Just the other day I was thinking “How will I know when to end the swaddle?” Well, Oscar let me know the answer on Saturday night in a fit of infantile rage.

I put him to bed at 7:00pm and he went straight to sleep.  Twenty minutes later he was tearing my heart out with his screams.  Five minutes went by and Daddy went in to settle him.  No sooner had he entered the door when I heard Oscar WAIL.  The dreaded “I want Mommy” cry was born.  So I went in 5 minutes later when he was still wailing and picked him up.  He instantly stopped, I held him for a few moments, and put him back down.

When I closed the door, the crying started again.  After a couple of minutes I went back in and unwrapped his arms.  I was rewarded with instant peace and quiet.  I wrapped up his body once again, closed the door, and that was that.

I think it all depends on his level of sleepiness.  When he’s the right amount of tired, he’s quite happy to flake out.  But if he’s under-tired he wants to suck on his hands, and when he’s over-tired he’s so busy freaking out that he doesn’t even know what he wants!

Nap Time

Most of the time he loves his swaddle.  He tosses and turns a bit, wiggles his arms, and stares straight into the camera as if he knows Big Brother is watching.  It’s super cute, yet a little unsettling since the monitor turns his eyes pure black like something right out of the X-files.  Yesterday he was content to chew on his hands at nap time until he started crying 45 minutes later.  I went in and wrapped him up in his burrito so he could get to sleep. Hopefully I’m not setting him up for sleep problems since I’m not being consistent, but I’m content with how things are going so far.  We’re not even a week into sleep training after all!

I’m left with a game time decision to make at nap time and night time.  Arms in or out?  I’m getting better at reading his cues, and starting to feel like I’ve pretty much got my act together as the nap Nazi, but there’s always that element of surprise that you get with dealing with a baby.  They keep life interesting.  I think he’ll let me know when to end the swaddle once and for all.