Baby Y is closing in on six months, and we’re still riding the swaddle train.
I’ve read that we should have stopped around 3-4 months. I’ve read that we should be stopping now that he’s rolling (he doesn’t in his crib – at least not so far – and I’m pretty sure he’ll protest if he does). I’ve read that we’re stunting his development by restricting his movements at night. I’ve read that the longer he’s swaddled, the harder it will be to stop.
To all the “swaddle shoulds,” I offer this: Meh.
When he was born, I wrapped him only loosely in a muslin blanket. It did the trick. But when we transitioned him from his cozy bassinet into the yawning expanse of his crib, he seemed to need a stronger swaddle to feel secure. So I happily obliged.
A couple months ago, we tried to stop. We went cold turkey and put him in just a sleep sack. But after a few nights of tending to an angry, flailing baby, I consulted Dr. Google and found that many moms swaddle for six months and longer. So, I’m embracing the theory that he’ll let me know when he’s ready to ditch it by protesting when I try to wrap him or busting out on a nightly basis. (Either that, or we’ll have to teach his college roomie how to get it nice and tight!)
The tricky part about swaddling an ever-bigger baby is just that: A big baby is a strong baby, and just any blanket will not do. This kid is the David Copperfield of any less-than-stellar swaddle – poof! He’s out. And then he’s crying.
I’ve tried, oh, about five or six different products that are supposed to make swaddling easier. (Someone take away my Amazon account.) Some have been great. Some were a waste of money. Here’s a brief rundown:
- The Miracle Blanket – It allows you to pin baby’s arms using a couple of small flaps and their own body weight. Then you wrap them up like a croissant. And it was a miracle indeed – until Baby Y outgrew it around 3 months. He’s a tall baby, and there’s only one size.
- Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe – This one uses Velcro to secure your baby. It comes in multiple sizes and is easy to use, but Baby Y can bust out of this one in seconds flat if he wants to.
- The Woombie – This is more of a stretchy sleep sack that is supposed to allow your baby limited movement without letting them get their hands to their face. It seemed to tick off Baby Y more than comfort him. Next.
- The SwaddleBuddy suit – Kind of like a combination between the Miracle Blanket and a Swaddle Me, it uses Velcro and fabric flaps to pin baby’s arms. But it’s kind of complex to use, and the fabric isn’t very soft. Baby Y never liked it, and I dislike messing with it.
- Aden + Anais swaddle blankets – These are wonderful. They’re simple muslin blankets, but they breathe well, wash well, and pay for themselves fast because of their multiple uses – stroller shade, swaddle, burp cloth, and so on. And they’re big enough to use on an older baby. Baby Y approves.
Our go-to method right now is the double swaddle with an Aden + Anais blanket, and a sleep sack or SwaddleMe over that – so maybe it qualifies as a triple swaddle? The major downside: It’s a lot to unwrap and rewrap for a middle-of-the-night diaper change.
Most nights, Baby Y sleeps roughly 7 to 7, even when we’re traveling. I may need to briefly soothe him a time or two with his pacifier, and if he really gets worked up, I’ll nurse him, but he’s mostly dropped his last night feeding. All in all, he’s a good sleeper, and I think swaddling has something to do with it.
Bottom line? The better he sleeps, the better I sleep. And because of that, I won’t lose any shut-eye over the fact that we’re still swaddling.
Ready for a nap in the SwaddleMe. (Dig our guestroom bedding?)
