Tag Archives: swaddleme

Dear Emmett,

Posted on December 31 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

Your 5 months old now, this kind of shocks me and at the same time I realize how little time you’ve been on this earth. We’ve had a month full of ups and downs but I still love you till the ends of the earth and back.

The month started out with your 4 month visit to the doctors where you weighed in at 16.7 pounds and 24.75 inches long. You are one big baby! But you aren’t overly chubby, you’re just a healthy strong boy, in my opinion, you’re perfect! The doctor even said not to worry about your weight (you’re in the 77th percentile) that most breastfed babies will equal out with their formula fed counterparts eventually. Honestly, baby, I wasn’t worried but it’s good to hear that the doctor thinks you’re healthy.

Very early in the month you went through a mini personality change, you were very cranky and often were difficult to soothe. Your dad and I had to go back to eating dinner in shifts to keep you happy until bedtime. But then by the second week of the month you were back to your happy self (as long as you got your regular naps).

You took a big step this month in learning how to roll from back to tummy. This is the harder of the rolls for infants but you finally conquered it and I think surprised yourself as much as you surprised us. However, since you were born, we had swaddled you and now that you were flipping from back to tummy we had to switch you from the SwaddleMe to a Halo Sleep Sack. In the swaddler you had your arms close to your body and closed in tight but with a SleepSack you are essentially zipped into a fleece blanket with arm holes, leaving your arms free to wave and move around. This led to some serious sleep deprivation for your dad and I. You just did not want to sleep and we did try a few different things before making the full transition to the SleepSack but you’d go down and wake up several times a night.

This was probably the roughest time with you because we were all exhausted but we just couldn’t get you to stay asleep. This lasted for about a week and then you finally started to adjust but just as that was happening, I came down with the stomach virus. I really tried to keep it to myself, washing my hands a million times, basically not touching you or your father but unfortunately we just weren’t that lucky. I got sick late Monday night and into Tuesday, thankfully your dad was able to take a family sick day to take care of you so I could rest. I thought we were in the clear because I was feeling better by Wednesday and neither you nor your dad had come down with anything but on Thursday I woke you up to feed you before heading to work and day care and you just didn’t want to wake up completely. I fed you, got you dressed and took you into mommy and daddy’s bedroom so I could finish getting ready and you were just so out of it. When I picked you back up and was carrying you back to your room you threw up everywhere, all over yourself, the kitchen floor and me. Poor guy, I felt so bad for you, my darling.

We took you to the doctors to get checked out and she said you were fine and to get pedialite just in case we started noticing you getting dehydrated but by the evening you were feeling better, which was quite a relief. I hate seeing you sad or uncomfortable and you were both while you were sick.

Anyway, back to you rolling over. I was so so SO proud of you the first time you rolled over. It’s the cutest thing too, you kick your little legs over with enough momentum to get your shoulder underneath you and then you kind of flop over with your one arm still stuck under your belly. Eventually, with enough wiggling and worming you get that hand out and you can hold yourself up nice and high and look at everything and everyone above you. You actually tend to like being on your belly more now, than your back. But if you’re cranky, you still prefer your back.

Guess who you got to meet this month??? C’mon! Guess at least once!

…..

SANTA!! You met Santa! You were such a good boy too and deserved the present he gave to you. Your grampy belongs to a club in mommy’s hometown that brings Santa in to come and visit with the boys and girls and we were lucky enough to get a ticket to go. You got to sit on his lap and everything. I’m sure in future years you’ll look forward to telling him all about what you’d like for Christmas but this year you just sat there and kind of stared at him and his big long white beard.

On the day you got to meet Santa you also had a giant messy blowout. Grammy, Aunt Bridget and I all had to work to get you cleaned up, mainly because there wasn’t a changing table but also because it was oh so messy. Thankfully we got you cleaned up and all set to go out and meet Santa, the only problem was, your nice clean dress shirt had to be changed so you ended up wearing a long sleeved blue shirt under your Christmas vest. Oh well! You’ll always have a funny story to tell about your first visit with Santa.

You also made the jump from 3 month size clothes to 6 month. At the beginning of the month 6 month size clothing was pretty big on you but you’ve since filled everything out. The pants are still a little long but overall things fit you well. It’s fun to go through and organize your next set of outfits but hopefully you stick in the 6 month clothes for a little bit, we’re not quite ready for 9 months (yet).

Well, beautiful, amazing boy another month has passed and I am still over the moon in love with you. I look forward to each and every moment that I get with you and can’t wait for each new day to begin.

Love you always,

Mommy

Filed Under: Emmett, Family

Transition – Part 2

Posted on December 22 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

If you missed the first post, read it here.

Last time I posted about Emmett’s sleep habits, Seamus and I were really struggling but I think we’ve finally gotten his sleep pattern figured out (for now) and I also think E’s gotten used to his sleep sack.

We’ve had a pretty solid bedtime routine since he was about 3 months old, bath, lotion/oil, bottle, book and then bed. I think having this routine has helped with his transition going so quickly because even if he was feeling weird with his arms out, he knew it was bed time by the what we were doing.

