Bye bye swaddling blanket...I miss you!

*****UPDATED: Little Miss Elyn slept like a champ last night! After a horrendous day of napping, I finally thought, hey, I should pull out the mini wedge and let her sleep in that. She's not swaddled but still feels a little bit of the security of being "tucked in". I put her down at 7:30pm and she only cried out once last night (Matthew went in to her BTW). She was ready to eat at 5am and went back to sleep until 7am. So, I guess I will be making sure the mini wedge is in her crib. Oh, and now that she is not swaddled, she is sleeping on her tummy with her bottom straight in the air...I LOVE IT!*****

Another milestone has happened in our house.

Last night, we decided it was time to get rid of the swaddling blanket. The main reason is because I went in to nurse Elyn Sunday a.m. and she was sitting up in her crib waiting for me, half-swaddled.

When your kid can successfully sit up on her own, that's a good sign it's time to do away with the INFANT swaddling.

Another good reason to give it up is because we are entering the scorching days of summer and I didn't want to have to rehydrate each morning from the amount of sweat that would have poured out of her, well, pores, each night.

Let me tell you, I miss the swaddling blanket.

Last night, she went to bed at 8pm and fell right to sleep. I thought, "Hey, this is great! Didn't we luck out with a super-adaptable kid who has no problem at all with change." Boy was she fooling me!

Around 11pm the crying started. Sticking to my "Baby Wise/Healthy Sleeping Habits for a Happy Child/Happiest Baby on the Block" training, I let her cry for 10 minutes before going in and "soothing" her.

As soon as I was out of her eyesight, the screaming began again.

I waited 15 minutes and repeated my parental duties.

Again, the crying.

I waited 20 minutes and went in to help the kid out. (All I can say is I am incredible grateful that we live on one level. She would probably still be crying if I was called upon to actually climb stairs.)

If you are counting then you know it is now 11:45pm. When I got back to our room, Matthew, in a semi-awake state, said, "Why don't you just swaddle her."

WHAT!?!?!?

He must have not read the same books I did. Of course he didn't, he counted on me to give him the "Cliff Notes" version.

I was not giving up that easily.

If he hadn't of already fallen back asleep, I might have launched into a lengthy discussion of how when she is 4 and begging to ride a bike with no training wheels are we going to let her fall twice and then say, "Forget it, let's put the training wheels back on."

Or when she is learning her times tables and can't quite get the 3's, are we going to say, "That's okay, just learn the 2's and the 4's. Those 3's aren't very important."

Or when she is 15 and learning to drive a stick shift and stalls each time she shifts from 1st to 2nd, are we going to say, "That's okay honey. I know the car you will have to share with your sister is a stick shift, but you can't get it. Let's just go buy you a car that is an automatic."

Of course not. We will never be those parents! Why should we start giving into her now?

But, he was asleep so we didn't get to have that fabulous conversation. I know he will be very sad that he missed it.

Imagine my surprise when she stopped crying at midnight. I carefully tiptoed into her room and she was sound asleep.

I ran back to my bed and jumped in to get a few precious moments of sleep.

She didn't wake up again until 5am! Yea Elyn. AND she went right back to sleep after I fed her and didn't wake up again until 7:15.

Her naps today have been miserable though. Her morning nap consisted of 20 minutes of sleep after playing in her crib for an hour. The girl needs way more than 20 minutes in the morning.

And now, she has been crying in her crib for 30 minutes refusing her afternoon nap.

Oh, I miss you swaddling blanket. You made my life full of sleep and peace. I miss you like I will miss training wheels, the two times tables, and the Driver's Ed automatic car.

But, it's time for my little girl to grow up. Not the last time I will lose sleep because of that.