Hellobee Series: Mrs. Yoyo part 5 of 16
1. Taming PCOS by Mrs. Yoyo2. Birth Story: Part 1 by Mrs. Yoyo
3. Breastfeeding: Rocky Beginnings, Part 1 by Mrs. Yoyo
4. Getting Over the Little-Boy Blues by Mrs. Yoyo
5. (Still) Swaddling by Mrs. Yoyo
6. On the Road with Baby in Tow by Mrs. Yoyo
7. He's not adopted by Mrs. Yoyo
8. Feminism, motherhood, and Facebook by Mrs. Yoyo
9. Baby Growth: It’s Not a Contest by Mrs. Yoyo
10. Review: Baby Connect for iPhone by Mrs. Yoyo
11. Resentment by Mrs. Yoyo
12. Confessions of a non-worry wart by Mrs. Yoyo
13. The Reluctant SAHM by Mrs. Yoyo
14. Digital Inadequacy by Mrs. Yoyo
15. The Most Dangerous Phrase in Motherhood by Mrs. Yoyo
16. Baby gear: Save or splurge? by Mrs. Yoyo
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
go swaddle!!! We swaddled until he was definitely able to flip over in it. Then we spent many, many hours standing over his crib and holding his arms down while he slept. Haha.
The friend who introduced us to the Miracle Blanket said he wanted to create a pattern and sew one that was big enough for a 2 year old. Haha! Could you use one and just not use the foot pouch? Or maybe cut open the foot pouch, and then do a sleep sack over it all to keep his feet warm?
We used our Miracle Blankets (yes, plural… we had 3) so well that the seams are all busting open.
pomegranate / 3008 posts
We swaddled until my son was over 6 months too. The only reason we stopped was because we decided to sleep train him and we wanted him to be able to self soothe and if he didn’t have his hands available to get his paci in his mouth, it wasn’t going to happen.
We used a different type of double swaddle than you linked to but agree whole heartedly with the A+A blankets – they are awesome! Our double swaddle was a traditional swaddle in one blanket and then a second traditional swaddle over that. It worked great for us and it was a very rare day he could get his arm(s) out. He was outgrowing the A+A blankets though just after 6 months so that also prompted us to think about sleep training him. Perhaps if I’d seen the double swaddle idea you linked to we would still be swaddling him though.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Ha! Love the Star Wars bedding. I think it goes quite well with your Jedi Master.
Do you find he gets warm in so much material?
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
For a bigger baby I would definitely recommend the Halo Swaddle Sac instead of the Summer SwaddleMe. The velcro is much stronger and the foot area is more of a sack so there is more room as they get bigger (and thus makes it harder for them to use their legs to kick out).
I also saw a youtube video of a double swaddle. It involved just a receiving blanket and a large muslin blanket. It looked like it worked pretty well.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
wow that double swaddle video is cool! i’m going to have to try it with olive.
honeydew / 7968 posts
lol@teach his college roomies. hilarious.
blogger / pomelo / 5400 posts
@Tina: I lent our Miracle Blanket to a friend with a newborn, so that’s out. And having to stand over his crib and hold is arms is what I’m afraid will eventually have to happen!
@Pelikila: What method of sleep training did you use?
@Mediagirl: The muslin is very breathable, and we make sure he’s just in cotton PJs and use a cotton sleepsack or SwaddleMe over it. So far it hasn’t been an issue, since all the layers are pretty thin.
@Thehistoryofus: I think I looked into the Halo Swaddle sack (we had one from the hospital, actually) but they only go up to like 18 pounds? He’s closing in on 19. I agree that the SwaddleMe leaves much to be desired, so I only use it for a nap when I know he won’t sleep much longer than 45 mins-an hour anyway (sigh) or over the double swaddle.
pomegranate / 3008 posts
@Mrs. Yoyo: We did a modified version of CIO that we were comfortable with. We had to remove the swaddle cold turkey because a phase-out just wasn’t an option for my son. The first night we did our usual nurse til drowsy and my husband carried him to his room like usual. Instead of swaddling him, he laid him in his crib and shushed him and told him it was time for “sleeps” (which is our key word that we’ve been telling him every time we put him in his crib). My husband stayed in his room and let him CIO and would pat him/shush him every couple minutes and let him know it was okay, Daddy was there and it was time for sleeps. The first night was about 45 minutes to 1 hour of crying before he fell asleep. Every time he woke up that night my husband would go in his room and initially hold him until he got drowsy again and then put him back in his bed with the same routine as before, patting and shushing, Daddy is here, it’s time for sleeps. The second night the initial crying was 30 minutes, the third night it went back to 45 minutes, the fourth night it was about 20 minutes. We make sure there is a pacifier within my son’s reach so he can put it in his mouth himself (my husband would help him find it during the night but wouldn’t put it in his mouth for him so he didn’t expect Daddy to do it everytime) and we always have his sleep sheep going when he is lain in his crib. If he wakes during the middle of the night we restart the sleep sheep. It took a couple weeks until the inital protest was gone or only 5-10 minutes. We would stay in his room until he fell asleep for the first month. Now we lay him in his crib and leave the room pretty quickly. If he protests he is allowed to protest for about 10 minutes before we return. When we do, we try not to pick him up (unless he is really worked up about something) and just pat and shush him and he usually gives in pretty quickly, even with naps. We also found that we had to turn off his nightlight since he would get distracted by watching my husband and would protest longer if he could see him. Every baby is different and every family is comfortable with a different level of sleep training. We ended up doing it when we did because I didn’t want to let it get to where my son could pull up to stand and cry that way, I wanted to get through it where I didn’t have to worry about him trying to climb out of his crib when he was so upset.
clementine / 933 posts
I’m not a mom, so my observation is purely aesthetic: Babies in swaddles are SUPER cute–yours especially
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I dig the bedding.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
Whatever works, right? I think as long as he’s not in any danger, you do what you have to do to get your sleep!
apple seed / 1 posts
We swaddled until our little guy was 7 months old. Like you, we tried to take it away from him (because we were so tired of swaddling every night), but he protested, as he needed it to at least fall asleep. We used the Miracle Blanket because it was the only swaddle product he was unable to break free from. Even though he outgrew the foot pod, we just continued using the upper portion to keep those arms nice and tight!
GOLD / olive / 58 posts
i think we might win in “who swaddled their baby the longest” haha. we swaddled our daughter until she was 9 (NINE) months! we ended up using the fleece velcro flaps from the swaddleme. we tried miracle blanket and the woombie but they were a failure. the aden and anais were too flimsy and didn’t keep her in. they were great in the summer when she was just born though. she also used the swing until she was 9 months. she needed a lot of comforting.
blogger / pomelo / 5400 posts
@ pelikila: Wow, thanks for that!
@ abcmrs: Thanks
kiwi / 718 posts
the more I hear about those aden + anais blankets, the more I want some.
persimmon / 1465 posts
We swaddled up until 6.5 months – when LO started to roll over. We used a swaddle that we have here in Australia that is awesome. It’s called Love to Dream swaddle and it has a zip up front. I think it went up to 11kg ( 22lbs?). Anyway LO could get to their hands in it to self soothe and generally loved it!
http://www.lovetodream.com.au/index.htm
cherry / 187 posts
So glad to hear that others are not following the “rule” on this. My daugther just turned 4 months and there is no way she would sleep as long or as well without the swaddle! I am wondering what to do next though because we’ve outgrown the SwaddleMe and the Miracle Blanket leaves something left to be desired. I will have to try your method!
cherry / 149 posts
I swaddled my daughter for just over 7 months. It was hot, it was August, and we were attempting to sleep train her so I would be a functional person when I started a new job at the end of August.
So we went cold turkey and did sleep training sans swaddle . It was tough, but probably not any tougher than sleep training alone.
guest
We swaddled my daughter until about 6 months. The only reason we stopped was she started rolling over in her sleep and freaked out when she couldn’t push up with her arms. When she grew out of the foot pouch we added a sleep sack. We used the arms of the Miracle Blanket and then put a sleep sack over all of it. It worked so much better than the Aden and Anais blankets. She started busting out of those at 2 months!
guest
never had any of these problems using a Cozy Cocoon……
guest
Wow, having my son sleep from 7 to 7 is my dream. I couldn’t swaddle him anymore because he moves around too much at night and rolls like a bowling ball. Great video and thanks for sharing your experience.