Crib sleeper!

As mentioned in the previous post, we recently transitioned Ethan to the crib for nighttime sleeping. Our timeline for this was pushed up considerably when young Ethan discovered how to roll from back to belly, and I woke up to find him in the swing with his butt up in the air, his face smashed into the headrest, and his legs precipitously close to the edge. So that night (a week prior to last Thursday) was his first night in the crib. And it was a rough one. He lasted an hour, which had been his previous record for naps in the crib, and once he woke up, he was adamant about not returning to the crib. Finally, I brought him to the swing, where he lasted for three hours before I woke up to find him again face-down, so I woke him up and brought him into bed, where he slept as I held him until around 3 AM when I fed him and passed him off to Daddy. Thankfully, he was taking the day off of work, so he played with Ethan and let me get some sleep. The next night, we decided to try him in the bassinet feature of the Pack-n-Play. Once again, he lasted an hour. I was too afraid to put him in the swing, so I brought him straight to bed. After two hours, he was completely out of it, so I decided to try sneaking him into the bassinet. No such luck, as he woke up immediately and began screaming. For another night, I held him until I could pass him off.

By this point, I was completely sleep deprived and willing to try anything. For starters, we began moving up his bedtime by an hour so that he's asleep now by 8-8:30. That night, he woke up after about 30 minutes. I tried to soothe him in the crib, but he kept fussing and trying to flip onto his tummy. Finally, I gave up, unswaddled him, and let him flip, despite my concerns. He went immediately to sleep! An hour later (which I spent researching SIDS risks), there wasn't a peep from the nursery so I went in to check on him. He was sleeping soundly and continued to do so for a total of 5 hours!!! At that point, I nursed him and attempted to put him back in the crib, but he wasn't having any of it. Thankfully, we'd discovered during naps that he'll tolerate being strapped into the swing, so he spent the rest of the night back in his swing but unable to scare us by flipping over. The next night, after his 30 minutes on his back, I just went in and flipped him onto his tummy, and he slept a 7-hour stretch! He still refused to go back in his crib after nursing, though, so our routine became: Put him in his crib on his back. Wait 30 minutes-an hour. Unswaddle and flip him onto his tummy. Sleep 4-7 hours. Nurse. Strap him into the swing. Sleep another 2-5 hours. I was content with this routine, knowing that eventually he'd sleep long enough that the transition to the swing wouldn't be necessary. However, the past two nights, I've been able to get him back down in the crib (on his tummy) after nursing, so we haven't had to use the swing at all!

Now, the admission: Most nights I'm flipping him onto his tummy rather than letting him flip himself. However, he's capable of flipping himself onto his tummy; he just can't do it every time he wants to. AND, he CAN flip himself belly to back any time he wants, and he's been doing that for about a month now. He holds his head up with ease (the problem with putting him back in the crib after nursing used to be that he thought it was playtime, so he'd hold his head straight up and babble, refusing to lie down and sleep), and after removing the bumpers and all extraneous items from the crib, I'm no longer worried about him smothering himself. Is there still an increased risk of SIDS? Perhaps. However, I know he can maneuver to get more air, he can get onto his back if he wants, and it's the only way anyone is going to get any sleep!

So, for now, he's not quite sleeping as long as he did in the swing, but he's waking up at about the same time as he used to start stirring before; I would just push the swing and he'd go back down, which I can't do now that he's in the crib. And while it's only been two days now, I feel pretty confident I'll be able to keep getting him back down in the crib, so our need for the swing at night may soon be nonexistent! Overall, it was definitely rough the first couple of days, but I'm so glad we made the crib transition. Now we just need him to learn to get himself to sleep! Maybe next month.