We originally purchased the Miracle Blanket for several reasons. One being this:
She also was starting to break her arms free on a regular basis and that in itself would wake her up. We'd look at the video monitor at night and there would just be a giant hand in the camera waving around. One day during a nap she got her arms free and I just saw her waving them around with a huge smile on her face. I could almost here her singing "Freedom" by George Michael.
As I type this, I am experimenting with her afternoon nap to see how this will actually play out. The problem is that she still is mesmerized by her arms and hands. She moves them around and watches them fly all over the place without really having much control of where they're going. She'll be drifting off to sleep but then catch a glimpse of her arm flying through the air and all of a sudden she's thinking "Oh wow, what is that cool thing that just flew past me? Look out, it's headed straight toward my eye!"And then it's all over. She startles herself awake again and then the process starts all over again. Lately she's found her hair and her ear, both of which she likes to pull on and then make herself cry because, "Ouch, that hurts! Who the heck is doing that to me?"
So far this nap is not going well. She's extremely tired and keeps almost falling asleep and then waking herself up again. And then she flails her arms around like a crazy person and starts crying because she feels (and looks) so out of control. Another thing she does is look straight at the camera several times like she's trying to say "HELLO! I'm not sleeping in here, come and get me up already! You guys are so lame."
If anyone has any advice for me on how to transition this little Chub Muffin, I welcome it with open, flailing, chubby baby arms.
We just started trying to wean Camden off the need to be swaddled too. I read that they should be weaned by 3-4 months old, so I figured I better get on that. Plus, like your little one, he could break out of swaddles pretty easily (even the Miracle Blanket swaddle occasionally). Anyway, I stopped swaddling him at night and put him to sleep on his side (he will NOT sleep on his back when he's not swaddled for more than 10 minutes). He sleeps very well on his side but then after several hours, he almost always rolls onto his tummy, which scares me! I know they say that once they start rolling around on their own, you kind of have to let them choose their own sleep position but it's hard not to worry.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...back to your question. I've read you can wean them from swaddling by starting with one arm out. If that goes well, do 2 arms, and so on. We, on the other hand, went cold turkey at night. I'm still swaddling for naps because he's not the greatest napper anyway right now and I don't want to do something else to detract from his ability to nap.
And now I've written a novel. :)
I have no advice- but will be reading responses with great attention to get info that might be helpful for me in the future. :)
ReplyDeleteI love reading your posts, Ellie- you paint quite a comical picture! It's so fun to read.
Ellie! I swaddled Norah up to 9 months and the only reason I stopped was because I didn't have a blanket to stop doing it. The only result I have from that is she loves to be cuddled. :) So I don't think you have anything to worry about.
ReplyDeleteAmber :)
Thanks Amber, that makes me feel better! I've talked to a lot of people who said they swaddled their babies for a long time and they all turned out fine so I think I'll just continue until she's "done"! :)
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