Busy Hands Won't Let My Daughter Sleep

Welcome to Mamapedia and excellent first question!

Buy another woombie.

our 90% percentile in size baby boy slept in one until about 9 months old - which is coincidentally the largest size we could find.

Your daughter JUST got out of a room the size of a womb - literally. She finds comfort in the confines, and as you point out - she can't control her hands yet.

She'll let you know when it's time to switch - she will become a little houdini and you'll find her awake with both arms free making hand puppets or something.

I can't think of anything that would take the place of swaddling. That very much seems developmental and not something you can break her of until she is ready. ie has some motor control over her hands.
Seems like buying a second is just the easiest thing. Could you just swaddle with a large recieving blanket?

I really think you should just buy another Woombie. But I also think you should wean her from sleeping with the binkie. Let her fall asleep with it, and as soon as she relaxes her mouth and stops sucking, gently remove it from her mouth. Without her hands waking her up, she will eventually stop waking, and she will stop "needing" the binkie once she can be weaned from the Woombie.

First things first - get rid of the binkie during the night. And drop it from use by the time she is 6 months - the sucking instinct is gone by then and it becomes pure habit. (Oh, and a habit much harder to break!)

Good luck,
Dawn

Can you just get her a bigger Woombie? It goes up to 6 months. Or a Miracle Blanket?

But, this is all developmental. They don't have motor control yet.
At all. And they can't even put the binkie in or out of their mouth by themselves, much less find it when it falls out.
And they move around etc.
And/or they still have their "startle reflex."
But this is all normal.
Sooner or later, they do need to be out of a sleep swaddle.
Especially once they start rolling around.

The Micracle Blanket is what you need - if she needs the swaddle, she needs it, my son needed it for quite a while or he could not sleep due to fidgits too.

Keep swaddling her, don't fix it if it ain't broke kinda thing. :)

You don't need to "break" her of the swaddle - look for larger ones. Some babies need the swaddle - they can't help moving their arms. Target had some nice sleep sacks that go pretty large. See if they work for you. Good luck!