How to transition baby to sleep with arms free?

Question

My son is 4 months old and has been swaddled every night since he’s been born, we switched him to the nested bean zen one not too long ago so he could have his arms up instead of pinned to his side in hopes to eventually move to arms out because the sleeves zip off and makes it a sleep sack. He is getting too big for his current bed and we’re wanting to move him to his crib, but he’s now completely rolling over and he needs to be able to use his arms if he were to roll over at night. He has been a good sleeper in this, but I’ve tried to leave one arm/both arms out and he hates it. If he does go to sleep he will startle at every little noise and movement my husband or I make and then screams and cries until I put the sleeves back on. I cannot get any sleep without him being swaddled like this, but I know he needs to have his arms free, I just don’t know what to do.

Answer

Baby merlins magic sleepsuit is seriously THE BEST. Bought ours on amazon. I didn’t think I’d ever get baby out of swaddle but from day one, worked like a charm! Baby will sleep all night (8 pm - 6/7 am) or will wake up once for a quick feed then right back down.

Answer

I use sleep suits or sacks with the arms where the hand can fold over.
The one I used to called love to dream transition sleep suit.
Good luck

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My LO was swaddled since birth. We used the Velcro swaddle at first and then the love to dream. About two weeks ago he started to roll over. I kept trying to delay not swaddling him because he would wake up so many times and wouldn’t sleep long stretches without it. Eventually one night he rolled over on his tummy a few times. That got me worried and I knew I had to stop swaddling. I was going to buy the swaddle where their arms are still up above their heads but their hands are open so they can roll over on their backs again. But after thinking about it I realized eventually we’ll have to remove that and I felt that the older he got the harder it would be to stop. So we stopped cold turkey. He sleep with a regular sleep sack now but it stops at his shoulders and it’s thin. We use it more as an extra layer. 
I won’t lie the first 3 days were really difficult. He screamed and kept putting his hands in his face and pulling his paci out of his mouth. But my advice is to start during the naps first. Don’t try to do this when he goes down for his bedtime. My son freaked out when we did this the first time at night. so I started with the naps all day and by bedtime we were okay. I still had to get up 4 or 5 times but he got the hang of it after a few days. It’s easier to transition the younger they are.

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Following because I’m wanting to transition to arms out swaddling because my baby has been swaddled since birth too and I’m dreading doing without.

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Interested in any suggestions to this question as well! Having the same problem

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We took one arm off for a week or two? And then freed both and he learned how to sleep.

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Are you using a sound machine? That will help him startle less. But I would start it without the arms and then when he wakes up put it back on and hopefully each night he will be able to go longer out of the swaddle 🤷🏼‍♀️

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What kind of sleeper is he in? My son did this when we tried to transition him and he woke up every 30 min. We later realized it was because he was cold and needed to be in a fleece sleeper instead of cotton. Once we put him in warmer clothes, he did a lot better. Plus, that swaddle is very thin.

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This isn’t really helpful but we just did it. We had 3/4 nights where he woke up a lot, like every 1-3 hours, but then he figured it out and now sleeps how he used to (generally a 7-9 hour first stretch and 2-4 hour second stretch). 
It is harder for me to put him down initially still, I used to get him sleepy and put him down, now I have to pick him back up and soothe him 2-4 times generally before he’s actually out for the night, but I’ve not found a solution to this yet.