Wednesday, April 21, 2010

To swaddle or not to swaddle...that is the question

I know that my blog is supposed to be about my life in DC, but as of a few months ago, a small stork brought me a little someone who has now become my new life in DC. The subject of this post has been the new "hot topic" in our house the last week or so. Annie has reached the stage of "creeping" and rolling around like a mad woman. She thinks she's big stuff.
However, when I swaddle her at night, she sleeps like a teenager. You know, you remember...sleeping in until 10 on Saturdays. Only, she sleeps "in" until 7 to 8. Trust me, it's sleeping in. But, because she is getting older, when do you take the wrap off and call her a big girl; sending her into the wild of restless nights with no net to catch her (so to speak)? Am I stunting her developmentally because I and she needs a little shut eye?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are not stunting her growth!! Chloe let me know when she was ready to stop being swaddled by breaking out of the swaddle herself. She was 5-6 months when this started happening. She still slept through the night during this time.
After a couple of weeks of her breaking out, I began to put her to bed without swaddling her and she did great. We may have had a couple of nights where she had trouble falling asleep or she woke up during the night, but she figured it out quickly. (We used the Ferber method) Ever since, she has slept wonderfully. We put her to bed at 6:30 and she sleeps until 7 or 8.

Newberry said...

You are totally not hurting her! Swaddling is great, and both of my boys slept well that way. They say after three months they don't really "need" to be swaddled anymore, but I swaddled Mason until he was about 5 months. Whenever you are ready or feel like she is ready you could give it a try. She might surprise you. As far as sleep goes, my motto is, "Whatever it takes." Mason always woke up really early so I would put him in bed with me to get a few more hours of sleep.

Newberry said...

Also,I did the Ferber method that Morgandi is talking about when Mason was 5 1/2 months old, and I did the same thing with Max. It works great!

Kelly T said...

Yeah, eventually most babies need to cry-it-out a little (like Ferber method), no matter how it breaks mom's heart. That is, if mom wants sleep. But swaddle away as long as your heart desires, there is nothing wrong with it! Side note: when I wanted to "wean" my kids from swaddling I would swaddle just their legs for awhile...

Shelly said...

I used the sleep sacks and never had to worry about a blanket coming off or undone. Anderson was snug as a bug and loved it. I like the other comments about crying it out and totally agree. I only regret I didn't do it sooner! It took like one nap and one night time and Anderson was putting himself to sleep and back to sleep if he woke during the night! It was magical!

Tamra said...

Uh, Marin is already breaking out of her swaddles and the kid is 2 weeks old.

The new mom's handbook they gave me at the hospital said to only swaddle for a month. "Whatever, Russ...whatever..."

Brooke said...

Jayna! Hey girl. I have an 11 week old and for over a month now she hasn't been swaddled at all. From about 4-5 weeks she started kicking like crazy and hated being wrapped up so we would just do her legs. That had to go too after a few weeks...she would kick all blankets off. She would wiggle her hands out of the swaddle and so we gave up! We use a sleep sack and its great for us. It keeps her warm so no blanket needed (or worried about by me) and it secures her a tad from wiggling too much.

Stacey Cannon said...

Let her stay swaddled as long as she will let you do it!!! :) Trust me she will let you know!!!

Girl, things are insane...we moved from DC to Shreveport, but are about to move to San Antonio. Seriously things are insane here! We miss DC so much and wish we had never ever, EVER left there!!!! :(