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Transition from Swaddle to sleeping bag!

Hi ladies,

My DS is 16 weeks old and I'm struggling to get him to sleep in a sleeping bag from a swaddle. Tried him for the first time last night and he took ages to settle (where usually self settles straightaway) and woke up several time from 7-10pm (where normally he sleeps through till his next feed around 11.30pm). I finally gave in and swaddlied him at 10pm where he slept soundly till 7am this morning.

Whilst I don't mind swaddling him still I don't want it to become more of an issue as he gets older. He does at times break out of it so thought he'd relish the space of a bag but sadly not.

Anyone successfully transitioned from swaddle to bag? How did you go about it?

Thanks x
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Replies

  • To stop night time swaddling we used to swaddle from 7-10pm then at 'dreamfeed' (which she almost always woke for) we would unswaddle her and she settled fine. Then after a week of that we unswaddled at 7 and it was fine. Some nights it still takes her a while to settle but she fidgets rather than cries.

    We decided to stop swaddling for naps 3 days ago and are having MASSIVE problems with that. (She's currently crying in cot crying to crawl instead of sleeping. Sigh) I kept putting it off but now I wish we'd tackled it sooner.

  • Hi Baby B,

    Thanks for your advice.

    How old is your LO? I know what you mean....wish we'd tackled sooner but when they're sleeping so well you just don't want to disturb that do you?

    I might do what you do and see if it works. It won't be too much longer before DS starts rolling over and don't want him swaddled when he does!! xx
  • She's 31 weeks tomor! Opps. Really should have stopped sooner but she cries without it and does short naps. image She took 20 minutes to fall asleep just now and only slept for 30 minutes. She used to just turn her head and drift off when swaddled. But she can't be swaddled forever and it's only going to get harder to stop the longer we leave it! Plus it will be too hot to swaddle in summer.

    We stopped the night-time swaddling a couple of months ago as she was waking at night trying to break out of it and I went in one morning to find her on her front, still swaddled, which scared the life out of me.

    Good Luck.
  • Oh snap - Toby is 14 weeks today and I am starting to transition out of the swaddle into the sleeping bag too. I would keep swaddling him longer but now he can escape out of any swaddle it seems a bit pointless and I don't want to leave it too long.

    Toby is usually a good self-settler during the day but when in his sleeping bag he rubs his face a lot and it makes it harder for him to settle. At the moment I am just taking the time to stay with him until he's asleep, doing a bit of shushing and hair stroking, which seems to be working. He does wake up during his nap though and has to be re-settled which he doesn't do when swaddled. Think I will persevere though as like Baby B says I think I should tackle it now while it is still doable with relative ease - I think he just needs some time to get used to having his arms free.

    Sorry that's probably not much help but didn't want to r&r.

    C image
  • I had this dilemma a few weeks ago, but was quite lucky that my lo went into a sleeping bag with relatively little fuss for night time - although daytime naps are still a bit of a nightmare and I do occasionally resort to swaddling her then. Anyway I saw this in the latest blooming marvellous catalogue and thought it could be something to try:

    http://www.bloomingmarvellous.co.uk/product.aspx?CategoryID=r-blanketsmain&ProductID=90381_PNK&language=en-GB
  • ;\)To stop night time swaddling we used to swaddle from 7-10pm then at 'dreamfeed' (which she almost always woke for) we would unswaddle her and she settled fine. Then after a week of that we unswaddled at 7 and it was fine. Some nights it still takes her a while to settle but she fidgets rather than cries.

    We decided to stop swaddling for naps 3 days ago and are having MASSIVE problems with that. (She's currently crying in cot crying to crawl instead of sleeping. Sigh) I kept putting it off but now I wish we'd tackled it sooner.

    x

    im having the same problem with mine ,she is so used to being swaddled and breastfeed to sleep.I am trying to wean her off breast , she wont take a dummy either. I am having a nightmare of a time settling her for naps and final sleep i need help.
  • has anyone got any ideas on how to settle a baby to sleep without breast, dummy, swaddle . help
  • I would try and give up 1 thing at a time. If the poor girl is used to having the comfort of the breast and swaddling and then you remove both she wont know what she's done wrong. Can you wean her off the breast for sleep but keep up with the swaddling? There is no reason why swaddling should stop. Mine were swaddled till they were 5 months and then I stopped because they were getting out on their own and waking themselves so we started with sleeping bags.

    With naps, I put the boys in their buggy. It might be a bad habit but im never at home at the same times and they need their sleep so if they sleep in the buggy then I know I can go out anywhere. They dont need rocking or anything now.

    Do you have a nighttime routine? This saved us when the boys were small as they knew it was bedtime and now, at 10 months, they have bath, naked time, sleepsuit, bottle, bed, story and then I leave them awake in their cots and they go to sleep.

