When he first came home from the hospital, Simon was a boy who really liked to be swaddled. And he liked to be swaddled completely, including his arms. He was wrapped up like a burrito in his swaddle blanket, and he slept wonderfully. By late September, he was at the point where he was only waking once between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
August 2009
Then a few weeks ago, he started waking up more often in the night. I attributed this to a 3-month growth spurt, as he was hungry each time he got up. But within the last week, he's started waking up even more often, when it was clear that he wasn't even hungry. And each time he woke up, he'd have wrestled his arms out of the swaddle blanket. He was wriggling his way out, and then it seems he didn't know what to do with his suddenly free arms, so he'd just flail them until he woke himself up. It all came to a head on Wednesday night, when he woke up FIVE TIMES during the night.
So last night, we left his arms outside the swaddle blanket, determined to just let him get used to his arms being free. He was exhausted when we put him to bed at 7:00, but he still fussed on and off for the first hour - he'd cry for a few seconds, then fall back to sleep for a few minutes, then cry for a few seconds, then fall back to sleep again. But then he slept until almost midnight! And after I nursed him and put him down again, he slept until almost 5!
Tonight we put him to bed again with his arms outside the blanket. This photo was taken just a moment ago:
October 23, 2009
He's completely on his side. I tried rolling him on to his back, which is how babies are supposed to sleep nowadays, but he squirmed and rolled right back on to his side. Well, if it helps him sleep, I won't be complaining!
The picture of him on his side is just too cute!
ReplyDeleteSounds totally normal. Finn liked to swaddled til at least 6 months, as I recall. (He'd wake himself with wild involuntary flailing otherwise.) He outgrew all our swaddling blankets. I can tell that Graham will be done with that much earlier. As for laying on his side, I bet now you'll enter a time of even better sleeping, because really, who likes to sleep on their back anyway?
ReplyDeleteSounds to me as though he's deciding to "live free" all on his own. Love, GG
ReplyDeleteWhen Lucy was almost the exact same age, we went through the same thing... constant waking at night with her hands popped out of the blanket. We found instant relief by wrapping her with her arms out. Here's to more sleep!
ReplyDelete