Swaddle me this... Vol.4 : the sleep saga
Yup, I'm still writing about swaddling. 2 weeks ago I thought it was the biggest mistake I've made with Zoe so far. Obviously I wrapped her so tightly from day dot that she refused to sleep unswaddled and I've been so frustrated about it ever since. Thinking 'holy crap my kid might need to be wrapped forever!' haha
It is sticky and hot here at the moment and I was wrapping Zoe in a Snug & Tug wrap at nights, and her Wrap Me Up during the day. But at night time she was just too hot and would take hours to settle. I decided I would stick her in her Wrap Me Up suit and just get up to her a million times a night as she wakes so frequently in it. But, she hardly woke at all and settles much faster, so yay! There goes the heat problem as the suit is light and doesn't over-heat her, it enables her to have her hands up instead of pinned down at her sides. She sucks her hands through the suit to self-soothe which is great, the only downside is that the fabric at the hands gets gross so I am forever throwing it in the wash. But I can not recommend this suit enough for people that can relate to this post, I feel like it has been a life-saver.
Wrap Me Up suit in action. In this last picture, I'm starting to find Zoe all over this end of the cot now!
I went to a sleep course at The Parenting Place run by Louise from The Sleep Store last week and it was FANTASTIC. I kinda thought she would tell me to dream feed, and she did, and so now I am... I just persevered and it's paid off as Zoe's sleeps have been much better. (Past attempts at dream feeding just woke Zoe up completely and then again every 3 hours). But she also said that Zoe would be ready to sleep with one arm out around 5 months, and that she will fall asleep like that when she is ready. If she is taking forever to get to sleep and won't settle - she isn't ready.
Well I tried it.. and 20 mins later.... asleep! I couldn't believe it! She takes a while to settle, as she is busy talking and cooing to herself but she eventually gets there. I really didn't think it was going to be this easy. I've even let her sleep with one arm out during the night - in which she slept 6 hours in a row. I think having her hand there is comforting and O.K now that it's not constantly hitting her in her face without her permission.
I've bought her a sleeping bag as that is the next step in this sleeping drama. At the moment I just have her in the Wrap Me Up done up under her arm and it seems to be working wonderfully. I'm not sure when to let the other arm loose though.. mmm...
Zoe has also decided not to wake for the dummy at night anymore, well, when I try to put it in she goes NUTS! and only wants food. But only wakes that one time hungry, and that is a big change. She uses the dummy to calm down at the initial shock when placed in her cot, spits it out and then continues to pet her 'pinky' comfort blanket - of which she ADORES all of a sudden.
Wrap Me Up suit with one arm out & Zoe with her pinky blankie.
Now a question for other mothers out there, did your children use a comforter blankie? Were you worried they would pull it over their head and suffocate!?! I'm not sure if it is O.K to have it in bed with her and have sewed on a piece of ribbon so that I can tie one end to the cot far enough away so that it can't be pulled up over her head. Anyone else have any issues with these? Would love to hear from you!
All in all, swaddling is quickly becoming something of the past and of course I worried for nothing and just needed some patience! (and many of you are rolling your eyes right now thinking, 'I told you so'...).
Bring on sleeping bag only with both arms unwrapped!
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haha she looks like batman! hehe cute. I could not live without my rainbow blankie and 2 fingers when i was a pixie..then mum burned it when apparently i was too old...jeezz...
Ooooo...what a beaUtiful little place you have here!
In answer to your question, my little Esky doesn't use a comforter blanky, and I'm sorry she doesn't...because I was a little Linus as a babe, and hoped my girl would be a self-soothing fabric-toting human too. Seems like you've found modern, trendy and safe equivalents, eh?
Your little one is gorgeous!
Thanks for swinging by Striking Keys!
Awww she is so cute in her little suit. I am still swaddling MIllie in a muslin but with her arms out, she tends to unswaddle herself and pull the muslin up over her face and sucks on that, so I am having the comfort blanket dilemma too for when she goes into her sleeping bag, I was thinking about just giving her a little square of muslin because it is breathable, but not really sure yet.
shes so beautiful
im getting clucky
but it wont lead anywhere :)
been there done that
enjoy her :) as I know you do
Aspen can't be without her comforter blankie but since it's a coarsely-knitted thing, I've never worried about her pulling it over her head. The ribbon idea sounds ingenius! P.S What is dream feed?
aww, she's precious. my last 3 babies were born during heatwaves and swaddling wasn't even an option! they were lucky if they even got a sheet put over them! (they were all sweaty little boys though...not sweet little bundles of sugar and spice like miss zoe :) )
and for blankies - i have used those little soft baby flannels with my daughter (she liked the tags on them) and muslins with my boys. i try to make it something that i have a heap of so it's not such a big deal if it gets dirty/lost/left behind :)
Awww she is just too cute. My kids have had comforter blankets and cuddly toys and sometimes I'd worry about smothering them but they always seemed to be just fine thankfully. I completely forgot about swaddling, I only stopped about 4 months ago.
pixie: haha i love you! silly mum for burning it! you'd still have it now right?! haha
angela: haha linus! so cute! yeah i guess the comforter is made to be ok but still scary cos its not like its muslin or anything.
stacia: yeah muslin would be good! and i can't wait for zoe to be in a sleeping bag :-)
jen: thanks for your always beautiful comments
maddie: a dream feed is when you go in and feed them at YOUR bed time hopefully while they are still asleep or dowsy enough that you don't have to settle them afterwards back to sleep. its supposed to fill their little tummy up and trick them so they don't wake early! hehe
dee: good idea having it something that you have a heap of. noted!
chavah: thanks!
Your post totally inspired me to try not swaddling Mylo as I too have been still swaddling at night (sleeping bag during the day). So I thought, why the heck not at least try it and see what happened. So we had a good start in the sleeping bag with arms out (6 hrs) till 1.30am. But he wouldn't settle again after that so I had to strait jacket his arms back into the Safety Sleep (sounds terrible I know!) and put the dummy in to get him back down. Last night he woke up after 45 mins and where the dummy will usually settle him back to sleep, it doesn't really work unwrapped as he just takes it out of his mouth.....so sadly we're still a work in progress on the non-swaddling front too.
Mylo has a silky wrap thing (quite breathable material I guess) that I'm forever finding half over his face when I go in after a nap. But I figure he likes it like that so I'm trying not to freak out too much about the smothering thing :-)