Cold Turkey

No...that isn't what we had for dinner....it is the approach we used to quit swaddling Luke this week. Yes, we were still swaddling our 5 month old. For those of you who remember when Jacob was little, we swaddled him until a week or so after passed the 6 month mark. We tried several different times over the first 6 months to slowly break him of the need to be swaddled, but he just wouldn't sleep without it. Finally, we gave up on the gradual approach and one day we just didn't swaddle him and never looked back. It wasn't an easy transition, but we got through it. Because of that situation, I was hesitant to even swaddle Luke at all. But for several months he really seemed to need it. Lately, though it didn't seem to be working and he was trying to break out of the swaddle all of the time, which in turn made him very awake and not at all interested in going back to sleep. No fun to deal with several times a night. Anyways, on Monday night, David was attending to him when he woke at about 11pm and decided not to swaddle him when he put him back to sleep. It worked! He slept for several hours until it was time to eat. Then, slept another several hours after eating. We haven't looked back. He is actually sleeping better now than he had been for several weeks. Not wonderful yet, but getting there. The swing is still his favorite place to sleep and nap, and I still use it for most naps and at night if he is struggling to sleep in his crib.