The Great Sleep Mystery

Don't let this fresh-looking face fool you....

....Up until two weeks ago, Baby C hated sleeping.  I talked about it a little bit here in regards to her swaddle.  But after that post it just seemed to get worse.  She wouldn't sleep swaddled, or unswaddled.  Most of our nights looked like this.....greasy, exhausted, zombie-like Mommy and a baby who had been up for two hours starting at 11:00 pm already.

The best option we got was swaddling her in the beginning of the night while we were still up.  She slept for a few hours like that most of the time.  Then we would go unswaddle her before we went to bed.  She would wake for a bit, sleep a bit, wake a bit, etc.  It was miserable.  She was napping during the day pretty good, but with a very energetic three year old running around, there was no opportunity for me to nap with her.  Something had to give.  I was prepared for sleepless nights when she was a newborn.  But after seven long months of this, I was done.

First off {and I know this is a very controversial topic, but this is just my person belief} we put her crib bumpers back in.  I had used crib bumpers with Little M until she was able to pull herself up to standing.  It's not that I wasn't educated on the subject, that is just the option we chose.  But when we had Baby C, I was way more nervous something would happen to her {more calm with the second baby?  I think not!}  so I took the bumpers out.  However, when she was unswaddled, so was constantly banging her head on the rails or getting her foot stuck between the slats.  Now, I would much rather have her break a leg or have a bump on her head, than God-forbid she suffocate.  But I think she needed the comfort of something surrounding her.  It was something for her too look at before she fell asleep {she has a mobile but doesn't seem to like it much}  We are very careful with the bumpers...moving her if she gets to close and making sure they are tight and secure everytime we put her in the crib.

As well as the addition to the bumpers, we also became more consistent with using her sleep giraffe. 

We had gotten him for Baby C at Christmas, but did not use him every night.  We played around with the settings and have found one she really likes.  That combined with her fan seem to provide enough white noise so she doesn't wake up when her crazy mommy is screaming because the Giants are in the Superbowl we have a few friends over. 

We also decided to just cut the swaddle out all together.  I think unswaddling her in the middle of the night was not helping things.  So one day I decided to just stop it.  No swaddle at nap, none at bedtime.  Baby C immediately rolled onto her belly and only sleeps that way now.

We were really committed to helping her sleep, and so for us we knew that it would also involve a little crying, on hers and my part.  No mother likes to her her kid cry, but when I know Baby C is full, dry, not sick or hurt, and just tired, it's okay for me to let her cry a little.  I wanted her to learn to self-soothe when she falls asleep...so if she wakes during the night she can get herself back to sleep.  I was prepared for a few weeks of hearing her cry for a decent amount of time.  But honestly?  I guess the other things are working so well that she only cried for five, maybe ten minutes at most.  And that's been it.  Pretty painless now!

So with all of these things working together, Baby C now takes two naps a day, at least an hour each, and sleeps for 12-13 hours a night.  No that's not residual sleep deprivation talking....she goes down at 7:00pm every night and sleeps until 7:00 or 8:00am....without waking up in the middle of the night.  It's amazing, truly.  I feel like a whole new person!  Now I know these methods won't work with every baby, but this is what has worked for us!