Sterling has outgrown her magic sleep suit. She's 9.5 months old and it's supposed to fit 6-9 months, so I'd say we're right on the money. It's probably been approaching too small for a couple of weeks now - it's been pretty tight across the top of the shoulders. I realized that she had really, truly outgrown it when she kneed out through the zipper while I was nursing her to sleep.
Was it magic? No, really not. It did restrict her movement, which helped her calm down when I was trying to get her to sleep. She did come to recognize it as a sleep signal, to the point where she'd cry when we tried to put her in it. In fact, if she didn't cry going into the suit, it was usually a signal that she wasn't tired enough to actually go to sleep. It didn't seem to particularly increase the length of her naps. We didn't keep it on her overnight because she sleeps in the bed with us and tends to overheat anyhow.
Her bedtime routine now includes:
-a bath; we just transitioned her out of the infant tub into the "big person" tub
-two or three stories; these are board books, so they're all pretty short
-turn on her sleep music; Kenny Loggins "Return to Pooh Corner"
-nurse
I'm trying again to transition her off of nursing to sleep. It seems to be going better this time than it has in the past. I'm going to chalk it up to her being older and more developmentally mature now. We nurse until she seems to have lost interest in nursing as a food and is just nursing for comfort. I determine this by her sucking rate and strength and whether she's still swallowing. Then, I've started popping her off and laying her down on her front. I know, I know, they're supposed to sleep on their backs, but she doesn't like her back and she rolls over on her own if I put her on her back. If I pat her for a few minutes, she usually starts to breathe more slowly and easily and falls asleep. Tonight, I even got out of the bed before she was completely asleep and she fell asleep the last little bit on her own. I think we're really making progress this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment