Sleep Time

Let me start at the beginning. Reid has always been a good sleeper and he has always been swaddled since he was born. He was such a good sleeper that he would not stay awake or alert enough to breastfeed. I would try everything including ice on his feet and his back to try and get him to wake up. Nothing ever worked so after two weeks I stopped pumping and we went with all formula. We have always had to wake Reid up in the middle of the night to feed him. So when we were at his 2 week doctor's appointment I asked the doctor when I could stop waking him up to feed. She said 4 weeks. So since Reid has been 4 weeks old he has slept through the night. When I say he has slept through the night; that doesn't mean we didn't still get up to give him his paci when he would whine, but as far as any crying spells or wouldn't go back to sleep; or having to pick him up we haven't ever had to do that since he was 4 weeks old. Believe me I know how fortunate we are.

Fast forward to 7 months old; Reid is still swaddled at night, but he is so big and strong now that he is pulling his arms out of the swaddle all through the night and it wakes him up each time; so again we are going in and re-swaddling him and giving him his paci each time, because his arms are not free, he is unable to get his own paci.

This had been going on for awhile and I knew we needed to break him of this swaddle so I did some research and some said to try the sleep sack and sew the arms holes up so his arms are more free, but they are still confined enough that it doesn't wake him up. In our opinion this was wonderful because now we would only get up maybe once a night and most nights none because he was in the sleep sack and he didn't need to be re-swaddled, but he would just need his paci.

When he hit around 9 months he had this thing where he would go to bed like normal around 5 or 5:30, but after sleeping an hour he would wake up and we would have to pick him up and cradle and rock him for about an hour to get him to go back to sleep so we could lay him back down. This went on for about 4 weeks and we said we have to stop this.

So we decided no more sleep sack and no more going in and picking him up or giving him his paci; he was old enough now that he needed to go to bed and sleep all night and if he needed his paci then he could get it his self, because now his arms were free for the first time since he had been born. We continued the 5:30 bedtime and each night for THREE WEEKS we would put him to bed and he would cry for over an hour until he would finally fall asleep and then he would sleep all night.

Reid has never been a crier so the thought of him in his bed crying for over an hour was killing me. It was the hardest thing I had to do since he was born. It was heart breaking.. if it had not been for Justin I would have broken down and went and picked him up. I kept saying over and over; I could just let him sleep with us and none of this would be happening. It was so hard and so bad that after the 4th day; I start leaving at bedtime. I couldn't stay home and listen to it. I would drive around or go and just sit in the Walgreen's parking lot and call and talk to friends and wait for Justin to text me to say he is asleep you can come home. Some nights I had things to do like church, Mom's meetings and bunco, but on the nights that I didn't I would go and visit friends or drive around. On some nights I would just go in my room and close the door and work on my bible study lessons so I wouldn't hear the crying and Justin would come get me when it had stopped. It was killing me.

Also naps were a problem because prior to this he would nap fine because he had his sleep sack and he would go down with no problem or I would let him lay with me during nap time and we were just fine.

For the first few weeks when we were doing this new routine; I still let him sleep with me at nap time because I knew if I was here alone and he cried in his bed; I would not be strong enough not to go and get him. So at nap time I just let him sleep with me and all was good with the world ha.

Until Justin said you have to stop doing that; he has to learn to nap in his bed. So for three days in a row we put him down at nap time in his bed and he cried for an hour and that was my limit at nap time. So we went and got him so he did not nap any of those days. Well, of course that made for a miserable day when your baby doesn't nap.

Here we are on week 4 and for the past 4 days in a row Reid has gone to bed at 6:30 and he has not cried a minute. We lay him down and he whines and then he puts his head down and goes to sleep. Same thing with nap. I pray to God that Reid has finally figured this out that we are not going to come and get him.

I just kept telling myself he has to learn and I think breaking him from the swaddle and sleep sack was one of the hardest part's for him. I know in hindsight that if there is ever a second baby we will not swaddle as long as we did Reid. We just kept thinking well it is working; he is such a good sleeper and napper we didn't want to break him, but when he got to be 10 1/2 months we new the time had come.

Since Reid was no longer swaddled or in the sleep sack we had to go and buy him some pajamas. He had been sleeping with just his diaper on, but now he needed some pjs. The way he rolled around and cried in his bed we knew there was no way a blanket would work. So here is a picture of our sweet boy in his pj's before bed.



A few more picture of my baby. He is getting around these days by crawling backwards. He moves one knee back and then lays down on his stomach and then gets up on all 4's again and does it over and over until he has moved across the floor. Maybe one day soon he will learn to go forward. He sure is a cutie though.