A while ago (June 22nd to be exact), I put Cameron in his bed, and he was fast asleep. Normally he gets restless in his bed until I swaddle him and then he’s out. I had been considering de-swaddling for a while, but I just didn’t know how to go about it. So, when I put him to bed and he fell fast asleep right away, I decided not to swaddle him. I was so happy and proud of my little guy for sleeping without a swaddle. And he did sleep well…
… until I was about to go to bed.
For the rest of the night, Cameron was restless and he woke up very often.
I got no more than 1.5 hours of sleep at a time.
Can I please just tell y’all how exhausted I was?
The next night, I decided to swaddle everything except for one arm (when I told The Hubs this, he said “Even the head?”). We were going to try to slowly de-swaddle one limb at a time instead of going cold turkey. That night we slept only marginally better than we had the night before.
But the next night? Well, the next night was better. Cameron was back to his normal sleeping schedule even though one arm wasn’t swaddled.
I kept him swaddled like this for a week. I was really nervous about having more nights of brutal sleep.
A week ago, I swaddled his chest and legs only. I realized I had to bite the bullet and do this when I noticed him try to roll in his sleep. Being mostly unswaddled didn’t seem to faze Cameron. What was bothering him was that he couldn’t roll over.
Cue another night of poor sleep. This time, our sleeps were filled with grunts and groans as Cameron tried to get his body to turn over. It didn’t stop until I brought Cameron to my bed for some snuggles.
Cameron has now slept completely unswaddled since last Friday. How do I deal with the grunts and groans? I let Cameron sleep on his side. I know, this isn’t kosher, but Cameron is so mobile anyway that he’ll go from his side to his back to his side again. I just find that if I start him on his side, he sleeps better.
His sleep isn’t as good as it used to be. Instead of sleeping soundly for six hours, then waking up every 2-3 hours after that, Cameron is waking up consistently every 2-3 hours. But, I’m usually still awake for that first feeding anyway, so it isn’t a huge deal. And, it is definitely an accomplishment to get him out of the swaddle.
I’m just proud that I managed to wean Cameron off of something. My little boy is growing up. He is getting bigger and more mobile, and so I know that I have to help him stop using things like his swaddle. But, it does break my heart when I know that just wrapping him snuggly will help him feel better.
Mom: 1 Swaddle: 0
