I am happy to report that the sleep in our house has greatly improved (cue fanfare, followed by much knocking on wood, throwing of salt and finger crossing). For any of you who are wondering how we did it (and also as a note to myself if I'm ever looking back wondering how we survived), here's what happened.
First thing we did was introduce a new type of swaddle, Sleepy Wings. We knew that the swaddles we were using weren't working (and were becoming unsafe) because she kept busting out of them. We tried several different muslin swaddle methods that we found on YouTube (including a couple "unbreakable swaddles") and she broke out of all of them. We thought about trying the Magic Merlin Sleepsuit or the Miracle Blanket, as they came highly recommended, but both are quite heavy and we were going through a heat wave here - without air conditioning Ceci's room was around 80-85 degrees (Fahrenheit) at the beginning of most nights. The Sleepy Wings only went on her arms so she stayed cooler. What also worked well with the sleepy wings is it allowed her a bit of movement so she didn't fight it but restricted her enough that she couldn't hit herself or the crib bars with much force, plus her hands were covered so she didn't pull her own paci out. Also, she looked adorable in them! (You can wear them up or down - up they looked even more like wings, hence the name. Ceci preferred down, I think because that's what she was used to in the swaddle and she could move enough to get her hands near her face so she was happy).
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| Ceci in her Sleepy Wings |
The wings came the day after my last blog and did make a difference. Not a huge one, but we started getting a 4-5hr stretch most nights (which we hadn't had in nearly two weeks!) which felt pretty epic at the time.
Sadly, the sleepy wings were short lived because after a week she figured out how to roll over in them. The upside, though, is that they were a great transition for her. The first night without them (and nothing to to replace them) we steeled ourselves for a rough night of her waking herself up, but alas, she did great!
The second thing we did was let her sleep alone in her own room. We had started her in her big crib when she turned 4 months and that seemed to help a little, because as it turns out, she loves to move in her sleep. She's also definitely more of a side and belly sleeper. And once she was out of the swaddle (and comfortable that way) - and really mastered rolling - there was no stopping her. These photos (via our video monitor) are all from one night, over a period of a few hours, while she was either asleep or putting herself back to sleep, without any intervention on our part:
The next step was to have her sleep alone in her room. Though she was in her own room, one of us was sleeping on the extra bed in there because she was waking up so much. (And to be honest, also because the recommendations from all the powers-that-be say babies should sleep in the same room as a parent for the first 6 months and it made me SO nervous to go against the rules!). But Jay and I were so tired we decided to try leaving her alone in her room (we were willing to try anything at this point). We have a video monitor and I checked on her constantly that first night, and had the volume turned way up, but she was fine. And it turns out, we all slept better that way. When we were right next to her and could hear every move she made, we would jump up to help her. Even when we didn't, she knew we were there and expected our help immediately. Now that we were in a different room we were shocked to watch her wake up, turn herself over and go back to sleep on her own. Or move around and find a new position without waking up. We still sometimes have to go pop her paci back in, but usually no more than twice a night - not 5+ times like before!
An added bonus to this was that after we put her to bed, Jay and I were able to come downstairs, have dinner together, and relax (often with a little wine and TV). We hadn't done that since Ceci was born because one of us was always in the room with her and/or so exhausted we went to bed when she did. Having just an hour or two or baby-free time together each evening has made a much bigger difference in our moods than I anticipated.
We've also given in and started rocking her to sleep before putting her in her bed. The laying next to me and falling asleep on her own was unfortunately taking longer and longer and involving more and more crying, so we gave it up. And putting her in her crib anything but totally asleep has been a fail for us - unless it's pitch black in her room (which doesn't happen here until after 9pm, even with blackout curtains) she gets too distracted by what's around her! She falls asleep much faster when we hold her and the upside to that is we've been able to get an earlier bedtime for her which I think helped her sleep better. In fact, we even started putting her in the sling to fall asleep at bedtime because she almost always falls asleep within a couple minutes of going in there. It's like magic (or....um...an addiction).
With her new earlier bedtime, she now regularly sleeps from 7:30-7:30, plus or minus 30 minutes on each side, with anywhere from 0-3 wakings. That's right, friends, I said 0. As in, my little night-monster has slept through the night. Twice. This past Monday she slept over 11 hours straight. And then last night she slept over 9.5 hrs (we had a tough bedtime followed by a wake-up after 45 minutes - we think her tummy was a bit unsettled). We know it won't be every night, and in between those two glorious evenings we've had some not so great ones, but just knowing that it's a possibility (when I thought it was never, EVER, going to happen) makes the bad nights a lot more bearable. (Not to mention that the bad nights are fewer and farther between).
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| All Night?! Wow! |
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| Laying in our bed after a rough night, wishing she'd fall back asleep. |
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| Don't worry, Mom, I'll keep you on your toes! |
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