I know I know... my entire last post was also around baby sleep. But I have an almost 5 month old, sleep is my current obsession!
So the dreaded sleep regression has passed. Sam and I have also re-worked his 'schedule' since his old one (a nap in between every feeding) was seeming like it wasn't working as well. He now takes a 2 hour nap twice a day. He's been napping (tightly swaddled) in his swing. And sleeping (tightly swaddled) in his crib. This was all working great (and maybe 4 days out of 7 is still working great). I was putting him down in his swing drowsy, leaving him for a few minutes, then going in and rocking him the rest of the way to sleep. I was afraid this was messing up any chance of him falling asleep on his own, but on the contrary, it taught him HOW to go to sleep on his own. So he would be given a kiss, and placed all swaddled up into his swing. Within a few minutes he would be asleep and I would go get him 2 hours later. At night he wasn't quite nursing all the way to sleep anymore, he would wake up as I re swaddled him, but would go quietly into his crib and fall asleep on his own. Awesome right? Why change?
He's getting too big for his velcro swaddle blanket. Not too big as in he doesn't fit (I just bought a bigger size). But too big as in too old. He can roll from back to belly now, and although he doesn't even TRY to roll when he's swaddled, I'm still nervous that he'll manage to flip over and not have his hands to help get his face out of the mattress. He's also a lot stronger, so when he moves through sleep cycles and wiggles, he manages to wriggle those little arms up and out of the blanket, and in the process, wakes himself up. He ends up very grumpy that he is now awake and his arms are waving around. So a lot of nights I'm up and down a couple times to re wrap him. Very frustrating. So I know it's time to sleep 'like a big boy' with those arms out and free.
I tried 2 nights of leaving one arm out. Why I chose to do this during the week, and not the weekend when I can have James' help at night, is beyond me. The first night wasn't horrible. He woke up twice just needing me to pop in his binky and hold his arm down for a moment. He then woke up to eat, and went back down til morning. Not horrible. Not ideal, but not horrible. The next night? Absolute disaster. He woke up and it after an hour, or was it 2? It's blurry... we'll just say, after a LONG time of shushing him from outside his crib, rocking him to sleep only to have him wake up and cry the second I laid him down, walking around and around and around the nursery, he finally fell asleep after nursing for a few minutes (clearly wasn't hungry, but used nursing to settle enough to sleep) slept for maybe 2 or 3 hours, and woke again. This time I just gave up and reswaddled him after he ate.
Was this the worst night we could have possibly had? No. Really, he has spoiled us so much his first 4.5 months of life, that getting up any more than 1 time feels like a 'bad' night. Should I complain? No. No I really shouldn't. But after this night I did do a little re-evaluation of my plan for swaddle free sleeping. In doing research, I found that most people recommend starting with naps to wean off the swaddle. Hmmm and here I was still wrapping him up tight and depositing him in his swing. A bit of nighttime sleep sabotage I think. So I came up with a new plan. First, get him to nap in his crib. Second, get him to nap without being swaddled. LAST, get him to sleep at night without the swaddle. With this excellent plan in place, and feeling excited that a better sleep plan was in our future, I promptly forgot all about it, found a tighter way to swaddle, and enjoyed the weekend. My logic? I needed a few days to regroup and get myself good and rested before starting this journey. It worked, Sam slept pretty good in the new, tighter swaddle. When he did have a couple issues, I had James to help. So I was able to get in some good rest.
Now here we are. Monday morning! Sam slept great last night. In bed at 8:30, woke at 4:15to nurse, put him in his crib slightly awake around 4:45, didn't hear from him again til 7:30. So we are both rested and ready to start this!
Nap #1: 0930. Swaddled tightly, laid in crib awake with intentions of going in and rocking the rest of the way to sleep, as was done to help him fall asleep in his swing. Not needed! Feel asleep on his own! Currently 1036 and still sleeping! *knock on wood*
My goal is 4 days in a row of good naps in his crib. Then 4 days in a row of good naps without a swaddle for naps. Then we're on to nighttime.
Oh! I hear him... gotta go help him stay asleep!
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