Eli: No more tally, swaddle

This weekend Tom and I crossed a couple milestones when it comes to Eli. I stopped recording "Eli's Tally", Eli's feeding and sleep pattern. And after Dr. Moore's encouragement to let Eli sleep on his tummy at night, Tom's stopped swaddling.

Both of these were things we depended on when Tobey was a newborn. I can't remember when I stopped Tobey's Tally but by the time I stopped it, I felt pretty comfortable with Tobey's schedule. It was mainly just telling me whether to start on the left or right side for the next feeding which I could do myself. With Eli, I feel a little less prepared to let the tally go but also know it's not really serving too much purpose anymore. It does mean that I need to "know" Eli better now, learn his pattern and schedule out of instinct and short term memory.

By contrast to dropping the tally, I remember very clearly Tobey overnight not wanting to be swaddled anymore. That swaddle was the thing that saved us from Tobey's startling himself awake and I remember all the antics we did to move him from carseat to swaddle to crib, etc. That night we left him unswaddled was a very nerve wracking one out of fear that he would ruin his nighttime sleeping.

With Eli, it seemed it never really cared for the swaddle. It did seem to signal night sleeping and help him sleep a little longer at night (he napped on his tummy in the day), but when he wakes, he seems much more agitated by the "baby straight jacket" than Tobey did. Now that he is unswaddled and on his tummy, he has been sleeping until at least 4 or 5AM, once 7AM. And now that I don't need Tom's magic swaddle that I could never replicate effectively, I've been nursing in Eli's room/office/guest room for that early morning feeding and Tom has now once done the infamous daddy quote: "Did Eli get up last night?", now that Eli doesn't nurse in our room in the middle of the night.

Leaving the tally and the swaddle behind is like flying without a safety net. It's amazing how many habits we parents get into out of OUR fear of change.