To swaddle or not to swaddle???!!

Im not an expert on this but I still swaddle our girl and she is 5 months old - if we dont she doesnt sleep.
I have a sleeping bag and I wrap over the top of it as she also kicks her blankets off.

I have just bought a merino wrap off TM but have yet to try it.

I have switched from a miracle blanket to a wrap me up and that has been successful so far.

I say just go with it - if he isnt ready to not be wrapped yet then wrap him - saves your sanity as well.
And if you want to use the sleeping wrap over the top, gives a resolution to both problems - just adjust clothing for the extra layers if need be.

I do exactly what PP does. Lily kicks her blankets off. Although if I have a quilt on top she doesn't!

I still swaddle DD who is nearly 6 months. She just wouldn't sleep otherwise! Wrapping means sleeptime and she knows that, even when we are out and about. If she manages to escape out of her wrap at night (we use a large dreamswaddle) she is guaranteed to wake up. I will probably try her without once she is on the move but even then as long as its working why fight it!

Still swaddling here, little Miss gets far too excited if her arms are free and starts flapping them around and chattering away!

We use a grobag and go go bag too and I just swaddle her arms over the top of the bag, works really well. I'd swaddle over the top of your sleeping bag for a while longer, anything to help them sleep better, plenty of time to wean them off it.

I wrap dd in a miracle blanket, just the arms, I leave her legs out and she gets put in a sleepbag swaddled over the top.

DS was one of those babies who would rub his face & pull his ears when tired (still is). Not just little rubs, but face/ear scratching drawing blood rubbing. He still has little grazes in his ears most of the time. (to spite keeping his nails short) He wouldn't sleep unswaddled because he was too busy scratching up his face.

We had him fully swaddled till 7+ months. By this time I had to make bigger wraps to contain him. From about 4 months we tried arms out / dropping the swaddle multiple times and it was just all bad.

Then somewhere around 8mths when he was getting out of my super sized wraps we went through moving him to a sleeping bag (he hated it), then blankets (he wouldn't stay under them), then to polar fleece all-in-ones (wearing the blanket). I think we started with swaddled at night, unswaddled during the day.

Now he's older and it's colder we've tried the bag again and now he's happy with it.

All babies are different and stop the swaddling when it works for you and your boy.

We swaddled Amelia until she was nearly 11 months old. She just slept better that way.

When we stopped I went with one arm out for a week and then with both arms out. I was also using a safety sleep so she felt secure.

Don't feel that you need to stop because your baby has got to xxx age. I know of people who swaddled their babies longer than we did.

I have heard (but never read) of research that says that it's better for a babies development to have their hands free to go up to their mouth. But as I haven't seen this, I don't really go along with it too much.

I personally believe that you should swaddle a baby as long as it helps them to sleep. Then begin to wean them by doing one arm out as you have done. So don't worry about what you should/shouldn't do - every baby is different. Do what works for your baby!!