Unswaddling the swaddlee

Just the other day I was talking to Damian about how irrationally nervous I was about putting the boy to sleep without his Miracle Blanket. Since he was born, he has slept 98% of the time all swaddled up like a little blue tortilla. This is his signal to sleep - he doesn't flail about, he doesn't hit himself in the face... he sleeps! Then this weekend we swaddled as usual and starting to rock him in his horizontal position (same position that we've done it a gazillion times since his birth), and he just WAILED. WAILED and WAILED. For what seemed like an eternity but was probably about 15 minutes. But 15 minutes of full throttle 16-week old screaming is highly unpleasant. So Damian had the smart idea to unswaddle and just rest him on his knee and rock him with a pacifier in the mouth, and cozy elephant in his hands. And miracle of miracles, he fell asleep! And now here we are in a new phase. Tonight I did the same - a long feed and then much rocking in his sleep sack instead of the tortilla blanket. And he fell asleep, and stayed asleep even when I put him in the hammock. He still biffs himself in the face a bit and so far he hasn't slept as long in this new way, but we are working on it.

He's doing so well with holding things in his hands. He wants so badly to be able to reach out and grab things, but he can't quite do that yet. But he loves getting something in his hands - he just waves it around. So sweet! We got him a Bumbo chair today, and he also loves being able to sit up and see all the things around. I took him back to Palacio today, he slept the way there, of course cried a lot in the store. We had a nursing session in the lovely bathrooms there, and then he was pretty good when I went to Vanessa's for a visit. And he slept on the way home. I made it back just before the storm. It's nice taking these little errand walks with him. I am SO much calmer than I used to be with the stroller, I just zoom up and over curbs and other mayhem. Into and out of the loo. I don't stress out when he is crying in a shop, or when random strangers have 50 opinions about if he's hot/cold/hungry/etc/etc. I just go with the flow.

Here is hoping for a good night of sleep tonight for all of us. Damian was up most of the night with the boy last night and then because he is a super human, he actually went to the bike track at 6:15 this morning, while Jack and I slept in together until 8:15 in our bed. It was so cozy and so sweet. I even got on my bike for the first time in 5+ years just on the trainer. In 2 weeks I'll go to the track too, I am excited to get back into it.