So after that last post, what happened was that we had decided to swaddle him with one arm out but much to our dismay we went in after one of his naps where we’d swaddled him this way and he was on his belly. He probably would have been able to lift his head but we just weren’t comfortable with this and we wanted him to have both his arms so we decided we’d just suck it up and deal with losing sleep and put him in the sleep sack.

It was so very rough the first few nights but I kept telling myself that it couldn’t last forever and it didn’t. The first night he was waking up pretty frequently but each subsequent night got better and better, I also think him exclusively using the sleep sack at day care helped him adjust too. Yes, I realize that he will likely have other sleep disturbances down the road but we’ve conquered this one so I will celebrate the success.

We’ve also been trying to sleep train Emmett, which is a whole post on it’s own but I wanted to share that no matter what method you use to get your baby to sleep, as long as it works for you and your family that is all that matters. You will find loads of research for each of the different methods and I do recommend reading them all but I think it’s most important to work with your baby and his/her needs.

Anyone have any horror stories or success stories about transitioning their baby from swaddler to sleep sack?

Filed Under: Family

Transition

Posted on December 4 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

It’s been a rough couple of days in our household. We’ve been trying to slowly transition Emmett from his SwaddleMe to his Halo Sleep Sack and it hasn’t gone very well.

Last weekend we started by using the sleep sack during the day for naps but still intended to use the SwaddleMe at night. We knew that since Emmett has trouble with most changes, this would be no different. However, in the beginning he didn’t do so terribly. It would take a couple tries but eventually he’d go down for his normal 20 to 45 minute nap. We were thrilled because we knew how much we struggled moving him from his cradle to his crib. Unfortunately the effectiveness of the sleep sack wore off and Emmett refused to stay asleep with it. 🙁

Since he’d done so well with naps, we decided to try putting him in it on Saturday night. What a mistake! He went down between 7 and 8 PM like he normally does and was up at 12:45 AM. I went in, fed him and laid him back down, he was sound asleep so I figured everything was peachy. I headed back to bed and was nearly asleep when Emmett starts wailing. I go back in try to just give him his pacifier and soothe him without picking him up but no cigar. We sat and rocked for awhile and he eventually fell back to sleep, I put him in his crib sound asleep, headed back to bed and he was up within 10 minutes. We did this about 4 more times over the next 2 hours, eventually I had to call Seamus in to take over. We decided at that point we would just swaddle him so we could all get some decent sleep. That stinker slept from around 3 AM until 7:30 AM without a peep!

We had decided earlier in the weekend that even if Emmett wasn’t sleeping successfully in the sack at home, we’d still try it at day care for his naps because he needs to make the switch before he starts rolling over from back to belly. Another mistake! Apparently he didn’t like it with them either and took only 2 naps that were only 30 minutes each, with his last one being at 1:30 PM. I get there to pick him up at around 5 PM, he did sleep in the car on the way home but as soon as we took him out of his car seat, he had a total meltdown. Seamus made the (smart) executive decision that E was going to bed. We swaddled him, we couldn’t take the risk of him being up as much as he was on Saturday night, we both had to work in the morning.

This is really really rough and I don’t know what to do to get him used to the change. He is almost nearly rolling over from back to belly and when babies start to do that, it is recommended that you stop swaddling them because they can roll over, and without arms, can get stuck on their stomach with their heads smooshed in the sheets. Basically it’s a suffocation hazard.

I think for naps and possibly over this coming weekend, we’re going to swaddle him with one arm out and then 2, etc, in hopes that this will make his transition a million times smoother. We need sleep!

Seamus and I are running on fumes, due to the lack of sleep, so any advice you have or ideas you’d like to share, are welcome!!

Filed Under: Family

Our Favorite Things – 0 to 3 Months

Posted on November 13 by Jillian416 • 3 Comments

We were very fortunate to receive a number of gifts making the transition from no baby to baby, relatively easy. With that said, I wanted to share some of our favorite items, my hope is that someone will find this list when they’re looking for a review of an item and it will make their decision a tiny bit easier.

In no particular order…

1: Consumer Reports Online Website

Seriously! This might seem really silly but it was one of the BEST purchases I made. I was able to go onto their website and search for items to determine their safety and assembly rating.

When I was registering for our gifts, I had the toughest time making decisions because the reviews for multiple items would be great and the colors would be perfect but this made it easy. I’d find the top two or three rated items on their site, compare real people reviews of those 2 or 3 items and make my decision from there. It really simplified how certain items were chosen. The website isn’t all encompassing but things like cribs, car seats, strollers, are all there and with the trusted Consumer Reports review.

If you’re expecting a baby, I HIGHLY recommend you get a membership. It was $6.95 a month when I was a member and it’s a month to month subscription, so you can cancel at any time.

2: Fisher-Price Newborn Rock N Play Sleeper

The experts recommend that a baby sleep in the same room with their parents for the first 3 months of life to reduce the risk of SIDS. The issue for us is that we live in an apartment with VERY small bedrooms so fitting a full sized pack and play in with our bed, would have been quite a squeeze.

