Sunday, August 22, 2010

Zzzzzzz

From the moment he was born, Dylan has loved being swaddled. We would wrap him up in his lil papoose and he would be instantly comforted.
One evening he was sleeping in his bassinet at the end of our bed like usual. He was swaddled tight just as every night before. Well this particular evening I was up what felt like ALL night long listening to him rustle around and whine. I would get out of bed and look at him and he would have wriggled both arms out.
I would quietly and softly put his little arms back under the blanket and crawl back into bed only to be woken shortly after. Again I would look and he would be laying there completely unswaddled flailing his arms and legs around. We keep the ceiling fan on high and would dress him only in a diaper because he was bundled so warmly (also the Doctor said air flowing helps prevent SIDS). So the poor kiddo would be laying there nakie and freezing so I would bundle him tight and he would immediately fall back asleep...only to wake me up thirty minutes later to do it all over again. We repeated this process all night long until morning when I pulled him in bed with us and we cuddled and slept for a few more blessed hours. I researched later that day what the heck all that flailing was about. On every forum I could find about swaddling it would explain that your baby would "tell" you when they were done being bound so tight. This was it - he was ready to stretch out and grow at night :) We dressed him warmly and swaddle free from there on out and on Monday August 9th he slept in his crib for the very first time!
All warm and cozy - ready for bed time
Sleep tight precious boy
Cuuuute little stars on his tootsies :) Thanks April,Chris&BB
The first few weeks that he was sleeping in our room, Ryan and I would switch off feedings. He would wake up every two or three hours to be fed and either I would nurse him or Ryan would feed him a bottle. We got into a rhythm, but we were feeling the effects of sleep deprivation for sure! Then all the sudden one night he slept for almost six hours straight. That night I slept like a rock...Ryan on the other hand woke up alarmed and had to go peek and make sure everything was okay! Since then Dylan has developed his own schedule.

We play and giggle in the tub at 9:30 

and then we bundle him in some cute jammies

and I feed him until he gets sleepy. We put him in his crib around 10:30 and we don't hear a peep from him until 4:00a.m.! It is so uncanny how his little internal alarm clock goes off at the exact same time every night! He gets fed and cuddled until he is sleepy again (usually until 4:30) and then he goes back to sleep. Around 7:00 when Ryan's alarm goes off for work he cries and Daddy brings him to me in bed and I feed him and we snooze on and off through the morning until he is ready to get up. It has been a fun transition and while I will cherish our night time cuddle times, we are all getting much more sleep these days :)

No comments: