At what age did you stop wrapping your baby?

Just curious as to when others stopped wrapping their babies? My son is 12 weeks old and has been sleeping for 8hrs straight overnight for the last week and a half, it now seems that he wakes himself up struggling to get out of his wrap after only 5hrs :rolleyes:. I've recently started finding him with one arm out and the muslin still firmly wrapped around him under his 'free' arm and back up over his other shoulder.

I'm wondering whether I should now look at putting him to sleep unwrapped? My only concern with this is that when he has catnaps during the day (when I don't wrap him) he still has that cute newborn-type reflex where he occasionally throws both arms up in the air like he's gotten a fright, and I'm worried that this will only wake him anyway, and then we'll be going back to even shorter periods of sleep at night :wall: .....

Any ideas or common experiences from others would be greatly appreciated :)

I really only wrapped mine for about a week after they were born - I was lucky to get babies who prefer to let it all hang out and even though they sometimes do that 'WHOA!' reflex and wake themselves up, they usually go straight back to sleep without anything from me.
DD2 is mainly co-sleeping but I do pop her in her bassinette some nights. On those nights, I tuck her blanket in at the sides of the bassinette but leave the bottom loose so she can kick her legs, and I leave her arms out. She sleeps soundly from about 10pm till 4 or 5am, when she hollers for a feed (and then I put her in with me to feed and fall asleep so she stays in bed until I wake up later).

If your bub doesn't seem to like being wrapped up, just give him a go bundled loosely or with just a blanket over him (tucked under his armpits so his arms are free, if that makes sense) and give it a go to see if he likes it or not. HTH :)

We stopped wrapping around 4 months. DS was getting frustrated being wrapped so I started wrapping him with his arms out then just stopped after about a week of that. I put him in a sleeping bag then and he is still in one now.
HTH

Sorry I don't have any answers for you ClareBear, I've actually been wondering the same thing. My DS is a little younger, only 8 weeks but we're having similar troubles. I use the Cocooi swaddle wraps which I actually tie in a knot at the back to try and keep it together. However, of late I've gotten him out of bed only to find that the knot has come undone from all his wriggling and it's not unusual for him to get an arm out either. However over the last couple of days he's actually managed to start getting his feet out and the wrap pretty much undone... I've also come in a couple of times to find that he's kicked the blanket off of him as well :wall:

I think I'm going to invest in a couple of sleeping bags today, but like you I don't think he's quite ready to sleep without a wrap so I'm wondering whether I should start trying to wean him so he can gradually get used to it, or keep perservering....

We stopped wrapping DS after a few weeks. He slept just fine unwrapped and seemed to get frustrated when he was too tightly wrapped up (unless he was in the sling, he loved being in there). We put him in one of those little sleeping bag jumpers instead so his legs were contained but his arms were free.

with ds1 i basically didnt wrap from the start - i dont think he liked it at all... so i used to wrap with one arm out for a few weeks and then both arms out and then no wrap and just a sleeping bag at about 10 wks. to behonest i decided to persever more this time as it is winter and also i think it has helped ds2 to sleep better...i am thinking of the 1st 12 wks or so as another 'trimester' so wrapping to keep him snug and will think about stopping the wrapping when he loses the startle reflex after this time
i think they say you shold def stop wrapping at 4 months or when they can roll over (which ever is 1st) - but i am not sure on this.
if your bub is def not into it and is waking himself up trying to escape then i think it is prob time to get them unwrapped...
i have heard it is best to 'wean' off the wrapping - one arm at a time and gradually looser.. yo ucan also pop them in a sleeping bag and then wrpa lightly over this a few times... (i never did that i went straight to sleeping bag which ds1 loved).
sorry prob not much help.. but i think sleeping bags are a good next step.

DD is 13weeks and won't sleep unless wrapped! she does get one or both arms out overnight, but won't settle without being properly wrapped. she loves it. even during the day, if we want more than a two minute cat nap, she needs to be wrapped. i think she's like me though - i love to be snuggled up in the blankets...

i have tried leaving her less tightly wrapped or only one arm wrapped and she hates it - she will sleep up to 9 hours at night if wrapped, feed, back to sleep - she's just hit 11 hours of sleep or more now. if she's not wrapped to go to sleep, we're lucky to get a proper 40 minute sleep cycle... it's better for HER to sleep well (yeah, it's good for me too) rather than being awake so much and feeling crappy from being tired. she will grizzle and whinge and moan during the day if she wants a proper sleep, until she is laid on the change table to be wrapped - first bit of wrap goes over her, she stops crying, and she's content. yesterday she was asleep within a minute of being wrapped

Thanks everyone, I've got a couple of sleeping bags, reckon I might give one a go tonight and see what happens... at worst if he won't sleep in it, I guess I'll just wrap him loosely and put him back to bed! I guess it's yet another 'experiment' in the journey of motherhood ;)

well, DS is 8.5 months and still being wrapped lol - he just really seems to want the security of being snug and wrapped....I think after reading these posts we are probably the exception to the rule...

