Source
r/beyondthebump•
jaykwalker

Swaddle help for almost three month old

My baby can't fall asleep without being swaddled, but recently he's been fighting it. He cries and fusses when we put it on, and continues to cry for a few minutes after. We can usually get him to sleep with rocking and bouncing, but he's continually waking up and fighting against it. Sometimes he gets out of it and, when he does, he starts crying. More often, he just keeps himself awake with the fighting and will eventually cry out of frustration. As a result, his daytime sleep is really suffering.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Posted Mar 28, 2015, 11:35 PM UTC

320
Cgemini•

My son is also about 3 months old and pretty much same story, but in my scenario, I don't think he's fighting the swaddle, I feel like he's fighting the 'going to sleep' part. It's become a swaddle-cry-wiggle-cry-fight/kick-cry-whine-sleep. Could be up to 20/30 minutes before the sleep part.

I figured out if I keep him awake longer than I was used to before, he's much more sleepy and he might whine/cry/kick for about 5 minutes or less and he's asleep. I figure he's just getting older and wants to stay awake longer than what I was used to before.

4
jaykwalkerOP•

I think that's part of it too - he fights going to sleep. But if he stays up too long, he gets overtired.

How long are your awake stretches? I try to not go more than two hours, but maybe it's time to lengthen them a bit.

1
Cgemini•

He was at 1.5 hours and I recently extended to 2 hours. I don't think he's gone more than 2.5 hours.

1
sunsetdreamerCody 04/18/13 Cameron 12/24/14•

Are you using a sleep sack??? We have one and it is impossible for him to get out of because of the Velcro

3
itsincrediblytypical•

I will attest that eventually, even Velcro doesn't hold a baby in!

7
jaykwalkerOP•

Yes, we use the Halo Swaddle Sack and the Summer Infant Swaddle Me and he can escape from both.

He's very persistent.

2
fletcherlaw•

Have you tried a peanut swaddle? They seem a little harder to escape from, and Amazon sells one for 3-6 months that is convertible (allows you to put one arm out or both arms out).

3
jaykwalkerOP•

I'll look into that, but I'm more concerned about him keeping himself awake trying to bust out - he's stopped soothing himself back to sleep between cycles in favor of struggling against the swaddle.

I'm not sure what to do about that.

1
fletcherlaw•

I don't know whether it will help or not, but the peanut swaddle allows them to keep their hands together in front of them (while the halo traps arms near their sides)- maybe the slightly different position would help? I wish you luck!

3
itsincrediblytypical•

I've been there. My son hated and fought his swaddles too (swaddled with just a blanket and then bought the sleep sacks), but we kept using them because they did help him sleep. If he seemed too frustrated I always checked to see if it was too tight somewhere, or if he was too hot -- sometimes this was the issue. If they are hurting his sleep more than hellping his sleep, I would probably stop swaddling or try another method (sleep sack, Merlin suit, zip a dee zip, etc.)

I will also say that eventually (and probably not too far from now), you do have to break them of the swaddle once they start rolling. You could try and start that transition sooner and see if that helps? We started with swaddling one arm out at naps.

3
jaykwalkerOP•

I've tried the Merlin and swaddling with arms out - neither has worked so far. He can't seem to fall asleep in the Merlin (even with rocking) and his arms flail like crazy if they're not swaddled. Ugh.

1
itsincrediblytypical•

My sons flail as well. There are many times I spend more time trying to get him to nap than the amount of time he actually naps. You may just have to persist through it.

1
alisonjw1288•

Try a woombie!

2
habutaiWoden • 07/15/14•

What kind of swaddle are you using? If it's still relatively cool where you are, I recommend getting and using a halo with wings sleep sack swaddle. My baby could not break out of them. He could break out of woombie style ones since he'd just kick and kick until the necks stretched out enough to pop his arms out. They have the added benefit of being pretty tight so baby feels extra secure.

ETA: I saw you are using a Halo; is it the right size? Ours could break out of it if we used one that was too big—which they were for quite some time. What I ended up doing was sewing the arm holes shut so it'd become like a hybrid between a woombie type and the wings-type.

2
funchy•

Use a swaddler instead of trying to wrap him up yourself. If put on to properly, they're escape proof. They do come in sizes larger than newborn (I used them).

2
ksemelGwendolyn Rose 12/19/12•

My LO loved her swaddle for a long time, but she got too long for the wraps pretty quick. So I found the Swaddle Strap and it was great! It looks like a baby straightjacket but is super simple to get her into. And we weaned her out of it one arm at a time.

2
briliantlyfreakish•

This looks awesome! I totally need one!

2
jaykwalkerOP•

Thank you, I'll check that out!

1
kerida1•

I used a zippadeezip and this worked amazing for my baby. It allows them the freedom to move so they are not fighting to free hands while still giving the swaddle feeling. He has slept much better since i started using the zippy

2
Lechiah•

Look up the bat wing swaddle. We didn't want to spend money on a bunch of products, and it worked amazingly on our little Houdini ;)

1