Kicking The Swaddling Habit

Since the babies have come home from the NICU I have swaddled them for sleeping. They were use to it in the hospital so I wanted them to feel comfy and safe. I also credit the swaddles with the fact that they started sleeping through the night at such an early age (3 months). This was great for me to be able to get a good nights sleep after a long day of caring for two infants. Anyway, for months now I have sort of been thinking that they were getting too old to be swaddled and we should try to wean them of it. I did a lot of reading about the subject and everything said that if helps them sleep sounder and longer that there was no need to force them to quit and that they would eventually "grow out of it". Then the other day a mom on my twin mom forum said that one morning she walked into her girls room and one of the girls had rolled over in her sleep SWADDLED!!! How scary - she could have got stuck with her face down and not have been able to push herself over or move so that she could breath. Ok, that's it - no more swaddles. At nap time yesterday we tried a clever trick that another mom used - we did one arm out. Instead of cold turkey we'll do this one step at a time. This went well and the nap was good and long. So last night we took another big step and slept both arms out. I thought for sure I would be up in the middle of the night re-swaddling everybody just so we could all get some sleep. But NO. Camron did wake up once but I just went in there and gave him his paci and that was it. This morning we woke up to the sweet sounds of babies babbling and cooing to themselves softly. They weren't fussy and frustrated because their hands were free and they were able to chew on their hands and grab their pacis! So not only did it work, it made for happier babies. Who knew! Maybe tonight we'll try no swaddle at all?!?!?!