crib sweet crib

Crew is F I N A L L Y sleeping in his crib for both naps and nighttime. I didn't think this day would ever come. While I don't necessarily regret anything we've done with him and his sleeping habits, there are definitely things we won't do for future children.

Crew slept in the Rock N Play in our bedroom for about the first 3-4 weeks. He didn't like it very much after that because he was so big, I think. We bought him a swing/glider when he was 2 weeks old and when he outgrew the RNP, we moved him to that because he slept so good in the swing. At 8-9 weeks, we thought we'd try moving him to the crib at night. Well...that didn't work obviously.  He would only sleep about 20 minutes before waking himself up from his arms flailing or something of the sort. (He was NOT a fan of the swaddle after about two weeks. He was too strong and always wriggled out of it!) So, choosing better sleep over better sleep habits, we decided to let him stay in the swing until he was "ready" for the crib. (Note: we had moved his swing into his room so he would at least he would get used to being in there and that worked great.)

Once he started sleeping 6-8 hours straight in the swing we were dreading the crib move. But he had quickly outgrown the swing. His legs would hang off the end! We decided to start trying naps in the crib first and get him used to that. This was hard because Crew sometimes has a different babysitter each day between 3 grandmas, Will and then being at work with me so everyone had different routines and different ways of doing things - None of which were wrong, just all different making a consistent sleep routine difficult. Each time we would rock him to sleep and then lay him down in the crib, he would wake instantly and get upset. (I also didn't want to get him hooked on having to be rocked to sleep every single time.)

Finally, in the back of my mind I remembered a blog I had read while pregnant. It was something I had pinned called "super top secret baby tip." I followed the link to the blog again last week, but to my dismay the post had been deleted. I emailed the blogger and she responded by basically saying that she will always use this method for her own children, it goes against what the AAP recommends so she was uncomfortable posting the advice and "how-to" on her blog.

Luckily, I had already read the blog months ago and remembered the gist of the tip. I convinced Will that this was something we needed to try and we bought a king size blanket on clearance at Target and crossed our fingers. (We had considered buying so many things to help Crew sleep better like Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit, a crib mobile, a projector for the ceiling....we did buy a Halo sleep sack and a wedge to help him sleep on his side because he's always liked that.)

Will was home with Crew that next day and he tried our new method. Let me tell you that we call that clearance blanket "Crew's magic blanket" now because of how well it worked. He was asleep instantly. After that first nap in the crib, we haven't looked back to that too small swing and it's been great! He doesn't even need to be rocked anymore and can pretty much get himself to sleep! (And YAY  for not having to use the dreaded CIO method!) I didn't realize how much anxiety I had been feeling about him hating the crib until afterwards. What a weight off our chests!

I understand that this method goes against what many people recommend due to SIDS risks, but ultimately I think each parent is entitled to their own judgement of what their baby needs. Crew needed something to make him feel secure and "hugged" like he did in his swing and we found just that. His is not able to roll over because of how secure he is laying in the middle of the blanket, but even if he were, he is strong enough to hold his head up and move around. Will said that king size blanket was the best $20 he's ever spent!