The straight Jacket

Last night I decided to brave the night without using "the swaddle" for Ryder. He has been swaddled since birth and it has worked very well. Ryder has been a good sleeper, and on average sleeps approximately 10 hours at night then takes at least 3 decent naps a day. Since he is almost 4 months old and very active I decided to research the process of weaning him off the swaddle. Well there was a lot of feedback about mothers having a hard time with the transition. The "Swaddle Me" website advised of terminating use when baby is able to roll over. Ryder has more recently been rolling over both ways. He has plowed over his sleep positioner even swaddled at night. He has managed to move from one end of the crib to the other swaddled. Therefore, I felt it may be time to cut him loose and take a risk of losing some sleep of my own.



We went cold turkey- no silly transition here. Well he did much better than I would have imagined. He went down at 9:15 pm and then whined for about 20 minutes. I checked on him at 10:pm and he was out. I heard whining at 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. I fought the urge to go in his room and he went back to sleep quickly. Then at 2:00 he cried, so I fed him and put him back in the crib awake. He fussed a little and was out within minutes. I woke-up at 7 am and had not heard a peep out of him. To my delight, I found him awake softly cooing and whispering to himself in the crib. It was the sweetest sight. I hope he will eventually get back to sleeping 10 hours straight threw the night.
(the bunny is a prop and not used at night to sleep)


Please note, I do not endorse the "crying it out" method until 6 months when the child can utilize "cause and effect," hence manipulate you. I do allow "whining it out" or some healthy independent fussing. Mothers can tell when the child is headed to a full out rage. There is a lot of good research out there about this. I feel blessed to have a good tempered baby. I know this will most likely change with my second.