Bedtime Woe, Bedtime Mo!

From the day she was born up until about a month ago, we were still swaddling Elizabeth like a baby burrito for all her naps and when she went down to sleep at night! And I don't mean a light blanket tucked loosely around her body...I mean a very snug "no baby is coming out of this" kind of wrapping job that made her feel like she was being hugged all night long! What can we say? She liked it...a LOT! And we would have been more than happy to continue mummifying her in this way for as long as she liked it...if she had only stayed that way!

Unfortunately, however, at some point during the middle of the night, Baby Houdini managed to work herself out of the swaddle (yes...even the Miracle Blanket!, though this one worked the best!), and she would awaken (sometimes TWICE a night) and CRY until I would go in and rewrap her so she was all nice and snug! As soon as I did that, she fell right back to sleep again. After about three nights of this nonsense (well...what else do you call it when a baby who was sleeping through the night is now waking up to be reswaddled?!), Mommy and Daddy decided "no more!"

So, we braced ourselves for a long couple of nights of Elizabeth protesting to our harsh "let's kick the swaddling habit cold turkey" method...and I almost gave into my instinct to rush in and swaddle her several times in the first 20 minutes--until Peter would remind me that to go in there and swaddle her meant that I would be getting up two more times that night and every night that followed, to do the same thing until she learned to sleep without being swaddled! So, into her room we would go to shush and pat, first letting 5 minutes go by, then 10, then 20, until she eventually fell asleep. (sigh!)

Needless to say, the first night was a little rough (for all three of us), but the second night she got the idea within a few minutes! Hooray! And now, she sleeps soundly in her crib all night just like this, with her little friend Mo (short for "Seymour") tucked right beside her!