Friday, August 29, 2008

Swaddle Frustrations Continued

So Alex is officially out of his swaddle, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Sometimes it seems fine, like yesterday when he took a 2.5 hour nap, and then there is today, where he slept for an hour the first nap and 45 minutes for his second. I don't know if it's because he wasn't in his swaddle or if it was something else. I think, though, that I'm going to make sure he's in a sleeper or a long-sleeved onesie when I put him down from now on, just in case that was part of the reason why.

Additionally, Alex doesn't go down easily for his naps and at night like he used. When he was in the swaddle, he would fall asleep either sucking on the bottle or being rocked in our arms. Then we would put him down. He would sometimes open his eyes as we put him in his crib, but he would go right back to sleep. Now, as I put him his crib, I can't hold both arms to his side and so at least one falls. This wakes him up and then when I put him down, he usually moves both arms and legs about, waking him further. I also wonder if the matress is cold while my arms are warm. Sometimes he falls back asleep within a minute or two. Sometimes he falls asleep 10 minutes later. Sometimes he just keeps crying until we get him.

The thing is, though, that Alex is probably big enough now to sleep in the larger swaddle blankets, so I have the option of forgetting weaning him, and putting him back in a swaddle, or to continue the frustrations that come with it. But at the same time, I'm not sure I want to forget all the work that went into weaning him, and if I put him back in the swaddle, there are a lot of sleepers I wouldn't be able to put on him because they wouldn't fit in the swaddle or would make him too hot. That's probably a dumb reason, but they're so cute! If I don't wean him now, when will I wean him? When he grows out of the next size of swaddle blanket? (Which according to the package will be in another few pounds.) Maybe it would be harder then because he would be older and more set in his ways so I should just leave him out of the swaddle now. I'm sure he'll get used to it eventually, right?

So I guess that is what I've decided, but it's frustrating during the transition, and I wonder if he'll ever get to where he doesn't fuss after I put him down in the crib.

If anyone reading this has dealt with this before, I'd love some insight. Did it get easier? Was it never a problem? I hear that most babies actually wean themselves from swaddling, which probably isn't as hard because it's the baby choosing rather than you forcing. I'd love some other perspectives on this, though.

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