    HTH

    Gemma, Ryan and Alfie 10 months
  • Have a look at the thread on Sleep Training - might give you some ideas xx
  • thanks for that any ideas on how to get her back on a dummy .if i dont breastfeed her for her sleep she will wake for alot longer i dont want her to drop a nap
  • How old is she hun?
  • Yes, how old is she as she may well be ready to drop a nap. They say about 7 months is about the right time. I can't help you on the dummy front as my LO never took to a dummy.....in terms of settling, I always used PU/PD with success when weaning my LO off the swaddle. Could it be a timing issue? I was finding with my LO recently that he would fight me for all his naps when he would go down so peacefully. Since dropping a nap my DS settles really well because he is more tired. HTH xx
  • Yes, how old is she as she may well be ready to drop a nap. They say about 7 months is about the right time. I can't help you on the dummy front as my LO never took to a dummy.....in terms of settling, I always used PU/PD with success when weaning my LO off the swaddle. Could it be a timing issue? I was finding with my LO recently that he would fight me for all his naps when he would go down so peacefully. Since dropping a nap my DS settles really well because he is more tired. HTH xx
    my lo is 71/2 mnths ,she wakes at about 730 am naps 1030 am
    sleeps about 2 hours goes back sleep about 230 or 3ish wakes 5 ish final sleep around 8 ish .Daytime naps straight on breast but night time i give her a bottle of formula 6oz to hav a better night (or with breast she will wake every 2-3 hours through the night .
    When i first see signs of tiredness ie; rubbing eyes she wont go down easy without breast, i am hoping to be off breast by the end of the month,i hav 3 boys and im knackered:
  • and by the way wat is pu/pd
  • pu/pd is pick up put down, where you pick them up to comfort them when they get upset after being put down for a nap, then you put them back down again and leave them for a bit. You continue the cycle till they realise that its time for sleep.

    It didnt work with mine as you cant pick up 2 babies at once!

    Sorry to say, but you may have to try one of the 'harder' methods to see results in the long term. If she is 7.5 months and has always goen to sleep on the breast then she is going to find it very difficult to self settle. You may need to spend some time working with different methods. Some fo those are pu/pd, shush pat - this is the one I used. I used to sit between their cots and pat their bottoms (where they liked but can do chests etc) and shush until they were nearly asleep. We dont have to do this now - or controlled crying is another that works for many, but not all. It wouldnt work for us as the boys would work eachother up so that they were both howling and I couldnt comfort them together on my own (hubby works long hours).

    You might need to tweak your bedtime routine a little. When the boys were small I used to give them a bottle, bath them and then put them down. Now they have a bath, then bottle, then watch ITNG and have a story before bed. This way, although they do drift off when having their bottle, they never went to bed on it.

    Hope you find a solution soon xxx
  • Thanks very much for that , will giv it a go soon , i need to plan it out carefully,be patient and leave myself plenty of time.
    hopefully wen the kids get back to school . I dont feel so bad about the swaddeling now that iv learnt that other mothers are still doing it so late ,Thanks again ^_^
  • No problem hun. Thats what were here for xx
  • Oh my gosh!  I found the most amazing incredible thing ever!  www.zipadeezip.com !  It was the only thing that worked for the swaddle transition!!  I could not even believe how well it worked... it's like magic!  I tried everything to get my LO to sleep swaddle free and nothing worked and some of the products out there were dangerous for once she started to roll over!  The zipadeezip gave her full arm freedom but still gave her the swaddle feel!  She now sleeps like she did when she was swaddled!  12 hours every night and great nap times too!  I make the transition at around 4.5 months and have never looked back thanks to the Zipadeezip!! 

  • note to the zipadeezip marketing person - you should be a bit more subtle about your product plugs on these chat boards. Great to hear of the existence of this but please don't pose as a mother who has found it (or if you do, get better at it as your post is almost repeated word for word on every chat board on this subject). Trying to pull the wool over our eyes makes us desperate-for-sleep-mothers more unlikely to buy it than buy it!  If you are mentioning your product just do so in a transparent way please (ie "I invented this for my little one and sell them here good luck").

    We are also attempting transition from swaddle in moses basket for our 16 week old to sleeping bag in cot and she will sleep in a bag in the daytime but won't settle at night, we are being very poorly disciplined by reverting to swaddle/moses even though she is starting to outgrow it (she is only 11lb).  do you swaddle in a cot, it feels wrong for some reason. anyone had any success with half swaddle it doesnt seem to work that well for us...

     

  • I have your solution!  I found the Zipadee-Zip and it rocked my world... because I finally got some sleep!  You can find them on www.zipadeezip.com image  My daughter did the same thing as your LO... refused to transition off the swaddle and I couldn't find anything that would work!  These enclose the whole baby like a swaddle but  allowed my girl to roll over and move around safely!  I had tried transitioning her before but she wouldn't sleep with her arms free until the Zipadee-Zip.  It is the best product I've ever bought for my LO and I sing it's praises to everyone image  Plus... to top it off, my daughter didn't have any problem moving to PJ's once I used the Zippy to transition her off the swaddle.  Their sizes go up to 2.5 years old so it would probably work well for your little one.  Hope that helps!

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