Progress

I time-traveled the other night back to Z's early days when he would scream and scream for no reason. I have to admit, I don't miss those days... He didn't nap well for whatever reason, and he was pretty calm when I got home around 5, but by 5:30 or so, he was in rare form. I mean screaming when you hold him, screaming when you put him down. Unlike the early days, no amount of white noise or bouncing would calm him down. After I tried (unsuccessfully) to put him down for a nap, thinking he was just way overtired, I gave him some tylenol and took him to the bath to try and chill him out. That worked, thank God, until I got him out, and so I turned to my final weapon and fed him. Although he had just eaten less than 2 hours prior, he went to town. Perhaps it was teething or some kind of freak growth spurt, but whatever it was, I would appreciate if we didn't go through it again.

One good thing came out of it though, he was so tired that we put him down without the swaddle, and he didn't make a peep the whole night. Those of you who have been faithfully following know that we have been struggling with getting him to sleep without being swaddled. We have all been tightly bound to the kiddopotamus swaddleme velcro swaddle blanket since he was about 2 weeks old. It was our savior on many occasions, but now, it's time to cut the cord or the velcro or whatver. It's time to get over it. So, Happiest Baby on the Block suggests starting with leaving one arm out, as illustrated here. Note, this picture was taken about a month ago, so to say this has been a process is an understatement.

After a few unsuccessful naps and admittedly a lack of commitment on our part, we went back to the swaddle. Then I read online that some people had success transitioning out of the swaddle by using the sleep sack, which I would describe as a sleeping bag meets a snuggie. So, we have now had 3 nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep in the sleep sack. That is progress! Here he is in his sleep sack bright-eyed at 7 a.m.

Totally unrelated, but doesn't he look like a big boy in this picture?