We're kind of struggling with this right now. My 3.5 month old son has been swaddled at bedtime (lower body only .. he hates his arms pinned down) his whole life, but lately when he wakes up and cries he immediately kicks the blanket off. He's started to grasp and hold things so we're concerned he'll roll off of the blanket and put it over his head. It's a slim possibility but enough that it has us somewhat concerned. Two different times we tried just putting him in long pajamas and leaving the blanket off, but both times he's slept horribly and by the end of the night we've swaddled him up again. The second time was tonight. He normally goes down by 8:30pm or so and wakes up between 12am and 2am for his first feeding. Tonight he woke up at 10:30 and was very agitated. We couldn't get him to calm down until I swaddled him. He eventually settled and now he's sleeping peacefully ... in the swaddle. We didn't have this problem with my daughter, who by two months hated being swaddled.

Thoughts?

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*Formerly Dad2Hannah

My kids:
Hannah - Born 5/18/02
Jackson - Born 6/17/04

Hi,

We stopped swaddling our son at around 3-4 wks and he also hated to have his arms tucked in, they always had to be stretched out above his head when he was sleeping. After that we put him in the sleepers with a light receiving blanket at his feet.

One thing you could try is after he is asleep and in a pretty deep sleep you could try to gently remove the blanket.......this may backfire if he wakes up.
I think the chances of him getting the blanket wrapped around his face would be slim and hopefully if he could pull the blanket on his face, then he could also pull it off......but that's your call.
Also, make sure the recieving blanket is light and not too large so that if it ever he ever did put it on his face he could still breathe.

Good luck!

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I tried this with my baby girl and it worked wonders. She would also kick the blankets off of her and then would freeze, since we live in a temperature-controlled apartment. Have you tried a sleepsack? I looks kind of like a gigantic sleeper but it's not footed, it's all open for their feet to move around. Just a thought.

We've thought about that. The main thing with him, actually, is to keep him semi-immobile. He seems to wake himself up easier if he's able to move around. I think for now we're going to keep swaddling him. Every time I've gone in to get him and his blankets are off, he's actually been laying on top of them. Plus, we usually get to him within a few minutes.

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*Formerly Dad2Hannah

My kids:
Hannah - Born 5/18/02
Jackson - Born 6/17/04