My daughter has liked her swaddle wrap since birth. She is now getting pretty active, & has learned how to kick out of her swaddle wrap. Today with naps & bedtime, we have tried the sleep sack, and she hates it! Any suggestions on how to make this transition a little easier, & not go crazy in the process??
Our daughter loved being swaddled as well. From a friend, we learned the trick of an old flannel or jersey knit sheet - cut in quarters and used in place of a baby or swaddle blanket. The sheet is larger and has more give, which means you can experiement on ways to stretch it and make it tighter. So as the baby gets bigger, you can still swaddle - and experiment with keeping one arm out, then both arms out, then sleep sack. Good luck!
I can be a rough transition. We had to continue swaddling my son until he was 9 months. We had to buy bigger blankets, use two blankets, use velcro... Ahhh! then at 10 months I had enough and decided he had to quit - the only way he would sleep unswaddled was on his stomach. Not PC but it worked for us. Because he was at 10 months I wasn't as scared about SIDS as I would have been if we has still little. Anyway, that worked like a charm even the first time we tried it.
I did a lot of web surfing on this topic while trying to break my son of his habit - everyone seemed to suggest swaddling with one arm out for a few days, then two arms, then remove the swaddle all together. This never worked for us, but maybe it will for you.
Good luck!
These are great because they can still move insde but are still swaddled. It is like sewing the arms in a sleep sack like already mentioned.
Woombie
http://www.thewoombie.com/
My 2nd child did that too. What worked for us was both. We put him in the sleep sack and used the swaddle wrap blanket (ours was one that velcroed from walmart) just around his arms and torso. He still felt snug and it allowed him to get used to the sleep sack, as we gradually wrapped his arms looser and looser until he didn't need it anymore.
We swaddled our little one for the first 5 months also. To transition I would still swaddle, but leave the legs out. Then I gradually went to swaddling with leaving one arm out. I think she got used to it over a period of days. Hope this helps!
we JUST did this last week! good luck but it gets easier! i stitched up the armholes of the sleep sack. he's 7 months and was getting out of his swaddle (even though i used all my might with the miracle blanket!) and so far this has been great cuz he doesn't keep himself awake with his busy hands. i also stitched a bit around the neckline so it wasn't so big. good luck!
believe it or not, my daughter stayed in a swaddle to 6 months...even sometimes here and there we swaddled up to nine months...she just was comforted by it....i had a great knit fabric stretchy blanket, and sometimes i swaddled her body leaving out her legs so that she could kick, she was nice and snug and her feet could kick a bit...it worked for us...she never liked sleep sacks, we always used fleecy pj's....good luck!
www.zipadeezip.com! It was the only thing that worked to not only transition my little guy from his swaddle easily, but also keep his hands warm at night, and prevent him from scratching his face (he has eczema). He slept 11 hours the first night out of his swaddle and in his Zipadee-Zip. This in itself was a miracle because he refused to sleep longer than 30 minutes without his swaddle in any type of pjs or sleep sacks I tried. Not only that but he can now self-soothe back to sleep if he ever does wake up because of how cozy he feels in the Zipadee-Zip! This thing is incredible! Everyone who is having trouble getting their baby to kick the swaddle habit needs to buy one!
I had the same problem with my little one! She REFUSED to even fall asleep without the swaddle! I tried a lot of different methods (one arm out) and the traditional sleeveless sleep sack and that Merlin sleep suit and nothing got her to sleep! Finally I found out about Zipadee-Zip. www.zipadeezip.com. It was our sleep and sanity saver! I fully expected the same response to the zipadee-zip as she had had with other products but as soon as I put her in it she fell right to sleep! It gave her the movement to use her arms but the full enclosure of being swaddled. She actually prefers to sleep on her tummy now! This is the best invention ever! Worth all the money in the world because it gave us our sleep back!
