Ava's 1st night un-swaddled in her hammock Since birth, Ava has slept swaddled in her baby hammock at night (she's been napping in her crib since February when she rolled off the couch and we went to the ER). She has really loved her baby hammock up until April 29th...the first night she slept un-swaddled. It wasn't until she was given her arms that the baby hammock was no longer as comfortable as it used to be.
We decided to un-swaddle Ava, as it was starting to get warm here in Vegas and we thought it was cruel to have her sleep so confined in the hot weather. We thought it was going to take a while to break her from being swaddled, but we were very wrong. Ava did amazingly well the first night she went un-swaddled and has continued to do so ever since. We transitioned her to a sleep sack and she loved using her fingers to play with the inside of her hammock. We would hear her wake up in the mornings talking to herself while brushing her fingers back and forth across the hammock fabric and netting. It was hilarious.
Anyhow, we knew that we were going to need to move her to her big girl crib at night, as the sunlight in our room would wake her up at about 5:30 am each morning (as soon as the sun would rise, Ava would rise). In addition to the sunlight, we knew that she needed to learn to sleep in her own bed in her own room and not be in our room anymore. We mainly hadn't forced Ava to sleep in her crib at night due to the hassle of walking to the far end of the house to check on/cuddle/or feed her in the middle of the night...as having her in her hammock in our room was just so much more convenient. But, we knew that the 'big move' was imminent. Now that she was un-swaddled at night, Ava wanted to roll around and turn over--things her hammock didn't permit.
Well, when we went to Tennessee, Ava had to sleep in a crib. We didn't want her to learn to co-sleep with us, so the crib was her only option (in the past, she has been able to sleep in her pram, but now she's too big). So, Ava slept in the crib at night (she woke up a few times at night, mostly because she was in a new place in a new bed and not in her hammock) the whole time we were home.
Upon returning to Vegas, we took the opportunity of her sleeping in a crib for the past week as a segue to moving her straight to her crib in her room. We didn't even let her see her hammock or allow her to stir up any memories or attachments to it. We just pretended that her crib was where she always slept at night. Matt had bought a humidifier to put in her room (she slept with one in our room) and back when Matt's parents were in town, John put up a darkening shade in her window so that the sun wouldn't wake her up in the mornings.
Well, Ava has been successfully sleeping through the night in her own crib in her own room since we returned from Tennessee on the 19th. We usually put her down around 8 or 8:30 and she'll wake up around 5:30-6 to nurse and then go back down until 8:30 or 9. This past weekend she extended her sleep a bit and didn't wake up until 7:45 for her feeding...then went back down until a little past 9. But, as of Tuesday, she's back to her normal routine of waking up at around 6 and going back down until about 8:30...all while teething again. It has been glorious. She's amazing.
Matt loves going to check on Ava before going to bed and then throughout the night. If he gets up to go to the bathroom, I'll hear him sneeking out of our room to go watch little Ava sleep. She's just so precious when she sleeps and he likes making sure that his baby is doing okay since she's a tummy sleeper.
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