One day while searching for a portable bassinets on Amazon, I came across this baby and I was immediately sold! It is approved for infants to sleep in, is 100% portable and fit perfectly on the side of our bed without taking up so much room that we were crawling over it. Emmett loved it and we had a hard time transitioning him from sleeping in this to his actual crib.

3: Boppy Pillow

Not everyone will need or want a Boppy pillow, however for myself and Emmett, it was absolutely necessary. I am nursing him and putting this pillow around my waist and laying him in front allows everything to be much more comfortable.

There are other brands of pillows on the market for nursing mothers but I am unable to compare because I’ve only ever used the Boppy and I love it!

4: Graco Sweet Slumber Sound Machine

When Emmett was first born he roomed with us (in his own cradle). Seamus and I use an air purifier as a white noise machine for ourselves, so we knew when we moved Emmett to his own room he’d require something similar. This machine has worked perfectly for us! It is small, lightweight and affordable. It plays a bunch of different sounds and music and you can also connect your mp3 player or iPod/iPhone to it and play music from it through the sound machine’s speakers. It also has a night light which I like because we leave it on all night long, so that when I go in to nurse Emmett in the middle of the night it’s not pitch black in there.

5: Fisher-Price Cradle ‘N Swing

There have been days when I could not have lived without this item. You can read the product description but it is just phenomenal! It swings 3 different ways, has 6 different speeds, plays music has a mirror above the baby and some birds/leaves that float around, so perfect. Emmett has taken many a nap in his swing on days when he would just not sleep in his crib. Not much more to say other than it’s a life saver!

6: Fisher-Price My Little Snugabunny Bouncer

At first glance it may seem as though you might not need both the swing and the bouncer but in my opinion, you do. The swing is great for calming a baby when they’re screaming or need a nap but the bouncer is mobile and you can bring that with you to the bathroom when they won’t let you out of their sight and you so desperately need a shower.

7: Summer Infant Swaddleme Blanket

Swaddling a baby is easy and can be done with just a blanket but using one of these is even easier and doesn’t come undone like a regular blanket will. Emmett has slept in one since the day he came home from the hospital and will continue to until he starts rolling form back to belly (it is no longer safe for their arms to be swaddled up at this point). These are great at keeping baby warm and for soothing them, making them feel as though they’re in the small enclosed space of their mother’s womb.

8: Baby Einstein Caterpillar and Friends Play Gym

This item has come in handy countless times when I’ve needed to put Emmett down for a quick minute and no where is really safe for him other than on the floor, the mat is slightly padded so it’s not like placing him on the hard wood. There are also numerous little toys that come with it and tons of little notches to place them on. When Emmett was new, this was great for him to just lay under and look at and work on his eyesight, as well as do his tummy time but now he spends hours on it between back and belly. The center star lights up and plays music so that catches and holds his attention and then reaching for the items has now become his favorite activity.

9: The First Year’s Infant to Toddler Tub with Sling

Best. Baby. Tub. Ever! Seriously!

When you first bring the baby home from the hospital you can’t give them a full bath because you’re not allowed to get their belly buttons wet and if you’ve had a boy and had him circumcised you can’t get that wet either. The sling that comes with this tub hooks to the top and allows you to lay the baby in the tub without them getting wet. This way you’re able to give them a sponge bath and let the water drain into the tub instead of all over your counter. Now that Emmett is older and able to get wet he sits right in it on the reclining side and loves it. It supports him well and he’s able to sit, kick and play and enjoy the sensation of the water without me needing to constantly hold him in place.

10: Avent Bottles and Pacifiers

Emmett is exclusively breastfed but since about 6 weeks old he’s been given at least one bottle of pumped breastmilk a day so that he could get used to it before going to day care. He’s responded very well to all of the Avent bottles, we’ve never had any trouble.

And the same goes for their pacifiers. Emmett has used one since his first week of birth and has enjoyed them on and off without any trouble with his latching to my breast or to his bottles.

11: Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump

Before going to our breastfeeding class, Seamus and I had tossed around the idea of getting an inexpensive pump but after going to the class and hearing the lactation consultant explain what can happen to your breasts and nipples if you do not use the proper pump, we decided to go with the Medela pump. Yes it is $300 but it is so worth it! I’ve had 3 different lactation consultants, who were in no way affiliated with Medela tell me that they’re the best and well worth what you pay for (I tend to agree).

If you happen to live in the Western New York area, I recommend purchasing your pump at The Care Connection. It is a locally owned small business that specializes in breastfeeding and breastfeeding supplies. If you purchase your pump there, they will ensure you are given the proper sized phalanges and will show you how to use it. You can certainly purchase the same one at a department store but you won’t receive the personalized attention that you do at The Care Connection.

Okay, so that’s the list so far. I’m sure as the months tick away we’ll have a new list of favorites and I’ll be sure to share with you then.

I’d love to hear what you found most useful or couldn’t have lived without. Or you can even feel free to share items that you found were completely pointless!

*Not paid reviews*

Filed Under: Reviews