As I mentioned, the Dr seemed very concerned that we still rely on the swaddle for LJ to sleep. We tried the no-swaddle two nights ago and he went down no problem, but two hours later woke up and screamed bloody murder for about 15 minutes until I had a meltdown (partially because I cannot handle when he cries, and partially because he was crying so loud I could not hear 30 Rock). So, I went in there, picked him up, gave him his binky and swaddled him. I think I broke every rule in all of our sleeping books. But he slept the rest of the night.
Last night Joel and I had a pep-talk. As you may remember, Big Joel is the one who dealt with the CIO the first time we tried it, when he was 4 months old. LJ cried for 3 hours straight that first night. I could have NEVER handled that. So, last night Big Joel was trying to explain that by letting him cry I am doing him a favor. He needs to learn to sleep with his arms loose. We are not totally changing his world here, his feet are still in a sleep sack, and he usually gets his arms out of the swaddle anyway. He is a big boy, and both he and I should be able to handle this. The pep talk came during the Haiti tele-a-thon, and so was compounded by the fact that I am crying about a swaddle and my little boy's uncomfortable sleep while a five year old boy is talking about he was trapped in a building for 8 days, and that 5 year old is not crying. Ok, I thought. Perspective. We can totally do this.
And, we did! He woke up three times. 10, 3:30, and 5:30. At 10 and 5:30 he went back to sleep rather quickly. But at 3:30 there was crying for 20 minutes. I was good. I did nothing. I laid in bed like a stone so as not to move because I was worried he would hear or sense me and then cry longer. But he did a good job and went back to bed. Now he is in his sleep sack for his nap. I put the tv up and I am on the computer... I don't want to know but hope to see a refreshed and happy boy when I go in to get him in an hour.
Lots of excitement this week. Some New England Museum touring for LJ and I - the MFA on Monday and the Children's Museum in Stratham, NH on Tuesday! Yay!
Good for you! It's all about backing each other up. The only area tha Aaron and I strongly disagree on is babyproofing. I want to do the whole downstairs, he wants to limit it to the playroom. He's been winning so far because it will be a lot of work to babyproof the kitchen and family room.
ReplyDeleteYay! In a couple of weeks you'll never even remember that you swaddled him :-)
ReplyDeleteAhh, Babyproofing. I just moved all of our plants to the front of the house. (I am a control freak and a decorating nut, so I am trying to ease into this making room for the child thing.) We hope to gate in the back of the house where the kitchen and tv room is, and just focus there. But, I really do not want to be the person that clamps their toilet seat down... So, we will see. I said to someone once "those people who baby proof all their kitchen cabinets are crazy." And then, two seconds later she says: "My friend's 2 year old ruined his foot when he dropped a pot from the bottom cabinet on it..." So, yeah. Still not sure what we are going to do. I guess we are going to see what happens when he gets mobile and then fix on a last minute basis. The whole world is not babyproofed, so they have to learn somehow, right?
ReplyDeleteHe is officially unswaddled! Last night he did GREAT, and did not wake up until 7:30 am!
ReplyDeleteBy the way I found a great coffee table (more of a bench) that we used to replace our regular coffee table to avoid some of the bumps and bruises: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Franklin-Bi-cast-Leather-Bench/3845979/product.html
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