Kicking the swaddle addiction

i've gotten my kid addicted to so many things that lately, i've been stressing and strategizing about how to work all these things out.  ideally, before he goes to college, i would like him to be able to sleep through the night, without a binky, and without a swaddle.  those are the three nighttime addictions.  he's almost 8 months old.  i am not proud of this aspect of my parenting him.

when abigail was about this age, i knew it was time to wean her from the swaddle.  it wasn't a problem though because she was already a great sleeper and didn't need a binky so really, it was just the swaddle.  with brady, there are just so many factors in there!  if i'm going to wean him from the binky, is it better to do that when he still has the comfort of the swaddle?  or if i'm going to let him cry it out at night, do i need to ditch the swaddle first because the crying would lead to him busting out of the swaddle and then not being able to fall back asleep?  or if i wean him from the swaddle and he has free arms, maybe the binky won't really be an issue because he can put it back in if it falls out or just gum his fingers for comfort?  there are more scenarios than i would have anticipated.

well, the swaddle will be the first to go.  because i really don't have too much against the binky.  it's working for now.  it's not broken so i won't fix it.  and sleeping through the night?  unless it's a crazy night like last night where i was so tired i wanted to die, i'm pretty happy to run upstairs for a few minutes to nurse brady.  i use the baby app on my phone so i can sleep exactly how long it takes me and it's literally 5-8 minutes from the time he wakes up until i'm back in bed.  but the swaddle?  the swaddle is a pain.  it takes time to do, and only i can do it (meaning, my honey can't put brady to bed) tight enough and even then, if he wiggles enough, he can get out, and all the layers (since he's double swaddled with a swaddleme and a miracle blanket that wraps around a million times) get really hot.  AND the ultimate swaddle deal breaker?  he keeps rolling over.  abigail always rolled over in her swaddle but it wasn't a concern because she was perfectly happy being the little beached whale baby that slept swaddled on her belly.  brady rolls over and he's ticked.  and it sounds like he's going to suffocate in his crib bumper.

i've tried the one armed swaddle before and it didn't go well... so i didn't have high hopes for it this time around.  but i guess brady has matured in the last two months because it's going much smoother than anticipated (knock on wood).  the first time was for his afternoon nap and he fell asleep just great with zero fussing!  he only slept 1h15 but that could have been a coincidence since his sleep was sooooo off from yesterday (sunday and family get together stuff for my niece's baby blessing) which definitely affected his night time sleep and morning nap as well.  his evening nap was in the carseat while we were out.  so the second time with the one arm swaddle was tonight for bed.  went to sleep with zero fussing!  we will have to see how tonight goes and tomorrow's naps!  i'm strangely excited about this.

first nap with one arm out.  practically sleeping on his twisted side belly.

don't look at this picture too long or you'll get a headache.  so blurry because it was taken in a pitch black room.  this was going to sleep for the night... second time with one arm out..

i reread the "swaddle saga" post i wrote when abigail was about this age and dropping the swaddle with her.  i remember it being difficult and dramatic but rereading it, it seems super quick and easy like the transition only lasted a day or two.  i can't imagine that i left out major details because i'm always so longwinded.  i honestly think she was just so easy that this was probably just a huge hurdle to jump [because nothing else was] and so it was difficult at the time and i remember it as being super challenging.  also, i'm semi laughing that i wrote in there...

"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." 

it's only funny because that insanely rough no swaddle night for abigail is still better than what a lot of brady's nights now are.  i think he woke up at least four times last night.  maybe five.  seriously, how can his daytime sleep be so awesome and his nighttime sleep hasn't improved at all?!  such different kids.  like how abigail had such a terrible awkward bald spot on the back of her head (the pictures in that post show that it's even more obvious than how i had remembered it!) from thrashing her head back and forth in her carseat and while she slept and brady has nice even hair all over.  

also, it's a good thing i don't often go back to reread old abigail blog posts to compare her to brady because it is depressing with how crazy easy she was.  except that it's awesome i even had a baby like that at all (she was one in a billion).  i just had to look back about swaddling to see if my 2011 self had any insightful advice for my 2013 self.  it's fun to see how accurate or skewed my memory is. like in this link... i remembered that she was still happy when she rolled onto her belly but didn't remember that she would sleep like that for her whole nap... and i remember that she was an insanely good sleeper but i had forgotten about the time i put her down for an evening nap and she never woke up.  that post says that i put her down at 5:30 and that she never woke up so i had to wake her at midnight to feed her and change her diaper and then she slept another 8 hours until morning.  ask me the last time brady slept 8 hours.  

i have no clue.

two very different babies.  so wish me luck helping brady drop the swaddle.  and if you want to pray that dropping the swaddle will actually make him so much happier more comfortable that he will miraculously sleep 12 hours straight and be so happy and self soothing that he doesn't need a binky... well, i won't stop you.

also: in somewhat related news.  today was the first time brady rolled from back to belly... well, without his swaddle.  obviously, he's done that before.