I May Be Jinxing Myself...

I hemmed and hawed about sharing this already, but I am just too darn elated to hold it in despite the worry I have that I may just be jinxing myself:

Anna is now swaddle-free.

Wohoo!

Yes, she is over 7 months old. Yes, we tried several times to wean her of the swaddle. And yes, we gave in every time after a few days. But now I am so glad we did.

You see, Anna has always been our better night sleeper. For a long time until recently, we put her to bed and didn't see her open eyes until we woke her in the morning. (Of course there were a few glitches here and there but overall- she was a superb night sleeper.) We stopped waking her to eat after Sam was fed at night pretty early for a family with twins, but we suspected that since we were always waking her up, that she could go a lot longer than her brother- and she could and she did.

When we first attempted to de-swaddle, she was sleeping basically around 12 hours straight through. We chose to go cold turkey so that (like ripping off a band aid) it may just be more painful at first, but it would be over and done with sooner instead of having long drawn out poor sleep from taking one arm out first, then the other, etc.. We never got past 3 days of torturing Anna to try to sleep without her swaddle, because instead of sleeping 12 hours in one stretch, she was waking every hour- and often waking her brother with her shrill screams too. It didn't get better, even on the third night. 3 days was all I could take of that sleep deprivation/hearing your child scream-cry torture. De-swaddling attempt #2 a month later had the same results. Because we both work, we felt that we could only attempt this beginning on the weekends, so this weekend ended up being a perfect scenario for attempt #3 because I had off of school Thursday and Friday. Two extra days could give us a head start.

Just like before, we were determined to see it through no matter what it took. I was hoping that her lack of good sleeping recently was a sign that maybe she was letting us know she was finally ready, but fully aware that that was probably wishful thinking.

And guess what- I think it really was a sign! We put her in a sleep sack like her brother last night, and initially she did have a little trouble falling asleep. However, she did sleep a nice big chunk of sleep last night, and just woke up a little early this morning- with no intervention all night long (except to change a soiled diaper). I might even say that it was a better night for her than some we've had lately. I was amazed!

I put the swaddle away and didn't look back- she took both her naps in a sleep sack today and both naps were their typical length. I didn't expect that either! Tonight is following the same pattern and I am optimistic that I'll get a good stretch of sleep tonight too.

I know that a lot of people might think she was swaddled too long. Our pedi advised us to not swaddle after 6 months. (Another pedi in her practice said his thoughts on swaddling were that you would know when they were ready to quit being swaddled, however.) I definitely felt pressured to break her of it a long time ago. I maybe even felt a little mommy shame that I was still allowing her to sleep swaddled well past 6 months and we couldn't get her to be okay without it. However, now I am glad we let our own child be our guide- not a book, nor someone else's preconceived notion of what a baby should or should not be doing at any given time. I think this way was the least painful for all involved.

Sam was swaddled until he didn't need it anymore. Anna was too. She just needed to be swaddled a few months longer than he did.