Day 4 PU/PD and Paci weaningWell, yesterday I suspected habitual waking at the 2:30am time slot- of course I was wrong.
This time DS woke at
1:10AM. Wasn't fully awake, but had his swaddle all messed up so I reswaddled and held him again for 20 minutes.
4:07am hungar cry - fed DS a full 8oz, changed and reswaddled and left the room. He sniffled, moved about, sucked his fingers and was generally restless for a little over 30 minutes. So I went back in laid my hand on him and he drifted off.
8:30am NO PU/PD!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: From the moment I lay Matthew in the crib to the time that he fell asleep was
12 minutes. (I always lay on the floor and peek to see how he is doing). The downside was he only lasted for a 45 minute cycle.
I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to get DS back on schedule. So I din't attempt to try and put him back down - It kind of worked.
10:30am Matthew displayed all of the cues for sleeping but I was in a dilemma . .. we had a doctors appointment at 11:20 - I knew I couldn't get in a 45 minute cycle so I didn't put him down. I put him in his carseat and covered him up - he was fairly quiet but would kick his feet every now and then so I knew he wasn't asleep. I was nervous that he would be cranky and overtired for the doctor but he was amazing. Didn't cry when he was stripped naked and put on the scale, poked and prodded. He smiled and laughed the entire time. A much different case from the last time we were in.
He fell asleep on the drive home and so I left him in his carseat. I was praying that I would get more than 1 45 minute cycle in . . .didn't happen.
12:40pmIt took
38 minutes to put him back down BUT only 1 PU/PD. I did however have to go lay my hand on him about 3 or 4 times and tell him it was "time to go night-night".
4:15pm it took
18 minutes for Matthew to go to sleep. No PU/PD was necessary, just had to lay my hand on him once or twice and help get his fingers back in his mouth.
7:55pm THE BEST YET!!!!
We had an amazing wind down. Matthew and I lay on the floor, DH read us a story using a whisper voice, lots of finger sucking and trying to roll from back to front. . . .but it was very mellow. We lay there smiling at each other and lots of rubs and pats. I was getting nervous because DS wasn't showing any sleepy signs, so made a command decision to put him into his crib. We walked out of the room and that's been our night.
NO PU/PD and NO need to soothe - just walked out and left the room !!!
One thing I have learned out about my DS is if I lay him down on his tummy he will scoot around the crib - he has back slept since day 1. It has been a challenge since we have left one arm unswaddled. If he is on his back it will flail all about. I've tried swaddling it partially in, but he always manages to free his arm.
SOOOOO . . . here's what I do. . . .when I swaddle Matthew with one arm out, I brace the free arm bent towards his mouth and stick him right against his bumper pads (I have very thick and almost hard pads - not gushy ones) and place a rolled up towel along the other side of him. He can't roll away to free his arm. This provides the control for when his arm begins to flail. It has worked really well for us.
Kate - I think I said I believed Matthew wasn't going through a growth spurt, but I think he proved me wrong (again). At the doctor today he had grown a full inch in 5 days!!!! Every week I take him into a health clinic for
a weight and measurement check - at the office today I said that they must have made a mistake, but sure enough when they measured again he was up a whole inch!
Theresa - I'm expecting a relapse either tomorrow or the next day. Overall, I'm so pleased to see how far we've come. DH and I used to hold him down, try to hold the paci in, cover his eyes, and stop him from turning his head side to side. What a difference AND on top of things, NO PACI!!!!! :lol: :lol:
I hope everyone else is doing well. Please keep us posted.
