I am two weeks from my maternity leave ending and five days from Cora turning 4 months old. Ask me what I’m going to do for work in two weeks and I will give you a long-winded answer that I will have to blog about later. It is weird how sometimes God will put opportunities in front of you and you can’t help but wonder. If you’ll remember, at one point I was going to stay at home and not go back to work at all. That has changed. Just like everything has changed, but in a good way.
So here we are, out of the newborn phase and fully in the infant stage. At 3.5 months old, while the Super Bowl was on, Cora decided to steal the spot light and roll on over. Everyone jumped from their seats to see her do it again and all I could think was “Uh, Oh!” I knew this was coming. A roller meant I had to quit swaddling her. Lord, help me. She is a swaddle lover and I know that goes hand in hand with how great of a sleeper she has been since day one. I thought maybe I could get a bit of time out of her still being new to the rolling business. Wrong again. A few nights later I watched her gain leverage in her pack and play to tip herself right over, while swaddled. She slept like a rock. I always figured she would be a tummy sleeper and here she was, happily swaddled on her tummy. I think she had been dreaming about this moment since she was born.
Then I had to ruin her dream.
She has been in a Halo Sleepsack so we did what was supposed to be the next step and velcroed her around the tummy, arms free. And then everything went to hell. She wakes up looking for her binky, waving her arms around like she is landing a large aircraft in our room. It now feels like we are up 200 times a night while she lies there conducting her orchestra, not crying, but annoyed. She thankfully never really cries at night, just talks to me until I get up. Either way we are both lacking in the sleep department.
Frantically I searched the internet for a transition solution. I ordered the Zipadee-Zip in the middle of the night and I’m not so patiently waiting for it to show up any day now. Sidenote, what did our own parents do before smartphones in the middle of the night? I’ll let you know if this is a ground breaking solution or not for us.
We also decided to pull out the high chair for Cora and put it up to the kitchen table as she has always loved sitting up. Talk about life changing. We can all sit back down at the kitchen table and eat like normal humans with her joining us. She seems to love the change of pace and scenery. I appreciate the hands free eating as she is normally clingy in the evenings.
We are moving right along over here in our new normal. We have our up days and our down days but we also have wine, friends and laughter to get us through it all. For that, I am truly grateful.
Through My Mistakes 
I was just looking at the zipadee zip but haven’t ordered one yet. Let me know how it goes! I started doing a one arm swaddle with E. He still sleeps in his rock n play at night because we are bad parents and bc the couple of times we have tried the crib, he wakes at 11 or 12 instead of 2 or 3, and refuses to go back to sleep. HE just wants to grab his feet and play! Everyone keeps telling me once they hit 4 months they sleep longer…
I will certainly let you know how it goes! I knew I should have started the one arms swaddle but I didn’t. Ugh. We went from getting up once a night to several. Major ugh. Love those rock and plays! She naps in hers but sleeps in the pack n play in our room at night. I know I should switch her to her crib but just not quite ready for that yet! Sometimes the option for sleep just wins out so I don’t blame ya! There are worse things:)
oh end of maternity leave! that came quickly 😦 and I didn’t realize you were going back to work, but I equally love that you are just rolling with it and going with what feels right for you. I am behind that 1000 percent as always. xoxo
OH it has been a roller coaster that included big tears last night. We shall see…
I heard that babies who usually prefer being swaddled and then have to transition to not being swaddled usually struggle with being on their backs as the swaddle prevents the startle reflex that happens as babies start to discover movement and adjust to sounds, both of which can startle the baby awake. The reason our parents never had an issue with this was because we were all raised sleeping on our stomachs, where it’s much harder to startle. If Cora has solid head and neck control, there probably is no harm in you sleeping her on her stomach as long as you don’t have any blankets, stuffies, pillows in her bed that can prevent her from breathing. I know some people aren’t fond of stomach sleeping though so I totally get if it’s not your thing. Have you tried any sleep sacks on her at all? We use a sleep sack every night, but he’s always hated having his arms swaddled in against him so we swaddled from the chest down at the beginning. The sleep transition is tough. You’ve been lucky having a little girl who sleeps well without needing any training, so I think she will transition back to that soon enough for you. 🙂
I read your “To be a stay at home mom…” post and I related SO much! I also work for a large insurance corporation. The perks are fantastic, but working there doesn’t bring me any closer to my career goals. I know being a stay-at-home mom is not for me, but I wish I was doing something closer to what I want to do (which I’m still working on defining) and have more flexibility. I’m working at it, at least. Hoping the same for you! Thanks for sharing.
What a crazy coincidence! I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling that way! Here is to both of us trying to find out what we want to be when we grow up:)
I thought the same, “What a coincidence!” Cheers!