swaddle saga

last night, i made a spur of the moment decision to ditch the swaddle.  i was planning on doing at least two weeks of the one arm out thing and then maybe even a week or so of just swaddling her torso, but last night i was nursing baby and she was falling asleep because i'd kept her up for 5 hours straight running errands and then keeping her awake so that christopher could play with her before she went to bed.  seriously, she's normally awake for 2 hours at a time so 5 was a big deal.  i knew she was super exhausted so i thought maybe she wouldn't have as much energy to fight it.  

i finally got her asleep around 9.  after probably an hour of in and out comforting her, rubbing her back, etc.  she would go through stages of crying, moaning, fussing, laying quietly, kicking her legs, and everything else.  very unpredictable.  so she finally fell asleep while i rubbed her back which was a huge success because i've never been able to do that before.  she'll always lock her arms and not lay down.  i think the one arm swaddle helped.  and the lack of sleep.

anyways, she went down at 9 and the night was not anywhere as bad as i was anticipating although i know it wasn't christopher's idea of fun.  up at 11:45.  up at 2:15.  up at 6:30.  up at 10:45.  i let her sleep in since we were up for about an hour each time.  but really, i was very pleased with it all.  

for baby's first nap today, i had to go in a comfort her a couple of times and i rubbed her back while she drifted off.  i'm normally all about her falling asleep on her own but i feel like i kind of need to be there to hold her hand while she learns the ropes of sleeping sans swaddle.  i'm not against letting her cry, but it's counter productive when she gets herself all worked up and won't lay her head down.  so i'm okay with mild intervention.

you'll have to excuse the quality of these pictures since they were taken in a dark room with a camera phone that has no flash.  so they are pretty heavily edited so you can actually see what's going on...

this is what she looked like for her first nap unswaddled.  put it in the papers, my baby can take a nap unswaddled!  too bad it lasted less than an hour.  but still, it's a start.

second nap went better, i only had to go in to comfort her once and i left while she was still wide awake.  she moaned for about ten minutes and was out for about an hour and a half.  i have no complaints.  and she slept like this for the duration of her nap...

she just started that in the last two weeks when i've left her an arm free.

nice huh?  maybe she's gotta hang on so she doesn't roll to her back?  who knows?

and tonight i put her in her crib, she smiled and laughed while i told her goodnight, i walked out of the room, and she was out after two minutes.  someone wanna edit that sentence for me?  my poor father would be appalled... let it be known that i know how to write much more properly than what i actually do.  

so this is the current state of baby girl.  even though it was pitch black, i was brave enough to use our loud camera... with a flash.

i sure love that little bum.