So in an attempt to get a routine established before I go back,I wanted to start as soon as we got back from Alabama. First, we put her in her baby bed. WIN! She took to that like she had been doing it her whole life. Second, I thought I would stop swaddling her....I figured it would be easy as well, she was sleeping close to 6 hours through the night......FAIL. Boy was I wrong, after two utterly sleepless nights I gave up. Yep it only took two nights of having to get up every 30 minutes and put a pacifier back in her mouth, or getting up to soothe, or getting up to feed......I caved BIG time. She won. She always wins....I need sleep if I'm going to function during the day and with Theron going to work and going out of town this week, I won't have him here to help at night. God love Auntie JuJu because without her I'm not sure what we would do! She folds my clothes and cleans....I may never let her leave!
Anyway, who knew swaddling would be such a big deal, my poor child flails, kicks, and punches herself in the face at night. Swaddling is not just a sleep crutch it's a safety precaution. I can see it now......she has a black eye, someone calls child protective services, and I try to explain how she really did hit herself.....oh and wait for it, while she was asleep. I'm sure they would believe me right? The more I research the more I realized I may be jumping the gun here. She can't roll over yet and I have her sleeping in a wedge at night so she can't roll over even if she wanted to so, I think we may cross the swaddle bridge when we get there. Maybe if I HAVE to stop swaddling her I won't cave so easily. She really spoiled me by going in her crib so easily! I may try one more thing tonight and if it does not work, swaddle it is. So let me tell you about last night......
I read all day yesterday about ways to wean your baby from swaddling and let me tell you there are a lot of tricks and techniques out there so I thought I would try a sleep sack and keep her arms inside and so our story begins........
I started our new nighttime routine:
Bath at 8:30 PM
Feed at 9:00 PM
Bedtime at 9:30 PM........for her not so much for me.
I fed her and pulled both arms inside the sleep sack and the neck on this particular sack is bigger.....she almost had both arms through the neck hole before I got her in the bed. 9:45 PM FAIL......So then I thought I could put her arms back in the sleeves and saftey pin them to her sides 10:00 PM FAIL.......that didn't work either after about 3 minutes she had worked one arm out of one side and had the other stretched so far she had her hand in her mouth. 10:05 PM FAIL. Then I tried pinning the sleeves to the wedge but thought that might be a fire hazard or just wrong so......10:15 PM FAIL. Then I just let her be arms out and up over her head, it took her 45 minutes to go to sleep, she slept about 45 minutes, spit her pacifier, and was pissed off........11:30 PM FAIL......I was on the verge of breaking out the duct tape, I mean it can be used to fix everything right? So I could just duct tape her arms down...then I thought shit child protective services would not approve so might as well just swaddle her. :)
So I got her out of the bed, changed her into a onesie, swaddled her little butt up, and got 5 blissful hours of sleep, fed at 4:30 AM, and then got three more hours. I even got up and worked out this morning and took Sadie Marie with me. That is a win every day of the week.
She associates the swaddle with nighttime sleep and we have to break that cycle. It's so funny, she naps during the day with no swaddle and will sleep for 2 hours at a time, but with no swaddle at night she does the same 2-3 hours and she's up wanting to eat. I don't want to rever to that so.......I do have one more technique I'm going to try tonight.....a sleep sack with a smaller neck hole and no arms......I'm not very confident that it will work but I'm willing to give it a try. When she is swaddled I feed and lay her down, she goes to sleep.....if we can get anywhere near this I will give it more than one night.
So everything I read gave me lots of ideas, but what I got the most is that every baby is different and while I want her to lose the swaddle she's not ready.The most important thing I read is that she needs to feel safe and I want her to trust that I will always give her that. She feels safe and warm and who am I to deprive her of that because it's what works best for me? She's only two months old and if swaddling is the only crutch we are facing right now I'm OK with that. I promise to keep the duct tape for tasks such as covering my busted car window with plastic.......
WTF.....I forgot people do this shit in Alabama. I don't see if in VA only because you have to have all your windows to pass state inspection and drive your car. If they every implement inspections in AL there are gonna be a lot of folks who will be calling Eastside Cab.....
At daycare they said they would put her in a bebe pod some of the time so I thought we would go ahead and get that party started. She was watching TV....we tried to play with her, but the TV won. Bailey wanted to play with her too, but opted for a nap after she realized I was not going to let her lick the baby just yet.
Some days tummy time is NOT fun time, other days she likes it. As you can see on Friday she either like it or was too tired to care. She's alseep on the tummy beside me right now and seems to be really enjoying it! She is farting so I know she's sleeping good!
So everyone say a little prayer that I go back to work without having a panic attack or slight breakdown when I have to leave her. I promise to keep the duct tape in the garage and not on the changing table and I promise to keep y'all updated on our adventures!
Y'all be good!
Love y'all
April
No comments:
Post a Comment