If wrapping is a sleep cue, how long do you do it for?

[Teeki]

Thanks Fiona At night, the dark room is definitely a sleep cue, and she has a feed just before all of her sleeps so that's one too. Good point about the rolling, I hadn't even considered that.

We do have a sleeping bag with sleeves, and her little pyjama suits have parts we can put over her hands, but she can still get to her face so I have to wrap her with her hands down. I'm wondering if it'll get better when she grows out of the startle reflex? Maybe that's what's making her arms come up?

[sloane]

i'm pretty sure they do recommend to stop wrapping when they can roll but i think once the startle reflex goes, things will be better with regards to waking herself up with a punch to the face! as they get older there are lots of different sleep cues that you can use (bath time, books etc) so when one goes, it can be replaced with another (if needed)

[FabFiona]

With my DS1 we stopped wrapping at around 4 months. He was fine... Well, he was a crap sleeper before that and unwrapping him didn't change it!!!

It would definitely be the startle reflex but also probably exploring her environment. Her face is so exciting!

You'll know when she's ready to be unwrapped. At the moment if it's working then go with it. Some people do wrap for extended periods. You just need to work out what works for you and your daughter and go with the flow. When you do make the change it probably won't be that bad. I find I get anxious about changes and then my children surprise me by being totally fine.

[Heaven]

Yeah, the startle reflex goes at around 12 weeks and so they say to wrap them until then so they don't wake themselves up. My DDs always got their arms out too though. I wrapped DD1 until 6 months and DD2 is still wrapped. Mainly bc she doesn't self-settle so it's way easier to put her down when she's asleep if she's wrapped otherwise she flings her arms around when she feels me trying to lower her into the cot and wakes up.

[luna moth]

I wrapped until just after 5 months for day sleeps, and at night we're still doing it. Not so much because she needs it, but to keep her hands warm and to keep Bambi (the beloved bamboo blanket) nice and close.

[lissy]

Hey Kaytee - as far as wrapping as a sleep cue, I wrap DS but I wait till he's asleep to do it.

At night before his first sleep I sit on the couch with just a lamp on & feed him with a bunny rug just laying over him & shielding his face. He feeds sleepily, I burp him with him snuggled into the bunny, then when he's really asleep I'll lay his bunny out & wrap him & then put him down for the night in his basinette.

Not sure if this helps or not. This works for me as I know DS will go down for a good sleep if I can move him to wrap him. If he wakes up, he wouldn't have stayed down anyway.

[Asparagus and Lemons]

We were wrapping Harlee till she was maybe 5 months old, thats when the weather started getting warmer and we just wrapped her in a light sheet, she would easily get out of it so eventually we just stopped re-wrapping her and she got used to it.
We never noticed her rolling while she was wrapped though, it was just too hard for her.
Hope you figure it out soon

[BlackCat]

We wrapped until we were told to stop by the mchn when he started to roll. That was our first mistake. When we reintroduced it at 12 months old our sleep issues vastly decreased just by changing that one thing back. He eventually grew out of the need to be wrapped by 18 months to 2 years old. We used a sheet. We were told by the sleep school (one of the few bits of advice we could take from there) that there was no reason to stop wrapping if we didnt want to. And DS didnt want to.