Gulp. Here We Go...

It's enough to make me break into a cold sweat. Tonight is day 1 of Operation: Break-the-Swaddle-Addiction. I don't know who is more reliant on the miracle blanket swaddle: Sam and Anna, or me. I figured it's about that time since the babies routinely break out of the miracle blanket in the wee morning hours now, and they just don't know how to put themselves back to sleep without both arms firmly swaddled. They need opportunities to practice going to sleep with that environment. Plus, our daycare days are right around the corner (sadly) and it would be fantastic to be swaddle free and sleeping well by the time we get to that point.

This is how I used to find them in the morning:

This is how I've been finding them lately:

Against what I think may be the best path, we are going cold turkey. I threw the miracle blankets in the laundry basket with a gulp, and broke out the sleep sack. We did consider doing the one arm out, then the other plan- but mathematically, we came up with this: It would probably take 3 days for our little ones to get used to one arm out. After a while we'd attempt both arms out and that would take another 3 days for them to get used to it. Then we'd try to stop wrapping it around their middle, which feasibly would take another 3 days. It seemed like a really long, drawn-out process. Then, we thought if we did cold turkey, we'd probably be in for 3 days of hell, but then Sam and Anna would be resigned to their new sleeping arrangements. You do the math: 9 nights vs. 3 nights. With a glass of wine poured, we set out on night number one tonight.

I know it will all be worth it when my babes are soundly sleeping sans swaddle in just under a month when I go back to work. I really didn't want to attempt this when I had to take care of 16 children all day before coming home to two infants! Wish us luck while we attempt the seemingly impossible in the days ahead. I welcome any advice or tips from former swaddling junkies!

After Operation: Break-the-Swaddle-Addiction is a success, the plan is to move onto Operation: Eliminate-the-Pacifier-Crutch with a goal of completion by 6 months (as is when it is recommended you stop using pacifiers). Anna's already got a jump on this one, because once she discovered her hands were pretty tasty, she turns her nose up at a pacifier and prefers gnawing on her own flesh instead. Then Operation: Begin-Solid-Foods will commence; which we will start before we actually hit 6 months.