If you know Olivia and I personally then you will know how much of a mad woman I am when it comes to bedtimes. I can't even think about her staying up late, it honestly drives me insane! I am a firm believer that children should be in bed (in their own bed! But each to their own) at a reasonable time so that you can have some time to yourself without constantly looking after your child. Plus when you've been looking after a baby by yourself for 13+ hours, even an hour when they're in bed makes a huge difference to your mental state! Livi has always had a good routine apart from a couple of weeks here and there but usually she's in bed by 7 and happily stays there until around 4 or even longer. We've tried pretty much every approach to getting her to sleep from rocking her, feeding her off, leaving her to it, holding her hand (livis favourite), leaving her to get exhausted... We've tried it all! Apart from swaddling! When I was in hospital and then after with seeing the midwives none of them even mentioned it. I slightly remember Keena swaddling Noah a few times but apart from that I've not really seen any of it in person. I've spent hours researching different techniques for giving your baby the best chances of a good nights sleep and this one just keeps cropping up. I've watched a few videos on safe swaddling and age appropriate swaddling so now decided to give it a go! Not because Livi doesn't already sleep well but I just want her to be able to have the best sleep that she could get!
I started on Monday night after spending the afternoon practising how to swaddle with Liv. She was already tired from where I try and keep her awake until at least 6, so I did her usual routine... Bath, boob, bed but this time swaddled her up before I fed her as she usually falls asleep as I'm feeding her and I didn't want to disturb her after she'd already settled. After a bit she seemed to be getting a bit warm laid on me whilst swaddled so I wanted to get her down as fast as I could but where I'd normally lay and rub her hands until she falls asleep I couldn't tonight so had to wait until she was in a deep sleep to be able to lay her in her cot! Yep that's right, new to her cot and swaddling all in 24 hours! I'm a dare devil lol. She laid down great, started trying to move her arms but after a few seconds settled when I gave her her dummy. I decided to stay in with her for a little while as the baby monitor ran out of batteries and Callum hadn't got home with some yet and didn't want her waking up and getting stressed. I then went to bed at around half 9 and by this time I usually would of had to put Livs dummy in at least once for her but she spat it out shortly after putting her down and hadn't stirred at all since! Although she was definitely in a deeper sleep she did end up waking up at 12 and where I couldn't rub her hands for her to get back off to sleep she did end up waking up for a feed and I then had to sit up with her until she again was in a deeper sleep. She then continued to wake up at half 4 and 10 to 6 so night one was a complete flop.
Night two I can't really comment on as we made an un expected visit to my mums and although the little witch didn't sleep until 10! She did eventually go into a very deep sleep for nearly 6 hours being swaddled! The third night was also a nightmare, Livi kept trying to rub her eyes which resulted in the blanket being pulled up over her face and me having a mini panick attack every time I checked in on her!
By Thursday night after 3 unsuccessful nights I complete gave up with the idea of swaddling. Olivia was not only not enjoying it but seemed to be getting angry as I was getting her wrapped up (probably because she knew she was being put in a baby straight jacket!) which was causing her to become a bit more fussy when going to sleep. So personally for me swaddling is a no go! If you're going to do it it's probably best to start off when your baby is first born and doesn't know how good it feels to be free when you're asleep! Happy swaddling!
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