Swaddling and other questions

I'm just being nosey but for those who wrap/swaddle their babies, how long did you have to do it for before they liked sleeping without it??

Also I've noticed an annoying trend with my lil man. He is nice for me during the day. If he doesn't wanna sleep it only takes me about 10 mins to get him off to sleep which is pretty good. He sleeps for nice amounts of time and feeds well etc. Then 5:40pm comes (when DH arrives home) and he turns into a horror.. if he's asleep he wakes up and screams a ton more and is really hard to put down to sleep. And he's also like this on the weekends when DH is home. Can this be some screwed up thing cause DH is home? Cause on the weekend days when DH has had to go out he is perfect for me, and then of course as soon as DH is home he becomes unsettled again..

Josh isn't wrapped anymore but he is in a sleep sack (I think I stopped wrapping at 3 months). I think they can tell when someone else is in the house, as Josh does the same and weekends are horrible. He won't sleep very well if DH and Andrew are at home (spec if Andrew is making a hell of a noise), so the weekends can sometimes be hell.

We are still wrapping Sam most nights, but have started wrapping her with one arm out at night since she likes to cover her eyes with her arm. (Plus she somehow manages to get at least one out anyway). It is a bedtime cue for us as well and we generally have no problems. Except for last night when she was a little horror!
I would definitley recommend wrapping at least until the startle reflex is gone, it has been a godsend for us and I wonder if that is what got my little darling sleeping through the night so early on.

In regards to the nights/weekends. It could be murphys law. Like when I went out with Sam the other day and someone had to mention how well behaved she always is. She then proceeded to throw the biggest mental!
Anyway, I find when my DH comes home if he has had a bad day then the tension seems to rub off on Sam and she will be really unsettled. If we are both calm she generally is too.

Hi Stacey, I stopped wrapping Kryssi about a month ago for days but she still wanted wrapping at nights. But that's being cut about now (usually cause I forget lol). She's always been wrapped with one arm out - to suck her fingers - and nowadays she likes to hold the top of the sheet with both hands (and suck her fingers as well lol).

5pm onwards can be an unsettled time for babies anyway so it might just be coincidence. He'll want to top-up feed for most of 5-10pm or thereabouts, especially when he is growth spurting. Kryssi only grew out of that at about 5mos when we got the solids in a good routine. Because Daniel has reflux he'll be even more unsettled because he wants to fill his tummy but that sets of the reflux (that's what we had with Briona).

There are other things to look for. When DH is home on the weekends, do you tend to alter Daniel's schedule? Sometimes when we go out I forget what times Krystiana usually has a sleep and then she gets overtired. Do you cuddle Daniel less (perhaps your DH cuddles him more)? He'll be particularly mummy-favourite at nights. And then of course is the tiredness and stress of wanting to do something without a crying baby.

The evening thing is probably just arsenic hour, I don't know what it is but all babies/toddlers/kids seem to turn feral in the early evening. In our house it's like a warzone from about 4pm till I get the gremlins into bed at 6pm and Maya down at 7pm it's all go, go, go.
Maya was swaddled till about 7-8 months, I stopped swaddling Sienna at about 4 months and Mercedes a few weeks later. I started weaning them off it by wrapping them with one arm out (mainly coz Sienna sucks her wrist) then wrapping them with both arms out, and now they go in sleep sacks. I also introduced a comfort item around the time I weaned them off wrapping. Maya still has her Fussy Bubba, Mercedes has attached herself to a Peter Rabbit cuddly but Sienna hasn't really attached to anything even tho I've offered her a taggie blanket, care bear and Jemima Puddleduck cuddly, she just seems to want to suck her wrist.
The sleep store (www.thesleepstore.co.nz) have some good advice on wrapping and weaning off wrapping. Louise (our OHbaby! sleep expert) recommends wrapping till at least 3 months.

I agree with the rest of the ladies who said that 5pm onwards is the witching time -- unfortunately it's like this for a lot of littlies, as their bodies are winding down for bedtime and they're going to be fretful, clingy, demanding, grouchy and generally drive you insane. My kid's done this from the beginning too. Now when she grumps at me I just grump right back! At least it keeps me from going insane...

I swaddled Emma Rose from the beginning and it took me a wee while to get the hang of wrapping her so she wouldn't work her arms out of the blanket and wake herself up. As she grew, my swaddling technique changed. She graduallt grew out of it when she learned to roll herself over and started preferring to sleep on her side or tummy. The last I tried to swaddle her was probably at around 6 months, but she was totally done with it by about 8 months. By this time she'd started to suck her thumb and preferred her arms to be out. I think it's good to keep swaddling for as long as they're showing the startle reflex, and then see how you go.