Operation Crib

Update:

Our Miracle Blanket arrived in the mail today! I'm not gonna lie, it does very much remind me of a straight jacket. I am having a really hard time with the fact that her hands are secured down at her sides, as she is at the point where she loves to have her hands/fingers in her mouth. Guilt aside, she is in it. I put her down in the PNP a few minutes ago, so we will see how the night progresses. She did stay up later than usual because she had a late nap, and for the first time in a while, I was able to give her a bath right before bedtime (she can only have a bath when her bag leaks, which, as luck would have it, is almost always at some rediculous hour like 5am or something.) What I am trying to say is I have the cards stacked in my favor. Up late. Bath right before bed. Miracle Blanket.

Fingers are crossed. Now...I gotta go. American Idol is on.

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Well, it's day 2 of Operation Crib. We are making strides, albeit, very small ones. Here's my thought process about the whole thing:

Abigail is a terrible sleeper. I think mostly because of her reflux. That and when she was in the hospital she often slept on her tummy (they can do that there because they are hooked up to the heart monitor at all times). My point is that she LOVES sleeping on her tummy and does so quite peacefully. The same cannot be said for her on her back. Anyhow, we have a Pack-and-Play set up in our bedroom. She spends about the first 3 hours of every night in it, sleeping on an incline and on her back. But after about 3 hours, she wakes up hysterical, gassy, and often throwing up, so I pick her up and she spends the rest of the night sleeping on her tummy, on me. Great for her! Not so much for me.

So the thing is, she is almost at the weight limit for the bassinet of the PNP, and with her going into the hospital for a while, I'm thinking we should go cold turkey and go straight to the crib after her hospital stay. I thought I would try to get her used to the crib by putting her in it for naps. Normally, she naps on her tummy on the sofa where I can watch her at all times. Today she fell asleep in my arms so I put her down in the crib and she made it about 25 minutes before she realized where she was and freaked out. So of course, now she is back sleeping out in the living room next to me.

I am sure she would do fine sleeping on her tummy all night, but the what-if-something-happens is just too much for me to bear. Not to mention I spent 7 weeks in the NICU being drilled daily on the whole "back to sleep" thing. I probably wouldn't be so neurotic about it except for the fact that someone very near and dear to me just lost her 8 week old grandson in November to SIDS. So sad.

I have been completely sleep deprived and every ounce of my body hurts because I sleep with a 13 pound baby on my chest every night. She can obviously sleep just fine without me, because she takes great naps. I don't think I've done too much damage yet. But if I don't get some sleep here pretty soon, all heck might just break loose.

As a last resort, I am anxiously awaiting a Miracle Blanket in the mail. After reading about them over at MckMama's, I thought I would give it a try. (By the by, I purchased it on eBay for about half the cost. Yay me! Oh how I do love eBay!) ML sent me a swaddling blanket with feet, which I love except that she Houdini's her way out of the swaddle in about 10 seconds flat. And I know people typically stop swaddling around 4 months, and Abby is almost 5, but her adjusted age is just barely 2 months, so I think it is ok to still swaddle???

I am at a loss. Our nights are very long. And when we don't sleep well at night...well...our days are even longer. Ugh.