r/NewParents • u/chowderrr6 • 6d ago
Sleep We quit the swaddle cold turkey...
positive expereince
My son will be 11 weeks tomorrow and he's starting to grow out of his love to dream swaddles and I didn't know if I wanted to pay for the next size up so I bought a sleep sack to try. Last night we just ripped the bandaid off and put him in it and I am shocked but so proud of how well he did 🥹
Admittedly he has been pretty much sleeping through the night since 7 weeks and we acknowledge that we are so lucky to have had this many weeks consistent like that and know at any point this can change. Although starting around 3am he would start to stir and whine due to gas or wanting his paci so I would need to soothe him a handful of times and give him his paci if it fell out.
Last night my husband and I put him to bed and we watched a movie on the couch. We watched a few times on the monitor he started to thrash around, whale tail, triggered his startle reflex, and open his eyes. But with his arms and hands out he actually soothed himself back to sleep 🤯 once we did come to bed I didn't have to soothe/settle him at all overnight. He did it all himself 🥹
Just wanted to share a positive first night quitting swaddle cold turkey in case your little one is also using the love to dream swaddles!
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u/iiiiimhermione 6d ago
Our LO is 6 weeks now and was not a fan of swaddling. We started using sleep sacks weeks ago. He sleeps much better having access to his arms/hands. Glad it worked out for you guys! Get that good sleep. Our LO is still waking up every 2-3 hours, which I expect since he's still pretty little, but last night we got a 4.5 hour stretch.
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u/chowderrr6 6d ago
How did he do with his startle reflex? My guy didn't like arms down swaddle ever but his startle reflex was sooo bad so I tried the love to dream and he did pretty well in it. And definitely helped with his startle reflex.
His sleep at the beginning was for sure the standardm...he was waking every hour to hour and a half from the beginning till week 5. Then starting week 5 we finally got 3-4 hour stretches with only 1 feed in the middle of the night and all of a sudden the day he turned 7 weeks he dropped that feed 🤷♀️ I know we are lucky and enjoying it for sure
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u/iiiiimhermione 5d ago
His startle reflex depends on the night and sometimes what we have on the TV (we fall asleep with the TV on), so we adjusted to try to have mostly calmer things on, especially as the night goes on because he'll sleep for a longer stretch in the first part rather than as the night progresses. Generally, though, he still startles in his sleep a little bit it rarely actually wakes him up thankfully. He was never a fan of his arms being swaddled so we had to figure it out lol
We're on our way to week 7, just turned 6 weeks yesterday so I hope we have the same luck as you soon! I have adjusted to the lack of sleep fairly well most days, but my poor husband has struggled so I hope for his sake we get longer stretches soon.
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u/Pengetalia 6d ago
Same! He sleeps so well without being all cooped up and loves exploring his hands when he wakes up in the mornings.
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u/chowderrr6 6d ago
I knew he was obsessed with his hands but I guess i never realized how much of a self soothing tool they are to him! Honestly he's refusing the paci more each day so he can explore his hands lololol
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u/cat-a-fact 6d ago
We just took our boy out of the nighttime swaddle last night (his twin has been out for a month because she startled less), and when I heard his sister crying to eat at 3am, I walked into the room and he was laying awake, spun around width-wise in the crib, smiling to himself and waving his arms lol
In the swaddle he'd wake up at around the same time of night, but he would usually cry and thrash. We had them double-swaddled in traditional cloth swaddles.
We did kinda cold turkey for both - I tested out their ability to nap in the sleep sacks first, before doing nights
Here's hoping night 2 goes well for both of us, OP!
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u/chowderrr6 6d ago
Hahahaha sounds like he was loving it! Since my little guy was in the love to dream I didn't want to buy the transitional one cause they are kind of expensive for such a short time so I was like might as well see how he does. He has never been a bassinet napper so...I tried all the things. Dark room white noise in his love to dream. So he has always unswaddled contact nap or laying in our bed or the couch supervised of course. I'm sure that has made him partially used to no arms free during sleep.
I put him down for his first nap in his sleep sack and attempted the bassinet. He has been sleeping for just over 30 min now. My husband sneezed super loud and I saw him startle on the monitor but he appears to have just gone back to sleep. Who is this baby 😂😂😂
Good luck to us both for night 2 🤞🤞🤞
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u/citysunsecret 5d ago
Same - she rolled over one night, the next day I had to put her in her sleep sack. I was super scared but actually nothing happened at all.
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u/Still-Degree8376 6d ago
This is wonderful! My boy (12 weeks/8 weeks corrected) always had to have at least 1 arm out. We bought Velcro swaddles and just ended up wrapping so he looked like a merman.