DD2 is 6.5 months and still wrapped! ive found a way to wrap her and she CANT escape!!

2 weeks here. little one would get her "boxing fists out and get a cold chest so gave up. she usually sleeps with zombie arms or starfish style now.

he he still all wrapped up nice and tightly here too :)

AJP and MrsB26, how do you wrap them so they don't 'escape' through the night, like my 5 month old? (who needs to be wrapped at night to sleep)

And do you have giant wraps? None of my wraps are big enough to hold my DS in and haven't been for quite a while.

We stopped wrapping after a couple of weeks due to all the wriggling. It didn't effect his long sleeps at all.

Mel, I think a lot of people actually use cot sheets!!

I stopped wrapping Elijah about 2 wks ago - cold turkey straight into a grobag. His sleeping went feral and he was trying to suck his fingers. It took a few more nights to settle his sleeping so I'm not sure what upset his sleeping overnight but we're back to semi decent - not as good as he was before he went all feral with it though lol.

We're still wrapping here and I am looking forward to him not being wrapped to be honest. He goes to sleep quickly if he's wrapped but when he wriggles around and gets an arm out he then wakes up and I have to go and re-wrap him half a dozen times through the night. When we co-sleep I don't wrap him and he sleeps just fine, but in his own bed he likes to be snug and wrapped.

A cotsheet would do it. :lol: Never thought of that.

I stopped wrapping DS2 at 5 weeks and he was fine in the sleeping bag.

Olive is 10.5mths and still wrapped (in cot sheets). We tried sleeping bags but they just didn't cut it. It doesn't really bother me. She does get out but settles soooo much better when wrapped as she is hopeless at self settling. When she comes into our bed I don't usually bother but then she is snuggled between mum and dad:)

I stopped wrapping Lily at about 4 weeks, cause she would wiggle and cry really hard when I wrapped her, so I just started putting her down unwrapped and she was fine. She doesn't seem to wake herself with that startle reflex. May be just try it for 2 nights in a row and see what happens??

i actually find cot sheets too small so got some material from spotlight and sewed one up that was big enough!!
when i wrap DD i lay her onthe wrap as normal, then bring down one side and instead of placing it across her body and tucking it under her i bring it down the same side and tuck it under her so her arm is gently contained by her side, i repeat the other side then bring up the bottom and wrap around her as normal, gee i hope all that made sense!!

Yep that made sense - I shut my eyes and visualised it, that made it easier to understand :D
I think I'll try wrapping him that way tonight and see how it goes, he wasn't too bad last night - but only slept from 9pm til 1:30am, and then 2:15am til 6:15am. Way off the 8hr and 11hr sleep-throughs we were getting a fortnight ago :rolleyes:

Thanks AJP! I'll give it a go :)

Dare I admit - my 11 month old is still wrapped too!! he looooooves it - of course i dont wrap him tightly - he seems to like the comfort around his shoulders and he doesnt roll over in his sleep yet so must be very comfy!!! When he wakes for the day his arms are out and he is squealing etc - so I know he can get out of it if he really wanted to - and he doesnt - I'm fine with that ;)

I still wrap my son & he is 7 months. Have tried weaning him off with no luck. I'm sure he will let me know when he is ready not to be wrapped any more. as long as it helps him sleep, i don't mind :angelic::angelic:

MrsJak, i wrap ds with one arm by his side like AJP but the top arm is across his body, he just ikes it like this. I also went to spot light and got my granny to run me up a few bigger wraps :)

AJP, thanks so much for the wrapping advice! Your technique is working here :)

MrsB, it's amazing how they all have their favourite sleeping positions. What a great granny you have too :)

glad its working mrs jak!!

AJP - :hooray: Bless your cotton socks!!!!! Your wrapping techique has been successful for the last 2 nights, so here's hoping it continues to work because nightly 9.5hr sleep-throughs are working wonders for my wedding preparations!!!!!! :leap: