How to help Houdini sleep!

[buggie]

So, Bugg'un is now 13wks old and up until last week he would sleep really well (we'd have 2x wakes a night & were getting more nights where he'd have one wake).

Then came growth spurt/dev leap & he's now a bit all over the shop. Are still swaddling round the arms which seems needed for him to settle (otherwise his hands are in his mouth & he doesn't settle (have tried no swaddle). But, he wakes with arms wiggling & wondering if by freeing his arms he's waking himself up & can't work out how to stop it.

I'm ending up feeding him when he wakes as it's the least stressful way resettle him, but can't workout it how to stop him from waking himself up - or is it a phase that he'll grow out of?!

Any advice welcome (co-sleeping a no-no for me - bed is too small & I'm not kicking hubbie out!).

[david_carnell]

What do you use to swaddle? We used something called a woombie which was escape proof.

It also makes your child look like a giant slug which I found greatly amusing.

[Knomester]

Yikes, I have all this to come again I'm sure...

We had a little Houdini with baby number 1. Like you, we swaddled to stop very strong moro reflex which woke him constantly. In the end though we found that he wanted to suck fingers to settle - probably around the age your little one is now (or perhaps a couple weeks older...). The problem we found before that was that he had outgrown most purpose made swaddle blankets and could escape from sheets and blankets.

What we did do when he woke (and clearly didn't need a feed) was cuddle, reswaddle and then rock/shush until he fell asleep again. To be fair, I say 'we' but my husband had to do most of that because otherwise baby would smell my milk and want feeding.

Have you tried those zip up or Velcro swaddle blankets? I've got those on the list for this time round... I'm going to look up the woombie which david_carnell mentions!

[Pickle]

It was at about 13/14 weeks that my youngest finally mastered getting her thumb in her mouth, and we haven't looked back (apart, of course, from the fact that I now have a 2 year old with thumb permanently in mouth). I'm pretty sure I had stopped swaddling by that age with all of mine.

[buggie]

Hopefully not knomester - although it does make it clearer to me how lucky I was with bugglet!!

I have bought some Velcro swaddle sack things from amazon & tried them out, but where Bugg'un is at the upper end of the size limit, he manages to wiggle an arm out the bottom of it and then cries as his arm was trapped poking out from under the Velcro band which seemed to annoy him even more! (Look out as likely to be advertising them for sale soon!!).

D_C - had looked at woombies & had kind of ruled them out, but if anyone has a few spare/left after their babies have grown out of them & happy to lend/sell I'd be ruinous to try them.

[buggie]

Pickle - he's more chompy on his fingers (to the point of me wondering if he was about to start teething!). I'd stopped swaddling his sister well before 13wks, but did it so quickly I've no idea how it happened so easily!

Feels like I'll be doing some kind of wrapping him for a long time to come!

[stacker285]

A friend is still swaddling her boy at 20weeks...