The trick: Paralysis by Swaddling

Much better last night. Much better. Saturday morning the first person I ran into was our neighbor Angela, who upon hearing of our nightmare night of screams, her first reaction was - don’t underestimate a good swaddle! She’s our age, has a 4 and 6 year old and is a stay-at-home mom. When she said that it made sense. But - we knew about swaddling. We’d read all the books, heard all the advice, and I remember Riley and Reagan being rolled up like burritos, and every other kid I’ve watched grow up. But, it did sink in - Kole’s arms and legs were flailing around everywhere that night. We even used one of those specially-made swaddling blankets, called Swaddlers, with the little pocket cut out for the feet and even velcro straps for wrapping. After one night’s use - those have been retired to the set of towels we keep in the laundry room for spills on the carpet or if Maggie pukes. Absolutely worthless! Maybe Kole’s just too big for that Swaddler blanket, but his feet came out within 2 minutes, and his hands were free after another 2 minutes. Later yesterday I talked to Kathy (Kevin’s Anna-Kathy) who again reiterated good swaddling. So all of yesterday I practiced my swaddle roll on Kole. Plus, we kept him awake constantly from 2:00 onward - except when we had dinner then we swaddled him and put him in his swing and he napped while we ate with Joan. That dang swing is a lifesaver, and yesterday I was at Costco and bought a huge brick of D-Cell batteries which the swing takes.
When it came bed time, he had his last feeding around 10:45. I burped him and walked around with him until he was drowsy. His swaddle was so tight I probably could have stood him up vertically. I put him down in his crib and he stayed asleep until he was hungry again. Between 11:00p and 4:00a he cried four times - three times he was fed, the other time I just walked him out until he fell asleep again. After his feeding at 4:00, he crashed and stayed crashed. Kathy and I woke up ourselves around 9:00 and he was still dozy.
I know success will come in small steps, but that was a big one last night. At least we now know that we can indeed manage to sneak in some sleep during the night, even if they are quick cat-naps between cries. There’s nothing worse than having a screaming 3-day-old and wondering what in the world it needs and having no way of getting him to stop.

Kole has an appointment at the hospital at 2:00 - some regular check-up stuff for jaundice and to make sure he’s gaining weight and getting proper nutrition.