I know, its another extreme question for LCbers to answer. But i figure everything is known between us so here goes...
My son is 19 weeks old and only sleeps well if swaddled (google it if you dont know what that is
). Trouble is, when he's not happy he can
easily pull his arms free, and then wakes up every hour. Wrapped, he can do 12 hours asleep. But its apparently a bad habit to get into.
Any good tips on how to keep him happy and asleep that doesnt rely on wrapping him up?!
having not had kids myself, as i understand it, thats what babies do. especially that young. something he'll sort of grow into i guess
Dont be tempted to keep returning to him if he wakes - hard I know, as you fight your parental instincts. My nephew was 20 months old before he slept his first night through, and even then, it is only 12-5:30.... Good luck!
Lots of babies like to be swaddled when they're young but they grow out of it.
Try one of these:
Amazon linky
as close to a baby straight jacket as you'll get....
Duct tape and cable ties would work well in this situation Joel.....
Both Ojnr and Ojnr2 have used/are using sleeping bags. Ojnr2 is 7 weeks old and she loves to be warm. The sleeping bag is great. I suppose the health visitors will have opinions on swaddling but the old midwife who pulled Ojnr out said swadding was a good way to make them feel safe and they sleep better if they feel safe!
It seems bizarre when people expect that they'll sleep well without being swaddled. They've spent 9 months in a cramped warm environment listening to mum's heartbeat. Suddenly being plonked in a cold bed on their own with nothing to listen to is going to be a bit of a shock...
Grow bags are good to get them into. Both mine loved them, but it does leave there arms free. It will take 2 days or so for the little one to adjust
but it will be worth it. You will have to try a little bit of controlled crying so that the little one knows that you will not come everytime they
start to cry.
HTH.
O
Didn't swaddle either of our 2, (youngest is 17 weeks) but both sleep fine on the whole. (insert jammy bugger smiley here). However both had the
odd few weeks where they just wouldn't sleep through, so its fairly normal/to be expected. how active is he in the day? Can you try not letting
him have too many naps in the day?
If he is teething there's not a lot you can do except hang on in for the ride.
Sleep wise, have you tried a grobag? Arms are left free but no faffing with blankets, easy to bring them downstairs if they are kicking off without a
change in temperature, and easy to put them back to bed
Also have a sleep help mp3 if you want it - plays gentle music with a mums heartbeat. Worked wonders with No 1 sprog - fell asleep to it myself a few
times...
both of mine slept right through from 11pm to about 6am swaddled or not, lucky arent I
take the advice of not going to them to soon, leave it a couple of minutes then next week add some more time maybe to 5 mins then longer and longer
until they dont bother
chris
quote:
Originally posted by hobzy
Didn't swaddle either of our 2, (youngest is 17 weeks) but both sleep fine on the whole. (insert jammy bugger smiley here). However both had the odd few weeks where they just wouldn't sleep through, so its fairly normal/to be expected. how active is he in the day? Can you try not letting him have too many naps in the day?
If he is teething there's not a lot you can do except hang on in for the ride.
Sleep wise, have you tried a grobag? Arms are left free but no faffing with blankets, easy to bring them downstairs if they are kicking off without a change in temperature, and easy to put them back to bed
Also have a sleep help mp3 if you want it - plays gentle music with a mums heartbeat. Worked wonders with No 1 sprog - fell asleep to it myself a few times...
"Sleep wise, have you tried a grobag? Arms are left free but no faffing with blankets,"
I have used these with great success for tomatoes.
Swaddling has worked well for thousands of years.
If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Babies love it, trendy health workers with a degree and no kids appear not to.
What a topic for LCB's!
Swaddling is no problem if you don't make a problem of it. With my children it was over in a couple of weeks (at least that's what I can
remember... )
Why not take advantage of this 12 hour sleep to go and build a car??
Another vote for the grobags, they worked a treat for our two.
Cheers
Adrian
all-knowing gf says swaddling is not a bad habit at all
quote:
Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop
Duct tape and cable ties would work well in this situation Joel.....
What ever makes the little ones happy ( ) is fine, they will grow out of and change all habits eventually.
I/We were spoilt, First born slept minimum of 6 hours from first night and just got longer. 2nd night home he slept for about 15hrs 
.
quote:
Originally posted by Omni
quote:
Originally posted by hobzy
Didn't swaddle either of our 2, (youngest is 17 weeks) but both sleep fine on the whole. (insert jammy bugger smiley here). However both had the odd few weeks where they just wouldn't sleep through, so its fairly normal/to be expected. how active is he in the day? Can you try not letting him have too many naps in the day?
If he is teething there's not a lot you can do except hang on in for the ride.
Sleep wise, have you tried a grobag? Arms are left free but no faffing with blankets, easy to bring them downstairs if they are kicking off without a change in temperature, and easy to put them back to bed
Also have a sleep help mp3 if you want it - plays gentle music with a mums heartbeat. Worked wonders with No 1 sprog - fell asleep to it myself a few times...
Oi Hobzy.... stop copying my advice
lol
[Edited on 17/6/09 by Omni]
must by a lottery ticket
As other people have said, grobags work well - we found our boy always needed the little cotton scratch mits on as he had a habit of thrashings his
arms around a lot and always had a few scratches on his face as a result.
