4-mo-old still startles herself awake

[Anonymous]

My DD still has those seemingly uncontrolled limb movements in her sleep like she did when she was a newborn. Despite this - she's a pretty good night sleeper - we swaddle her and recently discovered that propping her at a 45 degree angle against the Boppy really helps her sleep soundly at night. She currently she wakes once to feed (BF), and sometimes once needing her pacifier reinserted (she also needs the pacifier to fall asleep, but we'll work on that later). But I cannot get her to take good naps unless she's being held. She starts daycare in a few weeks, so I'd really like her to be able to nap on her own. I don't swaddle her for naps, so once (if) I put her down, she squirms incessantly and eventually (always within 30 minutes) wakes herself up. I assume if I swaddled her for naps, she would sleep better, but shouldn't she be outgrowing the need for a swaddle by now? Anyone have a similar experience?

[Anonymous]

Keep swadling, a nap is the same as night sleep. My son was swaddled until 6 months.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP--we swaddled DS until he broke out of it every single time and stayed asleep once he was out. I think at about four months he outgrew his swaddle blanket in length, so we moved to just swaddling his arms for another month or so until he got too strong. Your daughter will tell you when she doesn't need it to sleep anymore--until then, keep swaddling her for naps and nights!

[Anonymous]

I could never swaddle my 3.5 month old; I'd need a full size blanket. He's 26.5 inches and 17.3 pounds and would never tolerate it. Hard to imagine a 6-month old swaddled! Sounds cute though.

[Anonymous]

DS was like this, particularly with daytime naps. The only thing that helped was letting him sleep on his tummy during the day (his arms were against the mattress and therefore didnt startle him awake). We kept him on his back for night sleeping which was less of an issue as he was in a deeper sleep.

[Anonymous]

DD is still swaddled at six months. We use the Swaddle Me size Large. The pediatrician mentioned that some of her patients need swaddling for the first 12 months.

[Anonymous]

Can you try a sleep sack instead of swaddling for naps? That was our "golden ticket" to our similar problem.