sleeping like a baby

This post is just for me to look back on and remember later. I'm sure no one cares about the details of my baby's sleep.

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It's funny how you do things differently with the second baby. I'll admit, it totally surprised me. Isaac was napping unswaddled in his crib at one month old and sleeping at night in the crib unswaddled at 5 months old. I held onto my crutches with Levi just a little bit longer. 

When Levi was a few weeks old we found the Miracle Blanket swaddle and immediately fell in love. It worked great and he could not break free, and therefore slept soundly. For the first few weeks he slept swaddled in the rock n play at night and for naps. We moved him to the pack n play at night, then the crib, when he was a few months old (maybe 3? I don't even remember). I held the rock n play close, though, because he napped so well there. 

At 8 months we finally ditched the rock n play and never looked back. He was already sleeping in his Baby Merlin Magic Sleepsuit at night so we put him in that for naps too with the intention of dropping it cold turkey at some point in the future. That plan worked and he transitioned to the crib for naps quite smoothly.

February

4 months old

Shortly after he turned 9 months old, he finally decided to start rolling back to belly, and did it for the first time in his sleep suit after a nap. We knew then it was time to ditch the sleep suit, but kept dragging our feet. He rolled a couple of days after nap, then we found him on his belly one morning. The last straw was when he rolled during a nap last weekend (and proceeded to sleep 2.5 hours on his belly!).

 Last Saturday night we put him down in the crib with no sleep suit, just his blankie and seahorse like always. He sat up and played for a few minutes before I laid him back down, but he never cried and eventually went to sleep like he always does. He slept all night long and never needed us to come back and give him his paci. That has to be the best part of all of this. He can find his pacifier by himself at night now. It is wonderful! Most nights he falls asleep quickly, sometimes on his back and sometimes on his belly. Some night he sits up and plays and needs to be laid back down, but nights have been a very smooth transition.

9 months old

Naps are a different story. He plays longer before naps than he does at night, sometimes cries off and on, and naps have gotten much shorter. His morning naps are almost always 30 minutes now. He might take a longer nap later in the day, but he might not. He generally sleeps longer on his belly, so I try to encourage that, but it doesn't always work. He had been taking 2 naps pretty consistently, but we're doing 3 naps much more often now that he's not sleeping well. It's tricky because 3 naps just don't work well anymore, but we're struggling through. I feel like he's behind and most 9-month-olds take 2 naps a day with no problem, but I keep telling myself he'll get there eventually. 

Side note:  now that he pulls to standing in the crib, we had to move the camera from the edge of the crib to its permanent spot hanging on the wall. I forgot how much higher the temperature reads when it's up there! The first night it was shocking to see but Rodney reminded me why.

I am so happy to have this huge hurdle behind us. It was something I kept putting off because what we were doing was working, but I knew we couldn't do it forever. Part of me wishes we had done this earlier, but the other part of me knows that it only worked now because he was ready. That is one thing my children have taught me...you can't force kids to do something until they are ready. They have taught me to have patience and wait.