new location, same great time
Posted: November 12, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 Comments »The Beck is officially sleeping in his crib, ladies and gentlemen.
Please note that this does not suggest anything like, "sleeping through the night" or even "sleeping more than 2 hours at a time ever."
But he is in his own room and seems to sleep maybe a tiny bit better without us snoring and tossing and yelling at dogs near him and his poor little feet outgrowing the box and hanging over the end.
It does seem that the swaddle may now be more important. When he was in his little box between our pillows, we had determined that swaddling no longer seemed to make him sleep longer. In his crib, however, our boy is apparently mobile. We put him down on his back in the middle and within an hour he is screaming because he has "backbended" himself into the bars. At one horrifying point last night, I went in to find him bent backwards, his body fitted along the shape of the corner of the crib (he really does these backbend things) with his face all smushed up against the side. How did he get there? How does he move so much? Is he even safe in the damn crib? I swaddled him and it didn’t happen again. But what to do? He eventually breaks all swaddles (please don’t tell me about the Miracle blanket again – I said ALL and I meant it) and will again maneuver himself into odd corners. Help?
Which speaks to the biggest problem with the whole thing. He may be sleeping beautifully (other than the Headbangers Ball/Backbend Party) but I am sleeping fitfully and sadly. I miss my baby and I can’t stop being terrified that he is going to stop breathing at any moment. I know, though, that this will be good once I am adjusted. I would love to cuddle my husband again and have more than a pillow’s width of space for my shoulders. Baby in box, two adults and two dogs is just a wee bit cramped.
Yes, I missed NaBloPoMoing yesterday. Bite me. This post will be for Sunday. So there.
Oh, it was such a hard adjustment FOR ME when we moved Natalie to her crib. And I think it’s still hard on Cait, for different reasons (namely that I sleep through anything short of nuclear was so she is the one who gets up all the time…). But Natalie had the easiest adjustment of the three of us! It’s funny you wrote about it today — just this weekend realized that I am fully adjusted months and months later.
As to the swaddle, someone on our cloth diapering listserv just suggested Snappi’ing a blanket as an unbustable swaddle (and asserted that her child was never scratched by the Snappi either). I’ve never tried it but it sounds plausible. If you don’t have any Snappis I’m sure we can send you one.
Malka busted the swaddle, too.
Turning over was her greatest accomplishment, and nothing – NOTHING is cuter than going in to check on your peacefully snoring cherub, and seeing a tush-tush practically 3 feet in the air, due to the bliss of tummy sleeping.
BLISS, I tell ya!
(and um, yeah, I STILL check on her to make sure she’s breathing….)
Swaddle-busting, huh? You could try masking tape? Ok, maybe not so funny now I’ve typed it. Been a long day!
It’s alarming to see your baby all contorted in the crib, especially when their limbs start getting stuck in the bars! Yes, it’s safe though, as long as your crib model is safe, which I’m assuming it is. And sheets well-fitted. We eventually got the breathable mesh bumpers, which I still use and really love. We didn’t have bumpers starting out because of safety concerns, but these are totally breathable and keep their limbs inside the crib, and shield them a bit from the hard wood bars. I don’t know if anyone makes an organic or non-synthetic kind, but you could look if it interests you.
You failed to mention the 45 minute stretch last night where he just wouldn’t go back to sleep unless I was swaying him. I kept wispering your name into the baby monitor, hoping you would come take over. Eventually I took him into our bedroom and told you he wouldn’t stay asleep. Instead of receiving help and/or comfort, I got your rather Nazi-like command of “keep outting him back in the crib until he sleeps, that’s why it’s called sleep training.” I sort of have a feeling you might not remember this…
That last line shouldhave said “keep putting him back in the crib”. I would have been really confused if you told me to “out him in the crib” as if I needed to tell Snail he was gay.
WooooHoooo!
Hey, progress IS progress. Alex is also in his own crib and has been for over a week now (well, the bouncy seat is in there and he sleeps in that. Strapped in, of course).
This is a great step!
(wish he were sleeping better for you, though.)
have you tried a double swaddle? when J was around Beck’s age, he, too, would break out of any and all swaddles. We started swaddling him once with a lightweight blanket and then double swaddling him in another lightweight blanket in a different direction. Luckily, it was mid-winter in a drafty upstate NY house, so he didn’t roast, and it did keep him swaddled (and sleeping longer) for a few more months.
delurking to add a bit of assvice: the whole “not breathing” comment struck a chord with me… (para 3 grava 1). a dear friend gave me an “angel care” monitor at my shower. it has a motion sensor as well as a sound monitor. if it doesn’t detect movement within ~20 seconds, an alarm will go off. it’s sensitive enough to actually register breathing as movement. most people think it’s over the top, but i love it!
We freaked out about our twins breathing at night when in their cribs in the other room. We got the angel monitor. It’s got the motion/breathing detector that goes under the matress and alarms if no movement for 10 seconds or so. We slept much easier with that system. A bit pricey, but worth it for sure