While Jeremy has always slept decently at night (pound on wood), he was not a good napper during the day. He would fall asleep when we held him and even stay asleep when we would lay him in his crib…for about 30 minutes. Then, he would wake up, crying and upset, and we would repeat the cycle.
Finally, we observed him as he slept and discovered that he is a very, very jumpy baby. He would sleep for a bit, and then he would jump. His arms would jerk, and he would smack himself in the face. This would wake him up enough to cry, which would in turn wake him up enough to not be able to go back to sleep without being held and calmed down.
It’s not that we minded holding him when he was upset; in fact, it’s rather nice! However, it is not always practical, as we have two other children who need to be schooled and stuff around the house that needs to be done. I am not a baby-wearer either, so we needed another solution.
Our initial solution was swaddling, which we immediately tried. If Jeremy’s arms are confined, he can’t smack himself, right? So swaddled he was.
This is when we discovered that we have a little Houdini. No matter how tightly we swaddled him, no matter what blankets we used, that child escaped.
Every. Single. Time.
And, furthermore, the effort of escaping upset him, made him cry, and put us no better off than before!
Finally, I stumbled across a website for a product called the Woombie. The Woombie is a zippered sleep sack that greatly resembles a straightjacket. It zips all the way up to the baby’s chin, and, even cooler, it unzips from the top and the bottom to facilitate diaper changes. It comes in several varieties, one of which is actually called the “Lil Houdini,” especially for babies who can escape most swaddles.
Jeff scoffed at first, so we didn’t order it. After one particularly bad day, he relented, and I told him he could simply call it my birthday present. I ordered a blue Lil Houdini Woombie, and it arrived last Friday, the day before my birthday!
So here is Jeremy, with our attempts at swaddling.
And here is Jeremy, in the Woombie. Isn’t it GREAT?!
So, how is it working, you may ask?
Better than we expected! The first night in the Woombie, Jeremy actually slept for four hours at a time. He was able to go to sleep and stay asleep. He didn’t much like being put in it, and he was very perplexed that he couldn’t get his hands out, but, once he settled down, he actually stayed asleep.
The second night wasn’t so great, but we think he had a tummy ache. But since then, he has slept four hours at a time each night. He still wakes up twice to eat (and probably will for a few more weeks), but, now that he is resting better at night, he is beginning to rest better during the day, too. We are not using the Woombie during the day, but it seems to be working well at night. Hopefully, it will continue to do so!
Since getting the Woombie, we have also been swaddling him during the day in a big, old blanket of Elijah’s. We leave his legs free and wrap up his arms, which is also working pretty well.
Whew!
Here’s a picture to close. Next time, I’ll fill you in on our new vehicle and on my birthday Have a good one!
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