Yesterday was a crappy day because of lay-offs at my work. My job is fine for now, but the positions of some very valuable co-workers were not. Needless to say it has been upsetting even though I understand exactly how necessary budgets cuts are given the current financial situation. As I avoid talking shop on my blog I will leave it at that.
What I do have today is a question about swaddling. For those babies who were swaddled when were you able to stop doing it? Jillian has always loved swaddling and slept sooooo much better that way as her wild arms would inevitably wake her up. I've been trying to wean her off swaddling for some time now with little success. She won't sleep for more than a few hours unswaddled. I'm not worried about her development but I'd like to stop swaddling eventually as the blankets only get so big. Plus she might look a little odd bringing her swaddle blanket to slumber parties when she gets older.
Thoughts?
9 comments:
I'm sorry about the layoffs at your work. :( Total suckage.
Bean was not swaddled, but another classmate in preschool was. I think he was a bit older than Jillian -- maybe 10 months or so? -- when they just went cold turkey. A little CIO and then they were passed it.
We swaddled Julian until he was nearly 4 months old, then we cut him off cold-turkey...and switched to a sleep sack. It was a rough week or two for him to get used to his arms waking him and just the freedom of not being wrapped up...we were up at night every hour or two (we'd rock him back down to sleep each time and give him his paci again). It took some time, but eventually his waking became less frequent and he started sleeping thru the night w/o swaddling in about 2 weeks. It was tough and rough, little sleep, and a lot of crying (by him and me), but after those rough patches he figured things out. We had to let him cry it out a few times (not for too long though)...because he was waking so frequently. I know this isn't what you want to her, but it will get better after a week or two...just stick with it. Some babies are easier to wean than others - it was tough for Julian. GOOD LUCK!!!
I just decided to wean the boys off of their swaddles starting...last monday maybe. Maybe this Monday. Let's just say they're each waking up every 3 - 4 hours. They hadn't started sleeping through the night so it's not that big of a deal, yet. Typically Trip will wake up every 3 hours or so demanding to be fed (CIO won't work...his little tummy demands food at that time and he'll eat a full 6 oz before being laid back down almost wide awake). If Jack makes it past the 3 hour mark then he will wake up after about 8 hours then 3 or 4 hours later for food, too. I'm hoping that this all settles down in another week or two and we go back to no more than one wakeup a night.
Good luck!
Sorry to hear about the layoffs at your job.
Funny that you asked about this right now. Tonight is Night Three of us not swaddling LL. We planned to keep going until LL didn't seem to "need" it anymore, we started to reach that point after LL was past 6 months. He's strong enough that he was breaking out of the swaddle every single night, and we started to realize that getting out of it was becoming a game for him, which defeats the purpose. Also, since he often broke out of it early in the evening, he was often sleeping without it by midnight or so anyway.
We were prepared for some sleepless nights (we tried to do this a month ago... we only made it two nights before returning to the swaddle) but it's gone very well so far. We spend a little extra time soothing him at the beginning of the night, and he's still just waking up once each night to eat.
Oh, one other thing: for now, we're still swaddling for naps. If LL misses a nap, he sleeps crappily that night, so we thought we'd have an easier time weaning him off swaddles at night if we guaranteed him good naps during the process.
Sorry... this was really long. But I guess what I'm saying is: it'll be easier if you wait until Jillian is ready. She'll let you know. And it's likely to be less of a hassle if you do it on her timetable.
While I can't help you about swaddling, I'm just wondering, was Jaime laid off? Or is she in a position where she's likely to be?
We just gave it up cold turkey at about 3.5 months. He would wake himself up - but I would just go in, rub his belly (he like that) and give him his binkie. I would start it on a Friday night so you have some time to recover form lack of sleep.
I was very curious about the answers to this post, thanks for asking about it! L has to be swaddled for every single nap or she bonks herself awake constantly.
Unfortunately, Lemy protested the swaddle within hours of leaving the hospital, so I have no advice to offer. Thinking of you though. :) ((HUGS))
oh hugs to you. we ended up getting a Peke Moe sleep sack www.pekemoe.co.nz and it transitioned our boy immediately. None of the other tricks (swaddling one arm only, loosening swaddle etc) worked... hope that helps!
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