DESPERATELY seeking help re: swaddling

[agathab]

Hello. This is my first post to BubHub (any forum, actually!) My DS was born July 2004, extremely premmie (27 weeker, 860 gms). He is now 13 months, but due to being a prem, it's best to think of him as a 10-month-old; he now rolls and crawls.

Ever since we brought him home, he has been swaddled and has been extremely happy with it, sleeping terribly well. Starting some months ago, he was on a 2-up, 2-down routine; i.e. waking 6am, then down for a nap at 8, waking at 10, down for a nap at 2, etc, and sleeping through the night - life was good.

THEN . . . a few weeks ago things started to go pear-shaped. His feeding is really suffering, but that's a whole other thread. The sleeping problem has to do with the swaddling. He sleeps fantastically well when swaddled. He has been wriggling out of his wraps for a while, so we have been using bigger and more elaborate wraps. A few days ago we ran out of ideas - he now totally wriggles out of his wraps, rolls on his tummy and crawls around the cot. I found him with his head under the covers so I said that's it - time to move to a sleeping bag (grobag).

The problem is this - he hates it. He won't sleep without the swaddle, he just screams blue murder. Patting/shhhhhhing don't work, neither do walking, rocking, bouncing, or the Baby Whisperer's Pick Up/Put Down method. Leaving him to cry just results in a hysterical baby and stresses me out. Plus, he is dangerously underweight, so I worry about him burning energy crying so hard and so long when we have fought so hard to get the calories into him.

Can anyone help? What do you suggest? How did you get your bubs used to a sleeping bag if they have been so in love with swaddling?

Thanks!

[draught]

First of all - welcome!! This was my first forum too and now I am hooked!

A friend who had a big baby who needed to be swaddled used a long length of cheesecloth - lots of stretch and you can make it as long as you need. I have another friend with a much younger baby who swaddles and then puts her in the sleeping bag - keeps her arms in even when she works her way out of the wrap.

Both my girls were swaddled and with DD1 when I stopped swaddling I could only get her down for her day time sleep by lying down with her and holding her in my arms, effectively swaddling her with my body! Although it sounds a bit drastic it made for some lovely naps together - or I could sneak away once she was down.

DD2 stopped being swaddled when she started unwrapping herself and moving around the cot - but she still went to sleep, unlike your little person, so I can't help much from her perspective.

I probably haven't answered your question but thought some different suggestions might help if nothing else does!

An additional thought - at some point you will need to stop swaddling (like before he starts school etc) - my suggestion is to do it gradually - loosening the wrapping over a period of a couple of weeks to let him get used to the movement, freedom, etc.

[crinny]

Also my first post :-)
My little chicken also liked to be wrapped, I found some great (really big) muslin wraps on the internet a site called monstar.com.au. The friendly child health nurse also showed me a much better way to wrap her, so she felt secure but could still move her arms. As she got bigger I just did them looser and looser until she didnt need to be wrapped at all. Good luck!

[lucyp]

Hi - I too had the problem of our little one not settling unless he was wrapped - and specifically - with his arms wrapped also in an upwards fashion so he could get them into his mouth. As he has grown bigger we have wrapped in cot sheets and anything else we could find that was big enought to contain him! As he would wake himself up if he got his arms out - and would have them flailing all over the place we endeavoured to find comething that still allowed movement - but contained his arms:)

In the end we found a really good product called a "wonderwrap" . It allows bubs to have movement in the arms but makes it difficult for them to unwrap themselves. We found it REALLY good. It also allowed us to make the slow transition to being unwrapped. You can only get them online unfortunately- but they send them out very quickly once ordered. http://www.britobaby.com.au

Godd luck and hopefully happy sleeping :)

[rabbit1969]

Hi agathab,

My daughter went into a sleeping bag at 5 months due to her moving around too much and getting stuck under the covers. She really liked to be wrapped so I would put her in her bag and I wrapped her with a short piece of muslin so basically just her arms and shoulders were covered. After a fewdays i loosened it slightly and then after a few more days I was able to put her to bed without it. As long as the wrap is very light breathable material and short, just to cover the arms and shoulders (you may have to modify one of your old wraps) they won't overheat. The lady I bought the grobag from gave me this advice, it worked well for us. BTW my daughter who is now three was in her bags until 2 and a half and has been a great sleeper since putting her in the bags. My 10 week old son is in a bag too! Hope this helps you.

[bb]

Poor you !

What a stressful time you have had !

I am not speaking from experience at all, as my bubs is only three months old, but we have been talking quite a lot about wrapping at parents' group recently ! We were told that once our babies can roll, it is best for safety to stop wrapping. Naturally, we were all shocked. My bubs loves being wrapped. He wakes up once his little arms have wriggled free, and cries until he is re-wrapped ... then he falls happily back to sleep ! We have been taught, however, how to stop wrapping so that our babies are eased into it (or, should we say, "out of it").

Apparently what you do is wrap bubs as always but with one arm up and out. Once bubs is used to that, you leave both arms out, but still wrap them around the middle, and then, over time, just make that looser and looser !

I have no idea if this works (mind you, I really hope it does) as I have not had to face that hurdle yet, but I hope this advice helps you in some way !

Best of luck with it !

B

[kaydensmum]

Hi there. My ds also loved 2 be wrapped & wouldn't sleep until he was. However, once he started rolling in his cot i think i got more frustrated than he did when his wrap became loose. I started to wrap loose for a few days & when he was sleeping ok ide wrap with one arm out 4 about a week. When that was going ok ide wrap only his trunk, with both arms out - i only had 2 do that 4 a few days b4 i was able to place him in his cot without any wrap at all!!!! Once we were wrap free he seemed to sleep a lot better, particularly if we were out and about. I hope this helps - good luck.
Kaydensmum :eek:

[mshobbit]

Hi agathab

I feel for you, I really do. My son was born with a cleft lip and palate and we have been concerned about his weight since he was born. Doctors keep telling us to feed him more and get him "on the graph". It took us 10 months, but he is finally on the lower side of normal. It's a start...

But back to your problem; when my son was about 6 1/2 months he went from being an angel sleeper to being an absolute terror. For 3 months we struggled to get him to sleep. He would cry and cry until he eventually vomitted and usually stayed awake until 12 or 1am. We were so worried because it seemed like he was vomitting up everything he had eaten and his weight plateaued at below, below average. We finally went and saw a CYHN who taught us how to wrap him. It took 3 days, but now he sleeps beautifully again. He still vomitted a lot, and a doctor diagnosed him with severe reflux.

Our CYHN encouraged us not to use rocking or co-sleeping to get him to sleep, because it is not always possible to do. We use a 100% cotton, single bed sheet and wrap him with one arm out. He likes to fall asleep snuggling up to something, so he has a teddy bear in his cot now. Sometimes he wriggles out and we have to re-wrap him, other times he just falls asleep out of his wrap. I saw a wrap called "Snug as a Bug", which is supposed to keep even the most active sleeper wrapped up. You should be able to find stockists on 1800 113 117. It could be what you're looking for.

Good luck!