so yesterday i started working on sleep with aiden - i guess sleep training for lack of a better term - i've been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. aiden has been fighting the swaddle for a while now - and i have wanted to try to wean him off the swaddle for a while - i have tried the only wrapping one arm and leaving one arm out - but that didn't take very well. and then about a week ago (or so) aiden started waking up a lot more often at night - he used to only wake up once a night - feed and then go right back to sleep... well he was now waking up 3-5 times a night but still only hungry at one of those times - the other times he would fall back to sleep as soon as i picked him up. every time he was struggling trying to get his arms out of his swaddle and up to his mouth.
so after a lot of reading and research i decided that aiden was letting me know that he was ready to be unswaddled... this was going to be tough. he still hadn't shown me that he had full control over his arms and he still didn't know how to soothe himself. i just decided to bite the bullet and go for it cold turkey - so nap #1 - he cried - i went in to soothe him and then he napped for 30 min... nap #2 - he cried - i went in to soothe him and then he napped for 2 hours and nap #3- he fell asleep in the car and once we got home and got him into his crib he napped for about 30 min... and then at night he again fell asleep in the car and once we got home and got him in his crib - he cried and i went in to soothe him again and then he slept for about 2 hours - woke up and fought going back to sleep so we fed him 2 oz. (at midnight) to help soothe him and he went back to sleep for about 30 min. so i gave in and swaddled him... he slept until 5am - fed him 3 oz. and he went back to sleep almost immediately until 7am.
today he napped from about 8:45 - 10:15 in his swing... and he's back down again.... i put him down at 11:55 and he cried - i went in to soothe him - and he fell asleep and he's still sleeping.
i don't know if i'm doing this right... it's hard to hear him cry - but when i rock him, bounce him, walk him and he fights going to sleep -it's time to do something new... and when he fights the swaddle so much that he kicks out of it and struggles to get his hands out... it's time to stop swaddling.
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Sounds like you are doing just fine. You know your baby best and don't let anyone tell you differently.
ReplyDeleteWhat works for one person may not always work for another. You will learn what Aiden likes and dislikes and soon enough you'll have a nice routine. (And, as soon as you both get settled into this routine, it will change again.) :) Parenthood is wonderful!