Advice on getting rid of the wrap!

[keepingpositive]

DS is still wrapped to go to sleep but I want to get rid of it before he learns to roll over. Problem is at the moment he sleeps much better when he's wrapped and he has trouble going to sleep when his hands are out as he can't help but play with them! :laughing: He also wakes himself up when he wriggles them out of his wrap in the middle of the night.

Should I just go cold turkey and hope it doesn't take too long for him to get used to having his hands free, or should I do it more slowly and get one arm out at a time. :confused:

[MissMetal]

this is my problem to!!!!!
except my DS is almost 7 months old :laughing:
seriously its the ONLY way he will sleep without waking himself up.. it has to be really tight too :o

[LittleBug'sMum]

I say go cold turkey and see how you go. I wrapped my DS religiously until he was about 3 and a half months, and was soooo nervous about not wrapping him. He would calm down as soon as he was wrapped and would know that it was time to sleep.
One day I just decided to not wrap him and see what would happen. He was fine! Now before he goes to sleep he chews on his hands, rubs his eyes and then kind of gets into a trance looking at his hands, then usually falls asleep with his hands beside his head!
For me it didn't change how much he was sleeping or make him wake up any earlier or anything... but (disclaimer) they are all different! Good luck!:D

[Boobycino]

I still wrap Jasper who is 9 months old. If he went down unwrapped, no matter how tired he was he would stand in his cot and bounce up and down and shout.

not really a positive way to fall asleep. Sometimes I let him do it for up to 30 minutes, until it turns into a real cry, I come in, wrap him, he's asleep in 30 seconds.

He's even fall asleep while being wrapped, because its such a strong sleep association.

Bubba doesn't roll over very often, only very recently while wrapped - and usually he gets his own hands out, but I always check on him once he's been silent for 5 minutes (because silence can sometimes be an indicator of mischeif with my son!!) so if he's rolled and he's wrapped, I'll carefully untuck one arm and thats enough to be safe.

I dont have a problem with wrapping him. I wrap him in a cot sheet - sometimes two if he's being very resistant. In childcare I've wrapped unsettled 18month olds and it really works. I 'believe' in wrapping. I have faith in wrapping :D

Whatever works works in my mind.

Two things that might work:

*Put him down wrapped firmly, but with 1 arm out. And a few days later wrap firmly with both arms out. A few days later, no wrap. Can work.

*For older babies (12month+) if the issue is like with my son and its a restraint as much as it is a comfort, put them down on their tummy and rest your hand on their back for a few minutes and then walk away - and if that doesn't work, carefully replace your hand with a rolled up towel. This was my favourite trick in childcare with the tots on beds (never tots in cots) I could have 4 children think I was sitting beside them with my hand on their back and then I could leave the sleep room and feed babies etc (checking on them frequently). It was a life saver of a trick!

[bunintheoven12]

Both mine were wrapped until they were about seven months old. What worked for me was to gradually loosen the wrap once they were asleep and as they became used to that I would then gradually stop wrapping them so tightly. It worked without any fuss - they didn't appear to notice at all. I never tried going cold turkey - this may have worked just as well. Mine were always wrapped with their arms up and not by their sides - don't know if this made any difference to the feel of the wrap becomming looser.

[Merla]

My DD is 5 months and has had her legs wrapped since birth (I could never figure out how to do a proper swaddle, and she liked sucking her hands anyway). She now rolls over in the night and gets stuck on her tummy, so I need to use 2 rolled up terry flats on either side of her as sleep positioners, else she wakes up every time she rolls. I know its no ideal, however she prefers it, its her sleep Que. (i wrap her and put her down for a nap and she is asleep in 5min, if I don't wrap then I need to walk her to sleep.)

Maybe try slowly moving bubbas arms out of the wrap, one at a time?

[BabelFish]

We only got DD out when she was showing signs of being MORE than ready.

My advice is to try loose wrapping first, and then graduate to cold turkey. We had to go cold turkey with DD because she simply refused to be wrapped, even though she slept better wrapped. Go figure.

It took two nights of restless sleep for her to get past it, and then we've been fine ever since. In fact, she's been absolutely brilliant ever since because she's a tummy sleeper and has always wanted to sleep on her tummy. As soon as she could roll both ways safely we let her and voila - sleeping through the night from that moment onwards.

[Aries7]

I've just successfully stopped swaddling my DD. When she gets tired now, I rock her in my arms & just throw her wrap around her while still in my arms. Then when I put her down in her cot, I just leave the wrap underneath her. Initially, I would tuck the wrap in tightly around her when I put her down in the cot & over the last month, I have gradually stopped the tucking. She sleeps just as well.

[JadeyBaby2]

I'm the same as Chel87 - my DD is 9mths almost and is still wrapped. I've made many an attempt to not wrap her but it ends up in a day of stress and angst because it's a sleep cue for DD......after speaking with a Child Health Nurse was assured is fine to wrap until 1 year old (and hey, whatever works for the time being I say do it)......I'm thinking DD will eventually not like it anymore....she is in a large swaddleme wrap and soon I'm going to just wrap her lightly in a muslin cloth instead (which am kind of doing during the day already) and gradually she'll be used to no longer being wrapped......cold turkey is good to do if it works, but in my case it's a no go.

[MissMetal]

ok good, this thread has reassured me that im not a crazy lady for still wrapping my DS :laughing:
seriously tho, ive tried a few times lately not wrapping him & its ended up with him waking every 20mins throught the entire night screaming because he is obviously moving in his sleep & waking himself up...
i thought i was a bit weird as i was still wrapping him, but now i know other people do it, im going to continue doing it :yes:
its the only way he will sleep... i just hope he doesnt end up being 2 & still needing to be wrapped :o

[Tls5431]

I gradually got DD out of her wrap. I started with day sleeps and only wrapped one arm in and the other was free. After a week and her sleeps were fine, I also did this at night. I did this for another week or so and then moved her into a sleeping bag... I think she was 5 months when I did this...

[Boobycino]

:laughing::rolleyes:

OMG

After this thread I suppose its been in my mind 'what if I put him down unwrapped' just to see what happens.

He fell asleep! :rolleyes:

I put him down on his tummy and he sprung back up and stood up smiling, laughing and bouncing as I walked out of the room. I was thinking, no way, no how, is he going to sleep.

But for the sake of experimenting, I thought I'll try it out, see what happens.

I could hear him babbling to himself, not really bothered by being left in his cot. It took maybe 5 minutes before he was silent and I popped my head in expecting to see he's pulled his fitted sheet up or something (because silence is rarely a good thing with my son:rolleyes:) and he's laying on his side fast asleep.

I'm going to set up a video camera next time, I'm curious to see how he decides to go from bouncing and playing to laying down asleep...?

[Tls5431]

My DD still does this at 12 months. I generally put her in her cot when she is tired and she will usually babble to her dog for a few mins and ends up cuddled into him or uses him as a pillow... it's very cute when you see them like this :thumbsup: