in a Gerber waffle stretchy blanket. He is 7 weeks, by the way. I learned to swaddle using the happiest baby on the block DVD. I'm swaddling super tight but he still manages to wiggle his arms out of the blankets and it makes him mad.

Any tips on swaddling so he can't wiggle free?

Thanks!

Jenny

[JMS]

Honestly, it's worth the investment to get one or two Miracle Blankets (also check ebay). They are great and the only thing my wiggler can't get out of :)

[mousemom]

When our DS started breaking out his swaddles with the hospital blankets (around the same age as you DS), we went to the Ultimate Receiving blanket. We got another maybe two to three weeks of swaddling arms in that. Then he began breaking his arms loose from that. After checking on him one night and finding the blanket up over his mouth and nose (which freaked me out), we decided it was time to start swaddling with the arms out. It took him about a week (not a fun week for us) at that point for him to get used to having his arms free and stop startling himself awake. We continued to use the ultimate receiving blanket to swaddle for another couple of months with his arms out, until he became more active and wanted his legs free as well.

If you decide to go this direction, I just checked and BRU has the organic ultimate receiving blanket with sage trim on sale for only $12.98 (reg. $27.99)! (I'm going to post this to the bargain alerts too.)

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2415510

[KrisM]

Honestly, it's worth the investment to get one or two Miracle Blankets (also check ebay). They are great and the only thing my wiggler can't get out of :)

:yeahthat:

They're great blankets. I only had one and it was fine. I'd wash it first thing in the morning and it dried fast, so I didn't need a backup one.

[mom2binsd]

Neither of my kiddo's were swaddled, DD slept with legs and arms spread eagled almost from day one (she looked like a star fish) but it never concerned me as she was a great sleeper, napper (slept through the night for 6 hours at 7 weeks, was nursing which meant I had to pump!).

DS was in the NICU for 10 days and then on Oxygen with an oximeter and seemed content in his sleeper. He now has a sleepsack.

Maybe he doesn't want to be swaddled?

[arivecchi]

Neither of my kiddo's were swaddled, DD slept with legs and arms spread eagled almost from day one (she looked like a star fish) but it never concerned me as she was a great sleeper, napper (slept through the night for 6 hours at 7 weeks, was nursing which meant I had to pump!).

DS was in the NICU for 10 days and then on Oxygen with an oximeter and seemed content in his sleeper. He now has a sleepsack.

Maybe he doesn't want to be swaddled? I agree. Some kids just don't like it! DS1 loved to be swaddled tightly, but DS2 hated it. DS2 has been using sleepsacks. Having said that, the Miracle Blanket is awesome. I would get that if you want to continue swaddling.

[sunriseiz]

we have always found the flannel blankets to work better than strechy ones. when ds1 started breaking out, we added another blaket wrapped around the top (not a fancy wrap...like a taquito!) and that helped a lot. This time I got some bigger blankets that are great (simply baby blanket?). eventually they all sleep hands free of course, but i know ds2 (13 wks) stiil startles himself if his hands are loose. maybe we'll try again in a few wks. good luck!

[tylersmama]

Another vote for the miracle blanket. I thought it was the lamest gift ever when I got it, but I LOVED that thing. I was so sad the day I had to face facts that DS had outgrown it!

[alirebco]

Two words - Miracle Blanket! We used ours till DS was 4 months old and he could not bust out of that no matter what!

[army_mom]

DD had the same problem with her arms at about 2 months. We also went to a bigger blanket to wrap more around her and tuck it in. After a few weeks, I just decided she likes her arms out so I started swaddling her with her arms out until she wiggled out of the blanket all together at about 3 months. Then we went to a sleepsack and now we are using the grobag. It wasn't a problem with us as DD has slept all the way through the night (7pm to 5am) since she was 7 weeks old :cheerleader1:

[newg]

We did the halo sleep sack swaddlers when it was time for dd to sleep....or large flannel receiving blankets like pp said.
don't know anything about the miracle blanket, but with the halo sss the swaddle wings are attached to the regular sleep sack, so when dd's arms wiggled free there was no "blanket" to pull up over her face because it was all velcroed together (if that makes sense!)

[ahrimie]

I think it's okay to leave the arms out. Some babies just like their arms to be free after awhile. I want to say around 2 months, we only did the legs for many months until we found the sleep sack!