5 week old busting out of swaddle

[michellerw]

We use the Swaddleme blankets because I'm miserable at swaddling. My 5 week old is now getting mad and trying to break out of her swaddle in the middle of the night, sometimes in her sleep. However, it has woken her up but when we don't swaddle (like for daytime naps) she still startles and hits the sides of the mini co-sleeper.

Sometimes, I wake up and find her little hand at the top of the swaddle. Am I doing something wrong? Should we do something different?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

same kind of thing happened with DS. even as a tiny newborn, when the nurses swaddled him with 2-3 blankets (and they could swaddle him tighter than i ever could), he always managed to bust a hand or two out. i finally gave up around 5 weeks and stopped swaddling his arms in (would just swaddle bottom half). yes, his hand hit the sides of the mini co-sleeper when his arms moved (also because by 5 weeks he was already 11 lbs and pretty big) so we started putting him in his crib. that worked wonders..he liked his crib so much better and slept better there because there was room to stretch out and everything. after about 6 weeks or so we never swaddled him at all because he didn't like it..we just used the sleep sacks without the swaddle feature. since then he sleeps with his hands outstretched. not all babies like to be swaddled..my DS was definitely one of them. it may be a hereditary thing..my MIL says that as baby DH never liked to be swaddled, and that early on they had nicknamed him "Houdini" because no matter how tight anyone swaddled him, he always managed to bust out of it! :)

[goldenpig]

Try the Miracle Blanket swaddle. It's the only one that works for Houdini babies.

[lvhkitty]

We had the same problem from the day we took her home. Swaddle Me was ok for daytime. She always had one arm free.

Miracle Blanket was the most amazing product. She LOVED it. She slept like a champ - 12 hours a night.

I can't tell you how amazing it was and how much I miss it!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Be careful with the Miracle Blanket. I was trying to decide between them and the Swaddle Me at a local, independent baby boutique when a sales' man came over and showed me the warning on it not to use it more than 8 hours at a time. At that point I was swaddling more than that and couldn't imagine unswaddling before night time was up. He explained that it wraps their arms up really tight and it is just better to not overuse it. Just passing that on because I didn't factor it into my comparisons before he told me.

Beth

[pantrygirl]

I know you said you like the ease of use of the Swaddlemes but I found swaddling with a blanket was preferred by our daughter.

As she got bigger, we noticed the Swaddleme wasn't cutting it either. We found muslin blankets like Aden and Anais blankets work great and are multi-functional.

[Andi98989]

When we had trouble with DS breaking out of his SwaddleMe, but still needing to be swaddled, I did the 'double swaddle' - it's like a DIY version of the Miracle Blanket.

http://thediaperdiaries.net/works-for-me-wednesday-the-double-swaddle/

I used a receiving blanket on the inside and the SwaddleMe as the outer layer

[the2bobs]

I'm a big fan of swaddling. I really liked the Halo swaddles and Kiddopotamus (I think these are SwaddleMe now). I think the trick to swaddling is doing it really tight---DS1 used to look like a burrito w/ his head about to pop off. His had to be really tight, whereas DS2 could be a bit looser.

I loved the SwaddleMe's but they have to be done just right---really tight and line up the darts on the shoulders and make sure it's low enough under the chin not to ride up--also, if it's tight enough it shouldn't ride up. I always put their arms down along their sides when I swaddled them--it can be a 2 man job and you have to work fast!

[lizzywednesday]

...DS1 used to look like a burrito w/ his head about to pop off.
...

This made me LOL because I tend to call DD my burrito baby. =)

[DrSally]

I hated the swaddleme blankets, both kids broke out of them very young. The Miracle Swaddling blanket was awesome!

[NewMom2007]

The Miracle Blanket is amazing! When DS could bust out of it, I doubled up the swaddle w/a MB on the inside and a SwaddleMe on the outside. I've tried the SwaddleMe solo and he can easily get his arms out.

[Wondermom]

How long (age-wise) are you all swaddling your DC?

With DS1, we stopped early (probably within a month) because he seemed to hate the swaddling and slept pretty well without.

DS2 liked the swaddling more, so I did it until he got too big for the normal receiving blankets (around 11 weeks). For about 3 weeks, he was sleeping fine without the swaddling--8-11 hours a night! Then, a couple of weeks ago, he got his first cold. Ever since then, he's been coughing or startling himself awake at night several nights a week.

Should I try harder to get DS2 swaddled again at night, even though he's now 4 months old? Or should I just wait for him to completely recover from his cold before expecting him to go back to that wonderful sleep pattern?

[Jelly Bean]

Miracle Blanket is awesome and so is the Woombie! It's not as well known but is a different concept - it's a zippered, stretchy sleeping bag that they can't get out of. I discovered it at almost 4 months and wish I'd found it sooner. DD loved to be swaddled.

google it