The books on newborns and infants suggest swaddling your child to make them feel secure and comfortable. The hospital even sent home a handout on how to do this with a blanket. (How do those nurses get them swaddled so well? Our attempts were unrecognizable, awkward, and didn't stay put when any amount of wiggling began.) We got a fancy little swaddler, where you just pop your child in, pull the sides shut, and tah-dah! a baby burrito. And it's worked like a charm. I can get Jeremiah to fall asleep in just moments when he's inside this handy little contraption. And it has been a lifesaver with his eye problems - first conjunctivitis, then blocked tear duct, and finally allergies the doctor says. Whatever it is, Jeremiah starts getting tired and rubs his eyes incessantly. And then he starts to move his arms but lacks the control to stop from hitting his face. It was a little rough going for awhile anytime he got sleepy, until we found the swaddler worked good for naps too, not just at night time. What a relief!But there's a down side...
He's outgrown it at last.
Last night at 1:29 I heard him awake. Not unhappy-awake, just ready-to-eat-awake. And then I found out that he had both legs and one arm wiggled out of his swaddler. Quite the Houdini act really. But that pretty much ends the swaddler's usefulness. *Sigh* The only problem is I have gotten him to sleep with it pretty much every time the last three months and he has no idea how to sleep without it. We've tried a few times. The results were an hour in his crib either playing or screaming. And of course, rubbing his eyes and hitting himself in the face.
So, how do you go from being swaddled to sleep to not having it?! The books didn't mention that part. Has anyone out there had to deal with this dilemma? Any suggestions? I fear our baby burrito needs an updated method FAST.
4 comments:
I don't know how old he is or how much he weighs, but we got the bigger size when our kids outgrew theirs. We found one that goes up to twenty pounds. If you don't want to do that or don't think it will work, we found that when it was time to transition you just have to go cold turkey, our kids were fine within a week. Hard week though.
They make bigger ones. As they get better at controlling their own movements and positioning themselves, it becomes easier to train them to sleep without swaddling. For now, I suggest the bigger one. I've never used a swaddler, but I think I may invest in some this time around. It would be nice to have a baby who sleeps well without mommy. So I can tend to the bigger kids.
Porter didn't need to be swaddled after he got his pacifier, and later we eased him off that and he did fine. With Bridger, he loved to be swaddled. And he's a big boy. I ended up buying fabric (flannel) and I would use a large rectangle (serger, blanket stitch, or crochet the edges) and I would start him out at one end of the blanket and roll him, tightly- with arms straight down by his sides, to the other end. The same way you would roll up a rug. Worked like a charm. He quickly got use to falling asleep sucking his thumb and we didn't need to swaddle anymore. But, the large pieces of flannel were a lifesaver.
Ellie outgrew hers about the same time she gained motor control over her hands, so she could put the pacifier in by herself. We just traded the Swaddle Me for a pacifier.
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