The (un)swaddling of a baby

T was never really a baby who liked to be swaddled. Once he reached his original due date, he was pretty much over it. Little Bit, on the other hand, couldn't fall asleep for a very long time unless he was very tightly swaddled.

Over the past few weeks, he's started fighting his swaddle. He gets crazy pissed off and red in the face. Then when I freed his arms, he would furiously try to get his fingers in his mouth. When he couldn't, he'd get crazy pissed off and red in the face. He would finally get over that and jerk himself awake when his arms moved. Then he would get crazy pissed off .... well you know.

So I have slowly started freeing him a little more each night. First, I barely uncovered his hands, so they were still bound up close to his face. This helped him connect fingers and mouth without completely freeing his arms to jerk and wake himself up. The next few nights I would swaddle his shoulders, but leave his arms and hands out. We've eventually worked up to completely swaddle-free arms. He's still sleeping in his wedge, which keeps his arms from flailing about too randomly.

Whoever coined the term "sleeping like a baby" has never actually watched a baby try to sleep. I also never expected to expend so much brain power on how to incrementally free my son from his swaddling. Hey, it's the exciting life I live.