No More Swaddle

Last weekend we finally kicked the swaddle for good. And actually, Elijah sleeps much better now without it.  With a few caveats.  

As of last Friday, it had been weeks since Elijah slept through the night.  He was waking up twice a night consistently, which wasn't awful, but wasn't great either.  Many nights when it was time to put him to bed, he would cry and thrash around like he was trying to get out of the swaddle.  But he still woke up so much without it, that we thought we had to keep using it if we wanted to get any sleep at all.  Last week day care decided that he was rolling over well enough that they couldn't use the swaddle anymore.  So we figured if they can do it, we can do it.  Over the weekend we put him down for naps without the swaddle blanket and he did great.  So Saturday night, we went for it. He slept through the night Saturday and Sunday night so that sold it for me.  We are done with the swaddle blanket.  And putting him to sleep has been so much better.  We zip him into his fleece wearable blanket (that my Mom sewed for him- I love it!).  He quietly drifts off to sleep instead of crying and arching his back and we don't have to do all the bouncing and everything to get him to quiet down.  Since he was about 8 weeks old, bedtime has been Daniel's thing.  I just hated it.  I couldn't stand the crying, and I didn't have the patience to wait for him to fall asleep.  But now, I love it.  Elijah lays sideways in my arms and reaches his arm up to stroke my hair and feel my face.  He often strokes my lips and chin.  I just love feeling his pudgy little hand with his super soft skin.  Or sometimes I put him up on my shoulder, and he wraps his little arms around my neck and lays his chin on my shoulder.  It is so sweet that sometimes I don't even want to put him down!  

Those first few nights, he woke up a few times between his bedtime and our bedtime, so he ended up in the swing.  On Tuesday night, the swing ran out of batteries and we learned the hard way that he needs the swing right now to stay asleep.  He woke up every couple of hours and sometimes every 45 minutes.  As soon as we picked him up and rocked him, he went right back to sleep.  But we were up literally all night rocking him back to sleep.  It was brutal.  So for now, he is sleeping unswaddled in his swing.  I know we'll get to the crib eventually.  One thing at a time.

Now that we've got the swaddling thing figured out, life is just a joy.  Elijah makes me endlessly happy.  He smiles all the time, and we can even get some really good belly laughs out of him at times.  He still LOVES to eat!  He has gotten really good at eating rice cereal, so I think we will start veggies and fruits soon.  He can sit up unassisted pretty well now, though he often falls backwards when he gets excited.  Bathtime is one of his favorite times of day.  He loves to play with bathtime toys and splash around.  He has recently become very interested in the shiny faucet and soap dispenser on the kitchen sink.  It's hard to keep him sitting in the tub because he's always reaching for them.  I just love how curious he is about everything.  And just in the last week he has begun to babble a bit.  Instead of just aaaahhh and ooohhhh he has started saying things like "ababa."  We were playing with the puppets a few nights ago and he was talking back and forth to Lamb Chop.  Those puppets are one of the most reliable ways to get him to laugh really hard.  I just love it!  Every single moment with Elijah is precious.  I must be one of the happiest people on the planet right now.  Being a mom is awesome :-)