Just wait till they;re nearly 2, when you'll find that the problem of whether to swaddle or not pals into insignificance compared to having the
house trashed by a crayon weilding toddler twice daily with 16 hour shifts of misbehaviour at weekends (I've done nothing to encourage this
boystrous behaviour, honest )
My mum taught us how to wrap the kids up to put them to sleep. The secret is to wrap them up so tight that they wear themselves out trying to get
free.
Absolutely nowt wrong with swaddling.....
My daughter (eldest) would scream the place down if she wasn't swaddled, as soon as she was wrapped up.....peaceful......
My son (middle), also loved to be 'snug'......
However...son number 2, hated it...but then he was no trouble getting to sleep...that's all he seemed to do...eat and sleep....
As said, babies have been swaddled since time began......grobags are brill...
As they get a bit older, and spend a bit more time awake in the day, they will have plenty of 'play' time......as my daughter got older she
always liked to be tucked into bed tightly at night......
The boys just liked their 'snugglies'.....bit of soft blanket... aka blankie....
One thing is for sure, babies are not born clutching their own 'workshop manual'...and every baby is different.....you will find what your
son likes best.......
Fozzie
quote:
Originally posted by Peteff
My mum taught us how to wrap the kids up to put them to sleep. The secret is to wrap them up so tight that they wear themselves out trying to get free.
He has one arm free before the other is even in 
They're all different and it's best to just go with what works for you. You may be lucky and get over this stage quickly or you may not
....
Our first woke every 2 to 2-1/2 hours and was awake every single night from midnight to half-two, it was hell. The interval gradually stretched to 3
to 3-1/2 hours and then at 7 weeks he started sleeping through - now he's 5-1/2 and the problem is just getting him to go to sleep at all!
The second started at 2 to 2-1/2 hours, slowly increaded to 4-1/2 and started sleeping through at 7 months. He's now 3-1/2 and does mutual battle
with the first until they both drop off.
The third started at 4 hours and stayed there for 12 months - he only started sleeping through when I finished converting my study and he got his own
bedroom. He's now 16 months.
As you can tell, we have a somewhat noisy and busy household - I'm still suffering from sleep deprivation though, as my wife likes to get to bed
late and disturb my sleep!
[Edited on 17/6/09 by SteveWalker]
Bungy ropes - thats the answer!! Ratchet straps if that doesnt work.
Another vote for the grobags. My little monster would only sleep through the night when we put her in her own room. A little tip is to raise the
cot/moses basket at the head end about 2 inches (an argos book works really well) and roll a couple of baby blankets up and place one each side of
them. This gives them the feeling of being swaddled even though there not.
we used grow bags for our's, but everythings a phase our 2 year old currently been woken by the dawn chours at 4:30 / 5 am and needs to be made
to lie back down under his blanket and go back to sleep.
When we did the NCT course ( which i would recomend to anyone ) swadling was ok ps mate mum a retired midwife of 40 some years gave it the OK,
from memory other tips where
mums smelly t-shirt,
good routine,
whatching what mum ate ( if on the boob)
if they are snotty use one of the vaporisers.
PS WTF did nearly 2 years go it seems like last week I was walking up and down stairs burping him.
ATB
Agriv8
Growbags? Sounds a bit messy if you ask me...
When we had our first a couple years ago the midwife showed us how to swaddle with a blanket in such a way he couldn't get free. He only used to
sleep like this too.
I always struggled to replicate the professional swaddling technique but it definitely works.
My daughter is 19 now but when she was a baby (late 80's), the advice was to swaddle and plant them face down in the cot. Oh how times seem to have changed!
I would just say that you are lucky to have a healthy baby. They are all different. Personally id say if hes happiest being wrapped up and sleeps
better then carry on. We also used the sleeping bag type bed clothes with good effect, but that was more cos mine kept pushing traditional blankets
off and we didnt want them to get cold in the night - worth a try for what they cost. A few unsettled nights are probs to be expected when something
changes. However being so young i cant help thinking swaddling is no bad thing at this stage.
Best advice i was given, as said already, was dont be too keen to run to babies when they make any noises. Its hard at first but you soon learn what
an attention seeking cry is as opposed to a full on distress signal.
We have always been lucky ref sleeping patterns. Ours have always slept through as long as they were fed well before hand. My wife breast fed both of
ours for first few months. The reason we had some (but not many) restless nights was when they werent full. We found topping up with a bottle feed
just before bed worked wonders.
Babies only seem to cry for good reason when hungry or need feeding. Get that cracked and get them into an early bed routine (i dont mean bed by 6pm,
more of a routine when they are young) and they seem to settle much quicker.
In case you hadn't got the hint already, grobags ftw!
My boy was a bit premature so went into neonatal intensive care for a while. All the nurses there swaddled the babies, although in the labour ward
they were advising against it. Go figure...
Is your son in a moses basket? If so, as matt says you can roll up a couple of blankets and kind of wedge him in, it worked for us
he's in his own room in a cot. Fast asleep again! I think i'll just swaddle til he decides otherwise (or moves out )
I was just puzzled because an 'official' site suggested you should only swaddle for a few weeks.
Cheers all!
quote:
Originally posted by Steve G
Bungy ropes - thats the answer!! Ratchet straps if that doesnt work.