Around here, getting a decent night's sleep does indeed seem like a dream. Our adorable little 8 week old has been on a sleep roller coaster, which I hear is not unusual. For the first six weeks of her life, Ella slept in short bursts (2 hours max) and never seemed to sleep the recommended 14-18 hours per day. Never. It just wasn't happening for her. She was way too fidgety, alert and active to sleep. There was clearly too much going on for Ella to waste any of her time sleeping.
Let me tell you, her mommies were tired. Around week 6, Ella took a turn for the better. I have to fess up that until this point, we weren't doing a very good job swaddling her because it seemed to bother her and she always got out of the swaddle anyway. No matter how many times people said "swaddle, swaddle, swaddle," we just couldn't get it through our heads. Anyway, while sorting through some hand-me-downs I came across a super soft swaddle blanket called a Swaddleme, now affectionately referred to as "the baby straightjacket" at our house. This miraculous item has super strong velcro that Ella usually can't bust out of and it has seriously changed our child's sleep situation. If a Swaddleme cost $100, we would pay it, that's how amazing it is. The first time I put Ella in the Swaddleme she slept for almost 4 hours. WHAT.
FOUR HOURS PEOPLE. We thought for sure she had suffocated, but alas, she was just enjoying her straight jacketed sleep.
Ella continued sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches at night and 1-3 hour stretches during the day with the help of the Swaddleme, even through our Christmas craziness. There's still no way she was sleeping 18 out of 24 hours in a day, but it was better. Then around week 7 something crazy happened. Ella slept through the night! Well, sort of. She slept from 9:30pm-4:00am. Then the next night she slept from 10:30pm-6:30am. We started to think someone had replaced our baby with one who loves to sleep.
The night after that, just for fun, she threw a giant hissy fit from 9:00pm-midnight and then slept from 12:30am-4:30am. Last night she basically refused to eat or sleep until 12:30pm, but then slept straight through to 6:30am without a peep. We're not quite ready to declare ourselves victorious, but nevertheless we're hoping Ella is on the right track.
You have to stop swaddling a baby when they can turn themselves over, a milestone that we're headed for. I'm a little nervous about how our sweet pea will sleep without the straightjacket.Any and all suggestions are welcome!
We loved the Swaddleme! Around 4ish months, K stopped like having his arms swaddled, so we tried the ZipadeeZip. I've heard the Zipadee helps a lot of babies transition out of the swaddle, but K wasn't a fan of it. We went straight from a swaddle to a sleep sack and he sleeps well....most nights.
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