As most of you know we have been swaddling Gabby every night for the past 6 months. You're probably saying swaddling a 6 month old sounds crazy. You would be correct. We have been trying to break this habit since Gabby was 6 weeks old but it has never worked in the past. Gabby's sleeping has fluctuated quite a bit in the past few months and had finally gotten to the point that she wasn't even taking naps during the day.
This last weekend we decided would be the Big Breaking Weekend. We have read and heard that in order to get some babies to sleep at night you have to let them cry without going in to pick them up so they can learn to self soothe. Having tried everything else we decided to try the crying it out approach for a few days and see what happened. It sounds cruel but it really wasn't that bad. She never cried for more than an hour before falling asleep and by the third night she was sleeping through the night and taking two 2-hour naps a day. We are all in a much better mood now and doing wonderfully. What a blessing!
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First attempt at breaking the swaddling habit was leaving one arm out. May 2007
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Breaking out of swaddle
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This is how Gabby sleeps after this weekend